InDesign Shorts: Tip #14 – Packaging InDesign Files

InDesign Shorts is a recurring series to help everyone of all levels master the ins and outs of the program and become more efficient designers. Got a burning InDesign question? Drop a comment below or join the LinkedIn group for more.

Today’s tip is a quick reminder for folks who need to quickly provide content to a partner. You’ve probably already confirmed that they use InDesign, but most people forget to ask which version. Unfortunately, newer versions of InDesign won’t always open on previous versions, so if you haven’t asked (or did ask and your versions aren’t compatible) you’ll need to send an .idml document. It’s also super common for people to fire off an InDesign document alone, which means that all of the links not embedded will be broken when they get to your partner, and if you use special fonts they won’t show up correctly. This is where packaging an InDesign files comes in.

Why package an InDesign file?

A packaged document contains the InDesign file, a Mark Up Document (.idml), a PDF, links for images, and fonts used in the document. All of these pieces are great to have as a partner because:

If your versions of InDesign aren’t compatible, you can use the .idml document to access all of the content.
There’s nothing more frustrating than getting an InDesign file and not having the linked images (and then having to request them separately).
The PDF copy is a great reference for what the final product is supposed to look like (because sometimes the .idml file changes formatting or missing fonts/images change the look of a page).
The separate linked images folder makes it way easier for your partner to add them to their document.