InDesign CS4

[Dave5EDF]

I have an InDesign text document which now when I open it, it has turned into a picture document in the editor and doesn`t allow me to edit it.  The indd file is filed normally, but when I open it in my InDesign it acts like a photo.  What is going on?  I can do anything with it.  Not even print it.  Have I got a configuration messed up?  Any advice and help is greatly appriciated.

[Ashutosh_Mishra]

Hi there,

Apologies for the delayed response. Does it happen with a specific file or all? Which InDesign version has been used to create this file? 

This information would help us assist you accordingly. Looking forward to your response.

Regards,

Ashutosh

[Dave5EDF]

Dear Ashutosh,
Thanks for your concern.
I am not sure to which problem you are referring, as I have had many, but
I'm not sure that I reported them to you.
My main problem arose when my iMac suffered a malfunction which was going
to be too costly to repair and caused me to buy a new one.
Unfortunately, the new iMac came with Catalina OS and caused many problems
when trying to use my already created files, as my files were created using
Sierra OS. I tried to get the Sierra OS from the Apple app store without
success and finally had to accept that the earliest OS I could use was
Mohave.
Also, Apple, in their infinite wisdom, now create their iMacs with 64-bit
architecture, completely ignoring the fact that most users have created
their files over a long period of time, using 32-bit architecture, as I
have.
After many hours of trial and error, and help from Apple Support on the
phone, I managed to get all my apps working except InDesign. I was very
disappointed with this as I paid over £1000 for it and had been using it
without a problem for nearly ten years and therefore created hundreds of
files.
Eventually, I found out that I could buy the new version of InDesign on a
monthly basis, but that it would cost me £19.97 per month. I have had a
free 7-day trial and found that it would work for me, but I am still very
unhappy that I have had to do this to be able to access my files.
As I have already paid over £1000 for this app, I feel that I should be
able to continue to use the app without having to re-purchase it. If my
iMac had not expired I would have continued to use the original version of
InDesign without a problem, so I feel that I am being victimised because of
the failure of my iMac.
Is there anything you can do to make me feel happier about adobe products?
Before this problem, I had the greatest respect for Adobe products, but
this experience has not helped me to continue with this respect.
Yours, in hope!
Dave Baxter

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

Dave,

There is absolutely nothing that Adobe can do to assist you here other than to diagnose the issue.

When you choose the Apple Macintosh computer platform (and that is your choice), you are implicitly agreeing to play along (and pay along) with a philosophy that their new computer models run operating system (i.e., MacOS) versions that do not maintain application compatibility going forward. And even with your new system, when Apple inevitably comes out with MacOS 11.1 or 11.2, they will break application compatibility yet again, forcing Adobe and other application vendors to reprogram their applications to continue to be able to run (and also noting that such updated applications cannot run on older MacOS versions!!!).

One of the benefits of the subscription model is that within a short time after Apple releases the next neat-and-cool, cool-and-neat incompatible MacOS release (along with patches to fix same), you automatically get an update to Adobe's applications that takes into account the MacOS incompatibilities as well as new application features and fixes.

Exactly what do you expect Adobe to do to make you “feel happier about Adobe products?” The CS4 products were released in 2008 and haven't been supported in many, many years. Yes, you may have paid “over £1000” for the full CS4 Master Collection sometime between 2008 and 2010 when CS5 was released, but over time that comes out to less than  £0.23 per day for use of all the available Adobe graphic arts software from 2008. (I assume you didn't pay over £1000 for just InDesign CS5!)

I know that this isn't what you want to hear, but it is reality. If you want to gripe further, I would suggest aiming your ire at Apple. It was their choice to stop supporting 32-bit applications on MacOS, not anything to do with the underlying hardware. (By the way, your next Mac will be using incompatible hardware that also requires new application versions – that is the Mac Tax!)

[Dave5EDF]

