Troubleshooting Posts

Failed to Open PDF Error? Show Options to Fix it.

August 22 2008 • 6:38 AM

One of InDesign’s great little capabilities is that it’s so simple to just place a PDF file. But like everything else in life, it’s just not perfect.

Once in a while an error alert will pop up saying “Failed to Open the PDF” That’s hardly a very specific or helpful error especially since you’re not trying [...]

The Missing Fn Key and Numbers

August 13 2008 • 10:18 AM

Sandee exposes a problem with the new Apple laptops

Beware 200″ Limit for PDFs

August 12 2008 • 7:58 AM

Most designers are unlikely to be aware of dimension limits in the applications they’re using until they try to create a document that exceeds those limits and are greeted with a message like this:

That message is pretty straightforward. InDesign can only create a 216″ document. Let’s just scale it to 50%.

We’re good to go, right? [...]

What’s The Deal On Font Auto Activation?

July 30 2008 • 10:50 AM

Problems with auto-activation? Join the club.

Help! I’ve Lost My Serial Number.

July 30 2008 • 7:25 AM

Sometimes finding something as simple as a serial number can require a trick

The Case of the Missing Characters

July 13 2008 • 3:58 PM

Why some characters, such as apostrophes, sometimes disappear when you print.

Screen Artifacts on Transparent PSDs in Exported PDFs Can Be Deceiving…Most of the Time.

July 4 2008 • 8:39 AM

I’ve been using transparent PSD files from Photoshop since the release of InDesign 2.0. I still remember the first time I used one and experienced a feeling of wonderment I’d never felt before when laying out a page. I felt free from the rigors of faking backgrounds with full page TIF files or drawing clipping [...]

Leopard 10.5.4 Fixes InDesign Nav Services Glitches

June 30 2008 • 3:29 PM

Apple released a new Leopard update, 10.5.4, to its Mac OS X users today, an update of special interest to InDesign users.

According to Tim Cole (Adobe’s InDesign/InCopy Evangelist), Adobe’s engineers have put it through its paces, and it appears to have fixed the Nav Services problems that some 10.5.x users were reporting with InDesign, as [...]

InDesign CS3 Crashes When Opening Files From Windows Explorer or Bridge

June 30 2008 • 9:31 AM

Mac users can skip this one.
There have been scattered reports in the InDesign Windows User to User forums from of CS3 crashing when opening files from either Bridge or Explorer. Apparently the folks at Adobe have found a workaround but not an exact cause or fix.
As explained in this TechNote article, the workaround, besides not [...]

Preventing 4-color Blacks in PDFs

June 26 2008 • 4:28 PM

An old student of mine named Mark e-mailed me yesterday, worried that the 2-color newsletter he just sent off to his commercial printer as a PDF would have the same problem as the prior issue he sent them: The 100% black elements, including all the text, had separated out to a mix of the four process colors.

Mark guessed that the cause was that he “had somehow changed the Preference setting for ‘Appearance of Black:’”