CS4 Bug Status Reports
We’ve now had three updates to InDesign CS4, so we’re now up to InDesign CS4 6.0.3, but there are still little bugs which are ruining some people’s workflows. A couple of helpful Adobe employees have posted updates on the Adobe InDesign Forum about two of them.
PDFs Placed into CS4 Documents May Drop Characters When Exported to PDF.
Bob Levine reported this bug in a posting in May. In short:
If you’ve placed PDFs created by Quark 7 or earlier or distilled using Distiller 8 or earlier, some characters in those PDFs may be dropped when viewing or Printing the PDF from Acrobat or Reader version 8 and earlier. Adobe has recently acknowledged this problem and issued a technote on it.
Dov Isaacs, Adobe Principal Scientist, and Matthew Laun, and InDesign engineer reported this week that the fix for this didn’t make it into 6.0.3, but is expected before long:
Help is definitely on the way. The fix for this involves two components, both of which have great complexity, so it has required some significant code review and testing before we have confidence to release it. We had a tough decision with 6.0.3, in which we had some fixes we wanted to get out quickly, but feared rushing the work on this critical issue could result in additional defects.
There are a couple of workarounds listed in Bob’s posting.
CS4 Data Merge Outputs Placeholders, Blank Lines
Matthew Laun has also been on the case of reports from the InDesign Forum about placeholders in the Data Merge feature not being properly replaced with merge data, or with extra blank lines.
He also reported this week:
I have good news, and bad news. The bad news first. We’ve not been able to find a workaround to the problem where the placeholder objects are not replaced by strings from the data source. The code uses a reference which it assumed could not have multiple instances, when in fact some documents do produce multiple instances. A solution has been tested which uses a new method to ensure that a unique reference is always generated for each placeholder object. The good news. While I can’t make any promises about if or when a fix will be made available, the issue is being considered for an out of schedule update.
He suggests in the forum thread that if you submit a bug report, and report how this is affecting your workflow, that that will impact how fast it gets fixed. The only workaround appears to be to use InDesign CS3 for Data Merge.
Please add to the list the huge bugs :
? Save Word import pressets don’t work anymore since CS4
? Printing RGB with correct colors is broken since CS2
@nlx: It’s true that the style mapping presets are still not saved (very frustrating bug for those who rely on style mapping). However, I’m not sure what you mean by printing RGB is broken. What bug are you referring to. (ID prints RGB images very well.)
Here’s a bug I’ve found:
If you use a Grep search to transpose two items of text, and one of those items has a character style or local formatting, the style or formatting doesn’t move along with the text. (So ‘Text1 Text2′ becomes ‘Text2 Text1′, rather than the expected ‘Text2 Text1‘). I submitted a bug report and was told this was ‘expected behaviour’, but I can’t really see why you would expect that or when you’d want it.
Yep I badly need Style Mapping Presets. Can’t upgrade without that feature. So if it’s not working CS5 I won’t be able to upgrade to that either. Very frustrating.
I found kind of an odd bug as well.
Import a grayscale EPS into an InDesign doc.
Then, when you go to File->Package->Colors, it shows up as having black ink like you’d expect.
But, if you import a grayscale AI file and do the same thing, it shows as having all 4 CYMK colors which is pretty annoying.
>But, if you import a grayscale AI file and do the same thing, it shows as having all 4 CYMK colors which is pretty annoying.
Colour Management maybe? (If AI is CMYK and has profile things can go wrong…)
Probably the worst bug is the one in which text on a path disappears on export (or print) after a certain number of pages. This bug has no good workaround… :(
PS not convereting into PDF while loading MathType images saved as EPS, but when saving as WMF and loading in InDesign, it’s fine but displaying very bold in the PDF. This issue has started from CS3, but still it’s not rectified in CS4 too.
ID CS4 (Win) has started to forget keyboard shortcuts after working for a while, unless I close and reopen the app. I’m sure it wasn’t doing that a week or two ago!
David, you might try restoring your InDesign preferences. That hasn’t been reported as a bug by others as far as I know.
Steve, I’ll give it a try. Seems unlikely given that a fresh ID4 install did the same thing during the week on my laptop — given the differences between the 2 systems (XP32 vs XP64, 2GB vs 12GB RAM, different video card manufacters, etc), it makes me think it’s not a driver issue either.