Dear Adobe Rep,
Replying to your reply to my original (9 December) letter on 18 January, I
have given the matter a lot of thought and decided to reply as follows:
Many thanks for your explanation of the incompatibility between Apple and
Adobe. Obviously I have been aware of Apple's responsibility in this regard
and I have already contacted them to express my feelings and requested an
answer. They have not replied! No surprise there!
I fully understand your position and respect your point of view. However, I
do feel that more could be done on a wider basis with regard to
communication between manufacturers and suppliers of hardware and software
to enable the end user to be better served. I appreciate that this may not
be easy and is probably being attempted at this very moment in time, but it
appears that not much progress has been made?
When I bought my CS4 suite back in about 2010 I was not told that my
purchase had a limited life and that the investment that I had made would
not be perpetual. I realise that on a per day basis, the £1000 cost would
seem small at only £0.23 per day, but that was not a consideration at that
time, as I believed that once I had bought the software, I owned it and it
would serve me until I needed it no more.
The only reason that this problem has occurred is that my 2009 iMac
developed a fault which would have been expensive to rectify and this
caused me to have no choice but to buy a new one. The point I am making is
this: If my original iMac had not failed I would still have been able to
use my InDesign App in the same way that I had been using it for 10 years,
which I assumed would be the case originally.
Also, since contacting you in December, I have had occasion to use the
Photoshop App and have found that, although I can open the App and bring a
file onto the screen, various features of the App don't appear to work –
for example, the rotation of *selected* wording within a file – I expect
there will be many others?
I would value your comments on these issues.
Best regards,
Dave Baxter

[Dov Isaacs]

Mr. Baxter,

Several points here.

First of all, although you claim 

… When I bought my CS4 suite back in about 2010 I was not told that my purchase had a limited life and that the investment that I had made would not be perpetual.…

The fact is that you did not buy the software, but rather a license to use the software. With very few exceptions, primarily being those in which you pay a software developer to write software specifically for you and for which title for the software is provided to you, software is licensed for your use.

There is an End User License Agreement associated with every one of the Adobe products. I will grant that many if not most users simply “agree” to the license without reading even part of the text, but the “perpetual license agreement” is strictly for the computing hardware/environment and operating system that was current at the time the product was being marketed and supported. You cannot reasonably expect that any software company is going to provide what in many cases are major rewrites of their applications to deal with incompatible operating system updates and new hardware as a “freebie” into the indefinite future. If your iMac had not failed and you were still running the MacOS version that you had at the time when you licensed CS4, you still would be able to run those applications. But regrettably, that isn't the case. You obviously didn't expect Apple to give you a new computer gratis, so why would you expect Adobe to give you a new version gratis (actually about 10 versions newer)? And there are actually US tax regulations that get involved here also!

There are analogies with other products as well. Did you expect that your mobile phone carrier would give you a “free” new phone when analog cellphone technology was replaced by new digital-only technology? (They may have offered a reduced cost phone when the change was first made, but not 10 years later!) Similarly, if you bought a fancy aftermarket sound system for an automobile 20 years ago, would you expect that you could fit that into a new 2021 model vehicle?

One of the major reasons why Adobe has moved towards the subscription model is that you will always have access to the latest version of Adobe applications compatible with new OS versions and hardware as Apple and now increasingly Microsoft release newer and more incompatible versions of their operating systems and in the case of Apple, releasing a new incompatible hardware platform for the third time in Macintosh history.

I know this is not what you want to here, but this is the reality that software companies and their customers face as the underlying “platforms” change over time.

[Derek Cross]

InDesign CS4 is a very old version and will not be compatible with modern operating systems.

[Derek Cross]

It's a curious thing that people seem happy to pay a lot of money for a computer but are reluctant to pay a nominal monthly amount for professional software to run on it.

[Dave5EDF]

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply. There are obviously many things
that I have not taken into account or been aware of. But there still
remains the question of the various suppliers and manufacturers of the
hardware and software not liaising with each other to provide a smoother
transition from one platform to another for the end user. I would have
thought that it was in the best interest of the supplier to make the life
of the user as easy as possible and thus encourage the user to stay with
that supplier. But perhaps I am being naive? Although the cost of this
situation for me has been an issue, the greater issue has been the
inconvenience and time wasted in trying to find out how best to deal with
the situation and then putting that knowledge into action. Although I am
now up and running, there are still issues, which luckily have little
effect on my actual usage of the hardware and software. One of these issues
is that every time I switch on I get a message telling me that " This disk
uses features that are not supported on this version of MacOS", but it
doesn't say what the features are or give any explanation. Also. ever since
I managed to load Mohave on to the Mac I get a message telling me that I
should upgrade to BigSur, and I can't get rid of the message, the message
is permanently on both my iPhone and the Mac. No doubt if I was to
upgrade to BigSur I would suffer further problems with compatibility and
not be able to run my pre-existing Apps. You are probably wondering why I
didn't upgrade my MacOS each time a new version came out; well I started to
do exactly that when High Sierra arrived on the scene, but I had so many
problems trying to get my printers working that waiting three months for
Epson to develop new drivers put me off updating my OS. However, now that I
can at least use my computer for what I need it for, I have a sort of
satisfaction, but the experience has left me with the feeling that as soon
as I can do without a computer, I will.
Many thanks for your patience and insight, it is much appreciated.
Regards – Dave Baxter