Share Your InDesign Print Presets
Are you the InDy geek in the office with twelve custom Print presets? Share the wealth and set up your co-workers with the same goodies (they’ll be extra nice to you on your next birthday). To create stand-alone presets (file type .prst) that you can put on a server or attach to an email, open the Define dialog box for that kind of preset. For example, choose File > Print Presets > Define to make Print Preset files. That’s where you’ll find the magical Save button that prompts you for a Save location (unlike the Save Preset button in the Print dialog box, which just includes presets in your InDesign Preferences file). Your co-workers should use this same dialog box to Load the presets you’ve so generously sent their way.
(From Adobe InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs, by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción.)
good
You’re a man of few words, Ray.
I love presets. Is there a way to organize them alphabetically or custom. I would be nice.
thanks, dm
DM: Yes! If you have a lot of presets, you can sort them alphabetcially by holding down Command, Option, and Shift (or Ctrl-Alt-Shift) before selecting the File menu. Then, keep holding those keys down and look in the Print Presets (or Adobe PDF Export Presets) submenu. Those keys make any InDesign menu alphabetical.
if i do that all the presets are moved nicely, but the printdriver on the other workstations, will not adjust to the presets.
Is there a way I can send to a specific printer tray with a preset?
No, you can’t, Dewey. Print presets can only save the state of all the options in the Print dialog box. But they can’t save device-specific settings, like paper trays. Those options must be set in the dialog boxes specific to that printer. Many printer drivers have options to Save Settings, but this will vary from driver to driver.
Does anyone know which preference file gets updated when these imports are done? I want to be able to update the presets on 100+ Macs simultaneously.
so, my neurosis makes me a geek?
thank you, i’m about to standardize (is that a word?) our workflows for free-lancers and new co-workers, and i had been looking for this for a little while 
nice find
Can I create a keyboard shortcut or script to launch the Load button in the Define window?
I’ve been looking for days.
It’s a wierd preference but greatly needed on my part.
Thanks so much.
No, I don’t think there’s any way to assign a keyboard shortcut to that, Chris. You could probably find someone to script it (loading a preset).
I am stumped! I have a problem with a print preset remembering - incorrectly - a file name when I use a print preset to create postscript files.
It is not the InD file itself, but rather the print preset. I can open the .prst file in TextEdit and see that the wrong file name is stored in the .prst file. [@kPrepress File
looking for a way to edit the .prst file and/or prevent this in the future. If I edit in TextEdit, it cannot be Loaded back into InD. Does this happen when you create settings with files open?
My wife uses InDesign and her laptop just took a dump. We replaced it and loaded InDesign and transferred all of her files and settings to the new laptop. We cannot get the print presets. Is there a file on her old hard drive where these settings are? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
@Anthony: I’m not sure, but it appears that print presets are simply stored inside the file called “InDesign Defaults”, which is the program’s basic preferences file.