Comments on: Troubleshooting InDesign CS4 Pauses

By: Thilo

Thilo — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:10:11 +0000

Thanks for this post – it finally solved our problems with large documents containing many xrefs.

When applying changes to one document of a book, we noticed that ID opens/closes lock files in the document folder when we are typing (Preflight was off). Solution: Open ALL documents of a book that are xref targets, ID works like a charm, even with live Preflight!

Thanks again for all the input, this saved our day!

Thilo

By: Marina Michaels

Marina Michaels — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:46:48 +0000

To clarify, what I meant by “initially the cross-references weren’t a problem” is that when I first started inserting them, there was no slowdown.

By: Marina Michaels

Marina Michaels — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:45:26 +0000

I, too, have been experiencing this slowdown in my work. I have a book that is about 235 pages long (about 20 files). Initially, I had no problem, but then the slowdown started and is still there. The only way I can add text at any reasonable speed is to type it first in a text editor, then copy and paste it into the files in this book. The problem is not present in new files that aren’t part of this book, so it must have something to do with the book itself. Initially, the cross-references did not cause a problem. I had packaged up the book for my laptop (where I first noticed the problem), then packaged it up again to work on my desktop (thinking my laptop wasn’t up to the task), only to have the problem there as well. So perhaps it is in the cross-references as someone mentioned. I’ve tried turning off preflight and updating all cross-references in the book (from the book panel), and neither of those actions worked. Since I haven’t changed the font set, I don’t think it could be the fonts, though I did install High-Logic’s Main Type (a font manager) at some point, so perhaps that is something to look into. I am going to keep trying to solve this, but it seems that if so many people have this problem, surely Adobe is aware and has a solution?

By: Tina DeJarld

Tina DeJarld — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:48:55 +0000

I am also experiencing the same problem with a book that consists of 10 files, about 175 pages total, about 100 hyperlinks and cross refs, as well as an index. It’s CS4 on Windows 7, fresh re-install, tried several of the suggestions above to no avail. It’s a hideous to wait like this after each and every text edit!

The big question is: has this been fixed in CS5 ? !

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:17:29 +0000

Sorry for the double post…

Another thing that I just discovered helps considerably is moving cross-referenced items by dragging rather than a cut-and-paste, even if moving them multiple pages (zoom as far out as possible to move items several pages).

-Bruce

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:55:13 +0000

I didn’t exhaustively read this page, so pardon me if some of these were mentioned…

I had early on turned off all of the dynamic guides and tips (I found them more of an annoyance than a help, and I did notice a speed increase), but the big thing for me was changing my default display quality from Normal to Fast. I also thought it wouldn’t hurt to change any other options that show a thumbnail (such as while dragging an image) to NOT do so. Performance still is not fast, but it’s noticeably improved.

Thanks to all,
Bruce

By: Jelmer

Jelmer — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:32:23 +0000

It defintely are the cross references that are slowing down indesign.
I suddenly experienced serious hickups when typing. It took seconds before text appears.

After turning off preflight, which didnt help, I removed some cross references and… Hickups were gone!

STUPID ADOBE! THEY SHOULD IMPROVE THEIR BASIC FUNCTIONS LIKE CROSS REFERENCES! THIS IS VERY ANNOYING.

By: Jared Crawford

Jared Crawford — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:40:02 +0000

Hi,

I am experiencing the same sort of EXTREME slowdown of my system when using InDesign CS3. This did not happen until the last couple of months. I used ID CS3 for 2.5 years without having this problem. I use DTP Tools’ Cross-References Pro extensively and link hundreds of TIFs and AI files.

I thought the slowdown was due to a lack of system resources on my Windows laptop, so IT gave me a fresh Core 2 Windows desktop with 8 GB of memory. Initially, I did not experience the problem, but then it started happening. I don’t remember whether I applied the Adobe updates before the problem cropped up.

CS3 does not have auto preflight, so I can’t turn that off. I’ve tried Save As and rebuilding the files in the book, but that has not helped.

Please point me to a CS3 discussion of this problem if there is one or if there is anything not mentioned in this thread that I might try. I’d upgrade CS3, but we have multiple CS3 seats and we’re trying to conserve the company’s cash. Other users are not experiencing this issue when using the same files.

Thanks!

By: Bjørn

Bjørn — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:23:51 +0000

@Martin: Thanks so very much! This was killing me! When all the documents in a book is open and preflight is turned off, Indesign behaves alright. If one document is closed, any change leads to a hiccup for a minute or so. I have a lot of cross references.

By: Yves Dekort

Yves Dekort — Thu, 06 May 2010 10:06:51 +0000

I also experience slow response to typing, but in my case it’s limited to a table which is 5 pages long.

When typing in other tables (for example 10 rows) there is no delay.