"How may I Select Multiple Links for Re-Linking ”

[davidg58746282]

Looking to perform "Select Multiple Link Replacement”

Right now I can Re Link Parent Link (of ALL Instances) and change 1000 instances of an image.

Right Now I can Relink ONE individual “Child” instance or ONE image at a time.

But I cannot SELECT and RELINK Multiple Selected Links (example: 10 out of the 1000) SELECT instances of an image.

The only way to presently do this is to highlight the 10 instances and then Relink them one by one where a dialogue box opens and requires me to repeat the link process and click OK all 10 times.  This is a time suck and there must be a better way!

Do any of you know of a solution to allow me to SELECT and RELINK only a SELECT GROUP of multiple links and have only these instances relink without having to sit and repeat the process for each link individually?

Do any of you know of a script to accomplish this?

Is there a way that can be done without a Script?

I hope you can help.

Thank you!!

[brianp311]

No clean way, natively, that I'm aware of. You could probably finagle a script that could execute the Copy Info For Selected Links menu action to a temp file/frame, read that data to refind the links in the document and execute the relink, but I don't believe any such script exists currently and it's not exactly a trivial task. 

[Jeff Witchel, ACI · Accepted solution]

There's an option under the Options menu of the Links panel that should work. 

1. Put all of your replacement images in a different folder than the original images.
2. Select all listings in the Links panel you wish to replace.
3. Under the Options menu of the panel, choose Relink to Folder, find the new Folder and press Choose.

As long as the new images have the same names, this should work fine.

[davidg58746282]

Hi Jeff,  Thank you for your response.

I do appreciate you sharing this "work around" which reps from Adobe had already shared w me.   You actually presented it very clearly and concisely!   I am sure this simple functionality (requested)  would be a huge benefit to thousands of ID user's who's workflows would be made more intuitive and more efficient.   

The fact that this workaround is known, shows that the need has been identified by many before.  As I imagine, it is extremely difficult for many to clearly articulate this "missing functionality,"  I am certain that as a feature request, this  would have been requested repeatedly as its absence appears as almost an innocent oversight by the engineers.

This workaround you describe is inelegant and far from intuitive, in addressing a missing and much needed functionality that can and should hopefully be easy to address.

One can easily Relink a "Parent Set" of Links, or an "Individual Link", but not sets of "Individually Selected Links."   It appears that the engineers just did not envision/complete the logical step to provide this needed Link functionality.   There are two important places in our WorkFlow that this functionality is critical, requiring tremendous time of needless repetitive steps.

I'm am sincerely hopeful by bringing this to Adobe's ID Engineering Team attention with clarity of need and value of function that they will correct this clear and logical deficiency and please/delight countless thousand of users who are forced to perform needless repetitive tasks.

Please help enthusiastically support this feature request.  For our workflows, Time is of The Essence!  

Thanks!

[brianp311]

Totally agree with you. I think it's a crap workaround, which is why I initially said it was not doable natively. What if the relinked files do not have the same name? What if they are scattered in a billion places on a server? In both cases, this workaround fails miserably. I'd be happy to vote for it if you log it at https://indesign.uservoice.com/

[davidg58746282]

Brian,  

I just posted it.  I had previously posted the same request and have been in touch with Senior Product Specialists in Delhi India who have stated they are working on this with Engineering.   I am sure your support/endorsement as well as description of your need for this feature would be very helpful in bringing attention to this very unfortunate and glaing deficiency in In Design.  I am quite sure we are among a majority of users of ID who will celebrate the institution of this logical and necessary feature.

Thanks!

David