Mixing CS2 and CS3: Snippets Rule!
In the latest podcast (episode 54), David and I talked about “glitches and gotchas” in trying to mix InDesign CS2 and CS3 for the same project, a situation faced by thousands of users during this time of transition. To learn all our tips on the topic, I recommend that you listen to the podcast, or wait a couple weeks until the transcript is up. But in the meantime I thought one nugget of information was important enough to pull out and write up as a standalone tip for the blog.
The issue has to do with copying and pasting between the two versions. A user had asked how to get a sidebar (which was a mix of image and text frames) from an InDesign CS2 layout into a CS3 layout.
Copying and Pasting Doesn’t Work
If you try to just select the objects in CS2, copy them, and paste them into CS3, it comes in as an unknown format. It looks the same, but it’s similar to an image — it’s one object (ungrouped), uneditable, and it doesn’t show up in the Links panel either.
Here’s an example. First, I select two items in my CS2 layout, a circular image and an overlapping text frame (the image has a text wrap applied), and copy them (Edit > Copy) to the clipboard:
Then I switch to InDesign CS3 — the two programs have no problem running concurrently — and paste (Edit > Paste) the contents of the clipboard into a new document.
In the image below, I’ve left my pasted objects selected and opened the Links panel so you can see that though it looks like an image (one image frame with a mix of text and image — note how the doggie lost its text wrap, too), it’s not an image, as evidenced in the Links panel. David says it’s something like an “embedded PDF,” similar to what happens when you copy/paste artwork from another program into InDesign, instead of placing it:
Use Snippets Instead
As often happens during our podcasts, serendipity reared its lovely head. While David was talking about the hazards of copying/pasting artwork, I was testing to see if exporting the selection as an InDesign Snippet would work.
I had just discovered that yes, it appeared to do the trick, and was waiting for him to pause so I could mention it, when he mused aloud, “Hmmm. I wonder if snippets would work?” Heh.
To export a selection as an InDesign Snippet, choose File > Export and select InDesign Snippet as the file format:
Doing it this way (as opposed to dragging and dropping the selection to the Finder/Windows Explorer or to Bridge, which creates snippets as well) lets you name the snippet file as you save it. But any method would work.
Then switch to the other version of InDesign and bring the snippet in, either by dragging and dropping it, or by choosing File > Place and double-clicking on the snippet file.
When I place the CS2-created snippet in CS3, I get a nice little snippet preview in my “Place Gun” (such a violent program, no?):
And after I pull the trigger — err, click the mouse button — the CS2 artwork comes in fully editable, and even the text wrap is intact:
Works Backwards, Too
Copying and pasting object selections from CS3 into CS2 — the reverse of what I was talking about above — has the same problem and the same solution. In other words, don’t copy/paste. Instead, export the selected objects in your CS3 layout to a Snippet, then Place or drag and drop the snippet file into your CS2 layout.
Look, this is a great tip, but for me it’s totally eclipsed by that dog. I could barely even read the tip… I just kept laughing about that picture.
Hahahaha … I took that picture at a doggie Halloween costume contest a couple years ago in one of the dog parks by me. I brought my two dogs but they didn’t make the top ten. (One was dressed as Harry Potter, the other as Dracula.)
That pug … he was supposed to be a fireman (in a red hoodie). His sister was a police officer (blue hoodie). Both had accessories and hats to complete the outfits.
Thanks for the great tip! I’m waiting for my CS3 to be ordered and it’s good to be able to learn these things before the software arrives and installed.
I like the snippets now, been using them for a while now and quite handy. Although I do just grab my text box from InDesign and put it in a folder, making the snippet for me, handy if I’m in a hurry.
Perhaps someone can help explain what’s happening in this scenario to me. I do a lot of work building templates for magazines. I will usually build the whole magazine as a composite in one document to help with standardizing styles, colors, etc., across the entire magazine. I will then copy just the specific pages I need for each section of the [magazine] into a new document because if I do a Save As, InDesign retains all the information from the composite in each document coming from it. Even if I delete unused pages, styles, everything. If the composite document is 15mb, and I use one page from it, the new document remains at 15mb, if not more! Adobe has not been able to explain this completely, but my question/comment is that copying and pasting from a CS2 to CS2 document worked fine, but I’ve had problems with doing it in a CS3 to CS3 document. I found that some of the items are fine, while others lose object attributes, particularly text insets. I understand about the object style issue, but in this case the problem happens in an irrational way. When I copy a spread—which consists of identical pages for the left and right pages—one of the pages would be fine, but on the other, some of the boxes would lose all insets. There appears no logic to it, but I haven’t had the time to fully explore it as I was on deadline. I have tried deleting the pages I don’t need then exporting in INX format. This does clear out some of the extraneous bulk, but results in losing most of the box or item attributes with regard to text wrap. Not a useful solution either.
