Expert: James Fritz - 10/19/2008

Question
My company has printed magazine and webpage.  The mag designer uses a Mac ID and I use PC.  When I open some of her files, I get a serious error and ID shuts down. I try to restart and get a 'must shut down, notify MS?' screen.  Next time, it usually opens, but I still cannot read the original file.  Any idea why?  characters?  we do not have the same fonts, but ID usually just says it will substitue.

The day it quit working Adobe downloaded a version of Flash and MS updated Windows - any connection, you think?

Answer
Diane,

It might be a windows issue since you had just downloaded an update.

I would do a simple test.

Have your designer on a mac make a brand new ID file with just a textbox, a little text and one picture. Have them save this file and you should try and open it. If ID can't then there is something seriously wrong on your end. If you can, then it is just something wrong with that one particular file that you are trying to open.

Also, make sure the file that you are trying to open has the .indd extension since it is required. Secondly, make sure you are both running the same version (CS3, or whatever).