*** From the Archives ***
This article is from December 19, 2006, and is no longer current.
Fixing InDesign’s Mac Template Files
P-hall wrote:
“Whenever I save a file as a Template and place it on a server for clients to use, they find that double-clicking on it just produces a copy of the file.”
You have discovered an unseemly truth about InDesign’s templates: They’re one of the few truly poorly implemented features in the program. On the Macintosh, InDesign relies on the Mac OS X concept of a “Stationery Pad” file, and Stationery Pads work the way you describe: As soon as you double-click on one in the Finder, the Mac duplicates the file and opens it. It’s terrible, because you can quickly get many copies of that template littering your folders. Even worse, you can just choose “Save” and the file saves with the template “copy” name. Grrr.
If you open the template from within InDesign or Bridge, it works fine: you get an Untitled document. So it’s not totally broken… just mostly. Here’s one solution: In the Mac OS X Finder, click on the template file and choose File > Get Info. Now turn off the Stationery Pad checkbox and turn on the Locked checkbox. The file will open with its given name in InDesign (not Untitled) but it will be locked so it’ll show up as “[Read Only]”. That means you can’t accidentally write over it, which is probably what you were aiming for in the first place.
In Windows, InDesign’s templates work just fine. You can save any file with an .indt extension and they act like a template: Open them from Windows explorer or Bridge or from within InDesign and they open as Untitled.
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Hey David… another tip… yes, double-clicking on the .indt file on the Mac OS will open a copy of the template, BUT dragging the .indt file to the InDesign icon in the dock to open will open it as an Untitled.indd document. Thanks for the many tips I use every day!
Thanks for the additional tip, Scott! It’s interesting that dragging to the dock is different than using File > Open in the Finder.
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, David. I’ve been on vacation. Your tip works! Thank you. However we’ve found the other tips – opening from within InDesign or dragging to the icon on the dock both make copies of the file too. Anyway, one method is all we need. Thanks again.
The designers I work with have been experiencing another anomaly with INDY Templates that I feel is related to a Master Page dictate. That said, I can?t find it. If I were to copy elements from one INDY doc (an ad, for example) to an INDT, the result would be a gray stroke around ALL boxes – text, graphics and custom. The remedy is to go through each box and zero out the stroke – or select all and 0 pt the stroke in the palette. But, it is a royal pain in the rear. Has anyone else been seeing this? And – David – thank you for all of your tips and tricks. Fabulous!
Glad our tips have been helpful, systech. Unfortunately, it’s hard to know what could be happening to those files. The only thing I can think of is that it’s an Object Style problem. For example, let’s say you edit the Basic Text Frame object style (in the object styles palette) in a document so that it has a big blue stroke. Now, when you paste any text frame into that document, the frame suddenly gets a blue stroke. Make sense?
David- you make perfect sense and it stands to reason that an Object Style could be corrupt. The interesting hiccup here is that the “paste” into a new doc does not yield such results – maybe I will rest the template ObjSty’s to base for both graphics and text frames. That is what I have NOT tried yet. Groovy. We are on Intel G5’s – we are begging for CS3…spring quarter seems years away! Thank you again. I will let you know how the ObjSty reset does the trick.
Update- I reset the Text & Graphic Frames to base and the gray strokes disappeared. Nice work David!
We aim to please. ;)
Glad it worked for you.
Another tip on opening InDesigns template files. I noticed in Michael Murphy’s Video cast (Episode 33: Long Documents, Part 1 – Book Basics) that when you store an InDesign template in your dock, that double-clicking it will also open as an untitled.indd document (instead of a copy of the .indt file). Thanks Michael!
I was having this problem today, and found your site. Thanks! Also, I noticed that if I open the “copy” file, that file gives me all the “Untitled” templates that I desire. So, essentially, it seems the fix is to open the template file to make the copy, pitch the original template file and change the name on the new “copy” file.
thanks. i am trying to open the indt files and it is opening using an untittled name. i need it to open with the original file name for a printout for a presentation. some of the files will open fine and others open with a new document name. i tried the to turn off the Stationery Pad, but it s off for most of the files and doesn’t seem to make a difference. thanks for your help
Dani, you can open the template and see the file name if you click Open Original in InDesign’s Open dialog box.
Friends, how can i open a saved file in its own name& replace after correction in same name?
Alex, see comment #12: In the Open dialog box, click the Open Original option before opening the file.
I’ve been attempting to re-edit the template file, but everytime I have opened it since, it opens as an untitled indd instead of indt which I need to correct. Forcing it into the dock or opening recent from within the program doesn’t work either. My head hurts now… :(
Prozagrrl: Hm. What I said in comment #14 should work. No?
It works ? Cheers. But how does one template open up as a INDT when “double clicked” and another launches an Untitled Doc also when “double clicked”? I’ve check their info ? they seem exctly the same. I just want to “double-click”… lol/cry
ignore the last comment… i haven’t had my coffee and my brain is playing terrible tricks on me. Sorry about the bother. :P
I’ve run into a variation on this problem. Even when I use “Open Normal” I fail to get an untitled document. I’ve tried the locked file work around, and now InDesign is effectively ignoring the template. I place text and it ignores the second page of the template, then creating new pages to populate based on the first. It’s quite maddening. Ay help is most appreciated.
Addendum: I have found a solution to get around this problem, but I don’t see why it should be happening at all.
Hi all, I have a similar related querie that I just can’t seem to find an answer for anywhere but I think you guys could help me here.
May seem a bit of a blonde questions but Ive just upgraded my mac and ofcourse all my programs are back to factory settings! Arggh! I want to change the CS3 indesign template which is used to start any ‘new document’ i.e. instead of letter size in pixels to a4 in millimeters. I’ve made my template file but I just can’t remember where I’m supposed to save it or load it to so Indesign registers it every time I go ‘new document’ ???
– great website by the way!
@Anna: You can set your default measurements in the Preferences dialog box while no documents are open. You can change the size of the default page size by choosing File > Document Presets > Default and editing “Default”. Hope that helps!
Wow this article is almost 9 years old; doubt anyone will read this, but anyways…
“Here’s one solution: In the Mac OS X Finder, click on the template file and choose File > Get Info….”
Just tried this for InCopy templates that were producing annoying duplicates (almost identical to the problem subject of this article, just with InCopy CC). Voilà! This suggestion worked flawlessly—starting with a document as *untitled also worked!
Thanks, Joe! Very cool. (Yes, even 9 year old posts around here are still very helpful.)