Expert: Ken Black - 7/2/2009

Question
My client is attempting to open my (Mac created) InDesign file on a PC, and
she received the following error message: "Adobe InDesign may not support
the file format, a plug-in that supports the format may be missing, or the
file may be open in another application.". I have already re-saved the file, I
made sure it had the .indd at the end, to no avail. I've also read that you can
download the 0xED hex editor app, but I can't find the calculator to figure out
how to delete the 128 bits of data from the corrupt file. Do you know how to
do it? Thanks so much!!! Maria

Answer
Hi Maria,

Do you know what version of Indesign is being used?

Typically this error comes up when a user has attempted to open a file created by a version that is later than the one they are using. That is to say Indesign is not backward compatible, directly anyway.

Depending on the versions being used, one solution is to export the file in the Indesign Exchange Format or .inx. This only works for one version back save, or, Indesign CS4 exported in .inx will open in Indesign CS3 and CS3 back to CS2 and so on down.

Another possibility is that the originator of the file has a plug-in installed which is now preventing any copy of the software without the plug-in, from opening the file. Exporting as an .inx file should fix the problem. If not, remove any third party plug-ins from your Plug-ins folder (Applications -> Indesign (any version)-> Plug-ins) by shutting down Indesign and moving them out of the Plug-ins folder. You may want to create a folder outside the Plug-ins folder within the Indesign application folder called Inactive Plug-ins, to put the third party plug-ins into to make it easier to restore them later. After removing the plug-ins, restart Indesign and resave the document. This will only work for you if you have not used any third party plug-ins to create the document.

Thank you,

Ken Black

www.bestprintingonline.com