InDesign's "Component Information" dialog: useful but perhaps misleading

If you want to know more about the history of a "flaky" InDesign file, here's something to try. Hold down command (Mac) or ctrl (Windows) as you select About InDesign from the InDesign menu (Mac) or the Help menu (Windows). This will display the "Component Information" dialog box. Among other things, this will show you the complete history of every "Save As" in the life of the document, whether it has ever crossed platform from Windows to Mac or vice versa, and if the document was ever converted from QuarkXPress or PageMaker.

InDesign can convert Quark 4 files to InDesign format, and newer Quark files can be converted with the Q2ID plug-in. Here's the problem: the Component Information dialog box will only state that a file was converted from Quark if it was converted using InDesign's native Quark 4 conversion. If the file was converted to Quark using the Q2ID plug-in, the dialog box will display "Converted from QuarkXPress - no". So beware of this. I don't know of any way to tell after the fact whether a file has been converted to InDesign format using the Q2ID plug-in.

How to fix a corrupt InDesign file

Clients sometimes call me with tales of woe of misbehaving InDesign files. Sometimes the bad file will open, but crashes every time they turn to page 3. Or the file crashes when they save. Or the text is all scattered willy-nilly across the page. Sometimes a corrupted file won't even open. When a file goes bad, and you don't have a recent backup copy, what do you do? Here are two things to try.

Export to inx/idml
This method will only work if the bad InDesign file will open. With the bad file open, choose File > Export. Select InDesign Interchange (INX) for the Format. Specify a filename and a location to save the file to, then click the Save button. This will produce a file with an .inx extension, which is sort of like a list of instructions on how to put the file together. Next, close the corrupted file, and open the .inx file you just created. InDesign will read through the instructions in the .inx file and rebuild a new, untitled InDesign file. The new file should look just like the original file, but hopefully without whatever is causing the file corruption. I've seen this work wonders many times! If you have InDesign CS4, and this doesn't fix the file, try the steps above again, but choose InDesign Markup (IDML) for the file format.

The Markzware solution
Q2ID is a great program from Markzware that converts QuarkXPress files to InDesign format. (I previously wrote about this here). Markzware also makes a product called ID2Q that converts InDesign files to Quark. Why am I telling you this? It just so happens that people have discovered that sometimes ID2Q will open and convert InDesign files that InDesign itself can no longer open. So if you use ID2Q to convert the corrupt file to Quark, and then use Q2ID to convert the file back to InDesign, you might be in business.

If you don't want to purchase both products, you can hire Markzware to try the fix for you. See the offer from the Markzware Blog below:

Fix your Bad Adobe InDesign Files! Markzware, well know for it’s QuarkXPress fixing XTension MarkzTools and conversion tools, such as the ever-still popular Q2ID (Quark to InDesign) Plugin is working on a tool that hopefully one day will make fixing bad or not opening InDesign files a cinch. Till then, we have a nice service (no cure-no pay. $99) where will will attempt to fix your flaky InDesign CS documents. Just email sales@markzware.com with the document (if less than 15MB) or email us for our FTP details if larger. Even if you do not want to pay, we would still love to see your strange InDesign files for our R&D.

Convert QuarkXPress 8 files to InDesign CS3 or CS4

The excellent Q2ID plug-in has been updated to support QuarkXPress version 8 files and InDesign CS4. The Macintosh version is available now, and Markzware says that the Windows version will be available soon. I'm happy to see an upgrade available so soon after CS4 began shipping.

This excellent plug-in for InDesign will convert QuarkXPress version 5, 6, 7 or 8 files to InDesign CS3 or CS4 files. Q2ID costs $199 USD. Upgrades from version 2 or 3 are $99 USD according to the Markzware Web site.

Once installed, this plug-in is invisible. To use it, you just choose File > Open from within InDesign, select a QuarkXPress file, and it's converted on the fly and opens as an untitled document in InDesign. More information about this plug-in is available in these previous blog posts.

Convert ANYTHING to InDesign

Now you can convert almost any type of page layout file to InDesign format. Here's how:

1. Out of the box, InDesign can convert QuarkXPress 4 or older files, as well as Adobe PageMaker 6 or 7 files.

2. The Q2ID plug-in from Markzware does a great job of converting Quark 7.2 or older files to InDesign.

3. The just-released PUB2ID plug-in from Markzware will convert Microsoft Publisher 2002-2007 files to InDesign.

4. The brand-new MIF Filter for InDesign from DTP Tools promises to convert FrameMaker MIF files to InDesign.

5. PDF2ID from RecoSoft is a tool for converting PDF files to InDesign format.

Your mileage may vary with these tools, depending on the complexity of your documents and how they are constructed. But even if the conversion only gets you halfway there, it can still save you some significant time.

Converting QuarkXPress files to InDesign

Not new, but I keep getting questions about this: Adobe InDesign can convert QuarkXPress 4 or older files by simply choosing File > Open in InDesign, and opening the QuarkXPress file. The Quark file is converted on the fly, and opens as an untitled document. The conversion works pretty well. In general, the page geometry (master pages, location and size of text and graphic frames, style attributes and colors) converts well. For various technical reasons, the location of text and graphics within the boxes often will move and require adjustment. For further information on what can go wrong, and how to fix it, see the handout I've prepared on the topic here.

But what do you do about QuarkXPress 5, 6 or 7 files? Get yourself a copy of Q2ID from Markzware. This is a handy plug-in for InDesign that, once installed, quietly allows InDesign to open and convert any version of Quark file using File > Open in InDesign.

Find and extract text from InDesign and Quark Files

Markzware, creators of the popular Q2ID, ID2Q and PUB2ID file conversion plug-ins, has just released PageZephyr, a Macintosh-only program that will index your Quark 6 (or newer) and InDesign CS (or newer) files, and then allow you to search and view the text content in the files, and extract the found content to RTF or TXT files.

Potential uses include: quickly locating layout files based on content on a large storage volume, quick text extraction for repurposing or archiving content, or sifting through large volumes of Quark and InDesign content for legal discovery purposes.

I'll be evaluating PageZephyr in the near future, and will provide a more detailed post soon.

* Full disclosure: I'm a Markzware affiliate. This means that if you visit their site from here, and eventually buy something, I might make a few bucks. Thanks.