Expert: InDesign Pro - 10/28/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I would like to know the ways of transferring my work from FH to indd and still retain my best resolution and editable texts. Thank you for your time. : )

ANSWER: Thanks for the question Sam.

I have never really used Freehand. I have always used Adobe Illustrator for my vector artwork. I believe since Adobe bought Macromedia, they have decided to discontinue Freehand, and that's probably why you're looking at making a move. In this case, there's no real way to transfer your work to InDesign since it's really a different type of software.

One thing that you can do, however, is save your Freehand documents as PDFs or EPSs and Place them in InDesign. You can also crop out any element that needs updating and just recreate the updated sections. I'm sorry I don't know more about Freehand, but if you get into InDesign and have any other questions, let me know. Good Luck!


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much for your speed reply.

Situation 2:
Sometime when I create my work in .ai format, I just copy and paste into .indd Is that the correct way of doing it or you may have a better way : )

Thank you again

Answer
Hi Sam,

Well, there's a couple different ways to copy things from Illustrator to InDesign. If you copy just the text and paste it, InDesign will recognize it as text without retaining the formatting. But if you grab the text box, InDesign will place that as an embedded vector graphic without text editing ability, but with formatting intact. Other graphics can be placed as editable vector graphics, but if they do need detailed editing, you might find it's easier to place the Illustrator file and go back to Illustrator to edit it. Also, if you cut-and-paste them as a group, it will again paste them as a non-editable, embedded graphic.

So there are a lot of options. Try some trial-and-error problem solving and I'm sure you'll figure out what fits best in your workflow. Thanks again for the questions.