Illustrator file to Indesign? 1

[blammo]

Greetings!
I am researching the compatability of InDesign with our company's present workflow. Presently our designers use FreehandMX 50% of the time, while one of our clients insists that we deliver files in Quark. (and that's the other 50%) To get an editable file from Freehand to Quark usually means I have to completely recreate it. I assumed InDesign would have 100% compatability with Illustrator…enabling me to export as a Illustrator document from FH & import it into InDesign.

I downloaded a trial copy of InDesign, & it's not working out as well as I'd hoped. I need the final file to be text editable, and when I copy & paste or "Place" from Illustrator or Freehand, sometimes I can select individual elements…but the type always comes in as paths. If I select individual lines of text and paste them into InDesign, they remain text…but this is tantamount to recreating the document.

Am I missing a compatability function that only comes with purchasing the full version? Or is there some way of importing/opening Illustrator files in InDesign that I am missing?

thanks for your help!

 

[jimoblak]

You are not missing anything. Images are placed in InDesign just as they are with PageMaker and Quark. Images cannot be edited unless they were copy/pasted. Even with this method, there are some limitations, which you have apparently discovered.

Keep in mind that Freehand is Macromedia's only vector/layout application. Adobe breaks up these tasks into Illustrator and InDesign. InDesign alone is not a replacement for Freehand and Illustrator - - it is a complement to a drawing program.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[blammo]

jimoblak,

Thanks for your amazingly quick response!

So if I understand correctly…Quark 4 documents can be opened directly in InDesign…but Illustrator documents cannot? That seemed so odd to me, I figured I must be missing a plug-in, or some feature was disabled.

Thanks again for your time.

 

[jimoblak]

Quark 4 will open into InDesign as an editable document.

Illustrator will place into InDesign as a picture object.

You can copy and paste Illustrator content into InDesign and use basic path tools in InDesign to tweak - - but major editing tasks should always be done in Illustrator. You might also check to see what type of clipboard setting that you are using in Illustrator's preferences. You may see different results by switching between AICB and PDF.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?