If anyone has any ideas as to why this is happening, I would be grateful. The idea of snippets or libraries is viable, except that, with the sheer volume of templates in some of these publications, it would also add hours of fun and excitement—of which I can do without. Thanks for your thoughts.
Peter, this sounds very weird. If you delete all those pages and then use Save As, the file size should definitely get smaller. The file might be corrupt, or you might be suffering from this problem.
Hi David,
There are no image files in these templates. This is, in fact, an InDesign issue. I brought this to the attention of Gary Cosimini at Adobe, when I was working on the templates for a major magazine when we switched to InDesign. To clarify, these are InDesign-created documents, with nothing imported from QuarkXPress. This happens if you create a new document, add pages to that document as you work. Then if you do a Save As or just delete pages, the size of the document does not change from the original, even if you delete unwanted pages and unused styles–which, by the way, continue to show up even if not applied to anything in the document, on any master, or linked via Next Style, Nested Styles etc.
This adds a lot of extra work, not to mention bulk, to documents; especially when creating templates.
Peter, I don’t know what to tell you. I have a large file here; when I add pages it gets bigger, and when I remove pages and do a Save As, it gets smaller. If yours doesn’t do that, something must be wrong there.
David,
Try doing the same thing with a document where you have many master pages, rather than document pages. Add Master pages complete with various paragraph and character styles, colors, etc. Save the file. Add more masters, etc. Then try deleting master pages, do your
Save As and see if the document size decreases. Also see if the unused styles from the deleted Master pages disappear without you deleting them manually. I think I know the answer!
Peter, you’re right that unused styles aren’t deleted when you remove master or document pages. No, you have to remove styles and swatches and so on manually.
But as for the file size: I add master pages with images on them and the file size gets bigger. I delete master pages and do a Save As and the file size gets smaller again. It all seems to work just the way I’d expect it to.
Perhaps I should build all these different template pages as document pages rather than as Master pages, then when I do the Save As and delete the extras, I won’t have this issue. This has happened several times with completely different versions of Indesign (both CS2 and 3). When I did a job for another magazine, the Tech people there were aware of this issue as well. Perhaps the difference is that the Masters are “based on” a default Master page which contains the basic page grid, footer/dateline with auto-page folios etc. Not sure wherein the problem lies, but I’ll let you know when I do find it.
Hi! I have a problem that I can not find anywhere else in the forums so I decided to wrtite here. My Mac Indesign CS3 can not open Indesign CS2 files. Even if its inx format. (I downloaded latest upgrade of CS2) Program crashes when I try to touch anything. What can I do?
Hi, has anyone seen this happen? An InDesign cs3 eps made with Asura is placed on an Indesign cs2 document (along with an cs1 eps made with Asura) The page is then exported as pdf. 1 of the images turned into a gray striped box the other a solid box with some artifacts behind it.
I’ve been working on a book layout on the lab computers at my school which are on CS3. And when I bring the files home to work on my computer (I have CS2) the file won’t even open without “necessary plug-ins” or an upgrade to the new Suite. But…I can’t afford that! Is there a way to save a CS3 file so that it is CS2-friendly? I can’t sit in these labs at school all the time and I can’t just work from home, so I’m totally stumped as to how to make this work.
Haley, you need to use File > Export and choose InDesign Interchange (INX).
David, CS3 files exported as INX files will not open in CS2. Doing the little snippets trick also doesn’t work as you lose text formatting and in some cases the baseline options. I’ve had a frustrating weekend trying to save a 24 page newspaper, deadline today, to be editable in the client’s CS2. I took the job after doing research on the net and having enough confidence in the Adobe Support site where it was made clear it would work hassle-free. A huge disappointment, an enraging and shortsighted attempt by Adobe to force you to buy the next version – something even huge publishing houses won’t easily agree to. I feel I’m being held ransom here!
Jason, if your CS3 INX files don’t open in CS2, then there’s a good chance that your copy of CS2 hasn’t been updated to 4.05. You need that free update to ensure INX files open properly.
I just want to know why a CS2 file opened and edited ( just added photo) in CS3 will no longer open in CS2?
Because as soon as you open a CS2 file in CS3, it converts it to CS3 format. If you just closed it at that point and didn’t save any changes, you’d still be able to open it in CS2. But if you did save changes, that also saves the conversion to CS3 part. And you can’t open CS3 files in CS2. You have to export the CS3 file to .inx (InDesign Interchange) format from the File > Export dialog box. Then you can open the .inx in CS2 and it will convert to an untitled CS2 doc.
Ok, I have a similar, but different issue. I have a Quark document which I have converted using Q2ID. I’m taking elements from this document and pasting them into a new Indesign CS3 Document. When I do this, text frames, which appear over top of an image, have a “wrap around boundry box” applied (which was not present in the original version). And the text appears overset. To correct this, I go to the text wrap and select no wrap. I’ve tried exporting this as a snippet and still, the same thing happens. I’ve even tried to add layers, separating the text from the background – but no luck. If it were a one or two page document this would not be an issue – but this is a long document. What is the solution?