[edit — 2nd thought — the only recent change common to both systems was replacing an old Graphire3 tablet with a Bamboo. Wacom vs Indesign, perhaps?]
Hello, David. Just to let you know you’re not alone with this bug. A few weeks ago, 4 machines (WinXP 32bits) had this problem at work –and mine were the only one with a Wacom tablet, so I think they are not guilty this time.
I had to trash InDesign’s preferences to get my shortcuts working again. By the way, the “Ctrl+Shift+Alt” shortcut at ID startup doesn’t seem to be working anymore.
Oh, and before I forget, I found an annoying bug at home (WinVista 32bits). After I switch the focus back to ID from another app (on a second monitor, for ex.), I can select things normally but all my keyboard commands are ignored. When I look at the task bar, the InDesign icon seems to be inactive (like it didn’t get the focus). I have to minimize and restore it again to wake him up. Weird…
I almost forgot to mention the most annoying bug of all times (at least for me), which is the Pathfinder bug.
Draw two shapes on page 1 and try to combine them with Pathfinder’s Add function. It works perfectly. Now, go to page 10 and try to repeat the same procedure: the pathfinder operation will fail with an error.
Now, for the really weird part, go back to page 2 and create another 2 shapes. Copy them to page 10 and try the Add procedure again: it works! It’s been 3 upgrades and no one managed to solve it yet…
I’m still waiting for Adobe too fix the generated (i.e., palette) small cap bug.
I recently was creating a file for grayscale printing in InDesign. I added a drop shadow on some text over the top of a placed grayscale image. When the drop shadow is on, it lightens the grayscale image, when I turn it off it goes back to normal. It exports to PDF with the lightened image.
>
Actually that looks a lot closer to what’s happening here. A simple minimize/restore works every time. Just damned annoying. Now to find out why Illustrator CS4 doesn’t object-snap as well as its ancestors!
Hi all,
I installed the update this morning and since then none of my keyboard shortcuts are working, neither are the arrow keys and all my tools and panels have reset to a really weird format that I can’t seem to change. I’m figuring it has something to do with the preferences – however I have 2 folders in my prefs en_GB and en_US and I’m not really sure what to do… working on a Mac. Anyone have any helpful suggestions?
Thanks!
In InDesign CS4 when using Preflight, and you have it set to only allow opentype fonts, have you ever had it error the opentype fonts in an illustrator file that is placed in your file? I have triple checked that my illustrator files does use opentype fonts. I have tried to use several different fonts and they are all coming up as an error. If I change the InDesgin profile to allow Type 1 fonts then the error goes away.
Any idea why this would be? For this job I can only use opentype.
Thanks!
Courtney,
I just tested that, and I got the same result. Either there is an error in Preflight (certainly possible), or when AI saves the file, the OpenType font is converted to PostScript Type 1 (seems unlikely).
Why is is necessary for you to disallow PostScript Type 1 fonts? They will work with any RIP that I’m aware of.
The files are going to in a system called K4, it only supports opentype fonts (for viewing on the mac and pc). Once the job is competed it will be pulled out and sent to the printed as certified pdfs. The K4 system is for vendors to make changes to the text in the indesign file through incopy and the web.
Courtney, Keep in mind that when you place an AI file into InDesign, you’re actually placing a PDF. Open your AI file in Acrobat Pro and check the fonts there.
Hello, I have checked the file to be sure that all of the fonts are in fact opentype. I just don?t like to see ?fake? errors. When you are requesting that designers use these profiles that we have created to eliminate issues with there files it is better when you don?t have to tell them to fix this and this but you can ignore that. Besides this one thing the preflight in InDesign is great!!
Sorry, just reposting this on a more relevant/uptodate forum.
OK, this is definitely a bug. And this bug occurs on Mac AND Windows.
Here’s how to reproduce it:
1. create an InDesign document (doesn’t have to be CS4)
2. print it to Adobe PDF using the following settings:
a. paper size (on “setup” tab) = “custom”
b. at least one set of printers marks checked (eg. crop marks)
c. set Distiller to create a PDF X/1a:2001 compliant pdf
3. place the PDF into another InDesign CS4 (has to be CS4) document
a. hold down [Shift] to show import options
b. the crop to “Art”, “Trim” and “Bleed” options will be greyed out
There is no way to place the PDF without the printers marks that were created at step 2.b.
