Install Indd CS6 to access Pagemaker files

[PHochgraf]

The company I work for still has a number of old Pagemaker files which I occasionally need to access. In the past I kept a copy of Indd CS6 installed on my machine so that I could convert them. However I recently got a new computer & when I went to install CS6 so that I can access these files I discovered that it is no longer an option. All the help forum posts & files still provide instructions as if it's just there in the app (drop down, manage, other versions).

Where can I download CS6? or is there a new preferred way to access old Pagemaker files?

"Find More Versions" takes me to This Link !

[BobLevine · Accepted solution]

You will have to contact Adobe directly to get access to CS6. Nobody here is going to be able to help.

Good luck.

[Laubender]

Hi PHochgraf ,

if you have a valid and registered version of InDesign CS6 ( perpetual ) Adobe will help you.

If you have a Creative Cloud subscription only, Adobe would not.

See for details here:

https://prodesigntools.com/adobe-limits-software-downloads.html

Regards,
Uwe

[PHochgraf]

I'm only a user on an Enterprise account... our IT never passed that memo down. It's real crappy that Adobe has essentially pulled all support for old Pagemaker files; as we have hundreds of legal documents in that format, from back in the day.

Although on the flip side we probably do have an old license for an earlier CS version of InDesign somewhere in the company; IT will just have to dig it up.

[Jerry44111]

I wrote a techinal book on locksmithing using PageMaker 6.5. The publisher, our trade association (and I) want to reprint it. My CS6 won't touch it and when I called to ask for help I was very rudely told "we don't support that product anymore" and was hung up on. 

After reflecting on this for a while and have concluded that it could be argued that this is a form of theft. I know. Caveat emptor. . I believe they owe us a way of retrieving our files, even if we have to pay a reasonable fee. I would even continue to rent Adobe software because I'm writing another book and some classes for a college here. I'm small potatoes. I suspect that Adobe doesn't really care about someone like me. But it seems that a lot of us are in the same fix and it feels that Adobe is doing this primarily because they can. Have you heard of anyone working on a class action to help little guys get our intellectual property back? Thank you.

Jerome Andrews

[BobLevine]

CS6 should open PM 6.5 files. What happens when you try?

[rubendnyc]

I totally agree. I'm pretty sure Adobe can find a way -- if they want to, since they have all the tools -- to at least be able to import layout and content into an OCR PDF file. Common sence tells me so. But I don't know about a class action that evidently Adobe deserves for abandoning its users who paid big bucks for the software. I have plenty of documents files in PM3, PM4, PM5 and P65 that were recovered from a lost archive safe. Please, if some one knows a way to recover its content I have to assume there a lot of user like us going crazy. Thank you in advance.

[BobLevine]

No version of InDesign could ever open anything earlier than PM6. IIRC, even later versions of PM couldn't open early versions and that became even more complicated going crossplatform.

And the idea of a class-action suit is laughable. For starters, Adobe didn't even own PM until version 5. And, this is the important part, they didn't change the Mac or Windows operating system that those early versions ran on. They didn't come to your office and buy new computers or throw away your disks.

If that stuff was so important it should have been updated along the way or you should have kept old computers to run the old software on.

At this point, your best hope is someone with CS6 still installed to open the PM6, P65 or PMD files you may have. Anything earlier is going to be one hell of a hunt for a Pagemaker user on the same platform those files were created on.

[davidh77506197]

I have found that if you open the files up in textedit you can retrieve and copy the text out of the file in most cases.  Good luck! DJH