Can I use SAVE AS for >part< of an InDesign doc?

[ceilr]

Hello!

I am running ID5 on Windows 10.

One of my ID docs (100 pages, for personal research) is now dangerously large, just over 1Gb.  Actions like saving are moving very slowly, and I am concerned.

This doc also has about 15 layers with small text boxes on each to identify details.

I would like to split this doc in half before it crashes!  (Keep reading before replying.)  This already happened with another ID doc and it took me a week to re-assemble it on separate docs.  Never again.

Is there a neat and simple way to save half of the original doc to a new ID file that will also keep all layers intact?  I realize I could duplicate the doc and delete page ranges, BUT I have noticed in other ID docs that the memory taken up by a large file does not reduce once a lot of content is removed!  The other point of splitting this doc is to have two smaller docs that are each smaller in memory size, too.

Thank you. 

(PS--I just made a .pdf of the entire doc to transfer to the Adobe Acrobat app in iPad, but of course that won't save me any time if the original ID doc decides not to open again.)

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

ID5

Surely you don't mean InDesign version 5. Do you mean InDesign CS5 (version 7)? Or did you just miss the 1 for the current version—2020 or v15?

I realize I could duplicate the doc and delete page ranges, BUT I have noticed in other ID docs that the memory taken up by a large file does not reduce once a lot of content is removed!

To break up the file into two sections, I would use Save As twice, creating a part 1.indd and a part 2.indd. Do delete the page ranges, then use Save as on each part again.

If you still aren't seeing a file size reduction, use Save As each part one more time but this time change the format to .idml. Close the .idml files, reopen, Save As .indd again and let us know if that reduces the bloat.

~Barb

[ceilr]

Oops, I apologize!  Yes, I am using ID5 in CS5.

OK, I will try Save As for a second doc of the whole thing, and then Save As again on each of the halves.  Everything else is text.

Thank you for the .idml tip, too.

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi ceilr,

in case you added a lot of images to your document that were not placed and linked, consider to place and link graphics and images instead of copy/paste them from other applications like PhotoShop etc.pp.

Make this a strict rule:

Do not embed images or graphics in your document.

Together with a Save As that would reduce InDesign document file size tremendously.

Just an example: I have one document, a catalog project, about 600 pages and about 1.500 images placed.

That's a lot yes, but the file size is about 300 MB. Not 1 GB or more.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[ceilr]

Thankfully(!), I did use File\Place for each of the 100 scans forming the basis of the research doc.  The scans came from another person, and each full-page scan ranges from 13 to 16 Kb in size.  I'm assuming he processed them high quality, because the handwriting on the old pages scanned is really bad, and we both needed a lot of clarity to read and understand the handwriting.

For my own clarification, are you saying that the sum total of memeory taken up by a photo on my computer and a File\Place link is less than copying and pasting a photo into an ID document?

Thank you.

[ceilr]

Ugh, another apology!  (The idiot dog next door barked all night and is still barking....won't go there.)

I just looked at the memory taken up by my ID doc, and it is 101,564 >KB<, not MB.  Yet, saving took a long time, and the resulting .pdf, which also took a long time to save to Dropbox and then move to the Adobe Reader app, is 63.5 MB.

Maybe this is all in better shape than I thought, but I'm still concerned about the saving taking so long.

And a confession: I >do< have a few copy-and-paste photos, no more than a half dozen total throughout the those 100 pages.  A couple of them are snapshots taken from old magazines on .pdfs.  I just now tried making a .pdf of the page where one of the photos lives, but the result is not nearly as clear as the snapshot, and I need clarity to see image details.

Might the 14 layers be slowing things down?  This is the only doc I have using that many layers.

Thank you for your help, and again I apologize for the earlier error.