+++++++++++++++++++
What I’ve described above is our workflow for placing ads in our monthly newspaper. It’s a workflow which is extremely fault-tolerant, and which we have used sucessfully from the begining of 2006 (using CS2 and CS3). And this is why we will be attempting to return CS4 for a refund, unless Adobe can fix this bug before we begin work on our next issue.
Bryce Amner.
Most, if not all, of the issues discussed in this thread are fixed in the 6.0.4 update. Check the release notes for issue numbers with asterisks, these are the fixes new to 6.04, the others are cumulative from the previous three updates.
Release notes are here: https://www.adobe.com/go/id6_readme_en
The PDF import bug (post on 1 Sept) hasn’t been fixed in 6.0.4.
Hello
The Problem with disappearing fonts/characters in InDesign is a problem in Illustrator CS4 too.
If you save a job as ai file (what else ? with pdf checkmark) and open it in Acrobat 8 the same problem occurs. Has anybody an idea how to avoid this?
Happily , with the indesign cs4 6.0.4 update the placed ai file in indesign isn’t a problem any more.
I think, Adobe has to change the same behavior in Illustrator CS4 too?
Many thanks
Tobi
I recently upgraded, and while there are a lot of great features, I’m a little frustrated with a few things.
1. Disappearing panels. I use the “collapse to icons” feature for my panels, but whenever I click on a panel (swatches, for example) it is first grayed out. The only way to make the panel appear is to hit tab twice. Very annoying!
2. Spaces. It’s been documented elsewhere, but CS4 just does not understand spaces. I’m always having to use workarounds to make my documents show up.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
@Jeremy: No comment on spaces (I don’t use that mac feature, though I probably should). As for the grayed out panels, you might consider rebuilding your preferences.
Not sure if this is a bug or what. I am running CS4 on Snow Leopard and have a PC-style mouse, but when I try to right-click, no context menu appears. I also tried to control-click but I just get a basic pop-up menu with paste/zoom/hide grid/rulers/display etc. This is very distressing, as the context menu is invaluable. Help!
I have recently upgraded to CS4 on the Mac (Power PC) and been having trouble with merging from a CSV file to 2 up in Indesign. It concerns the remove blank line check box. I tick it but when the file is merged only some blank lines are removed from the address panels on the letter. Is there a bug fix for this?
At the momment I am manually trawling through 2000 letters removing any blank lines. Help before I go cross eyed!
Hello,
I had CS4 installed on my work computer a few weeks ago. At first I was happy about some hands-on practical changes that improves my workflow. However, after little over a week the program started crashing, stating Runtime error (two variations). I have been able to work even if it is most annoying. I have been searching the Internet and seen that I am not teh only person experiencing this problem. Some suggest that CS4 has a problem working with some documents created in earlier versions and that a document should be exported to. inx and then saved as a new .indd file. I have tried this without noticing much improvement.
Yesterday it went from bad to hopeless. I could not even open files without getting “InDesigin.exe has encountered a problem and must …”. My IT-person has helped me resetting the preferences, and today I am able to open documents but the program runs slowly beyond unworkable.
I do not know enough to say whether I am having one or two problems… All I know is that my work is falling behind at a scary rate since I do almost all my work in InDesign, but I am also the only one here doing so why my IT-support really cannot help with specific Adobe issues.
Any ideas out there?
@Jessika: It is very hard to troubleshoot the problem. Make sure you have the newest version (6.04 now), as there are many bug fixes since CS4 first shipped. You can try resetting your preferences again. It should not be running that slowly!
I’m having a problem with CS5 and master pages the have art touching (but not overlapping) the inside edge of the spread.
When only one side of the master is applied to a spread the art for the other page shows up on the opposite page EVEN IF THAT PAGE HAS A DIFFERENT MASTER PAGE APPLIED TO IT.
I know this has been an issue on the first releases of other versions of CS (like CS4). When can we expect a fix for this bug. Until this is resolved I’m forced to continue working in CS4!!
@Haziel: I have tried this several times in CS5, and the only time it happens is if the artwork IS slightly over the edge on to the opposite master page. Please make sure it isn’t past that page edge, even a tiny tiny bit.