{"id":125,"date":"2008-11-13T15:25:50","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T22:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rorohiko.com\/wordpress\/?p=125"},"modified":"2010-05-17T11:49:51","modified_gmt":"2010-05-17T18:49:51","slug":"recipe-making-mac-os-x-launch-the-correct-version-of-indesign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rorohiko.com\/wordpress\/2008\/11\/13\/recipe-making-mac-os-x-launch-the-correct-version-of-indesign\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Mac OS X launch the correct version of InDesign or InCopy"},"content":{"rendered":"

InDesignProxy v1.0.7<\/h3>\n

CS5 Support?<\/h4>\n

InDesignProxy only supports InDesign versions between CS and CS4. If you need CS5 support, you’ll need to upgrade to Soxy<\/em><\/a> (‘Son of InDesignProxy’), which supports InDesign CS5, as well as Illustrator, PDF files, Photoshop and Illustrator EPS files… Also, with Soxy<\/em><\/a> there is no need to fiddle around in the Finder’s Get Info… dialog any more. For more info on\u00a0Soxy<\/em><\/a>, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download<\/h4>\n

See further below.<\/p>\n

What it does<\/h4>\n

There’s a common problem on Mac OS X when there are multiple versions of Adobe\u00ae InDesign\u00ae or Adobe\u00ae InCopy\u00ae installed on the same computer. Double-clicking an .indd<\/em> file’s icon will often cause the wrong application to launch.<\/p>\n

To work around this problem, I’ve created a little application that alleviates the issue – it’s called InDesignProxy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We also have a US$ 19.00 commercial product – Soxy<\/em><\/a>, which takes the limited concepts of\u00a0InDesignProxy<\/em> much further.<\/p>\n

Where InDesignProxy<\/em> only supports InDesign and InCopy, Soxy<\/em><\/a> supports InDesign, PDF, Illustrator, Acrobat, and QuarkXPress, and the list is still growing.<\/p>\n

Also, Soxy<\/em> is available for Windows – InDesignProxy<\/em> is Mac-only<\/p>\n

Lastly, Soxy<\/em> is much<\/em> easier to configure – in InDesignProxy<\/em> you have to dig around a fair number of the Finder’s Get Info dialogs, and there is room for error.<\/p>\n

With\u00a0Soxy<\/em> you can configure all from its concise setup screen.<\/p>\n

The web page you’re currently on is about InDesignProxy<\/em> – click here<\/a> for more info on Soxy<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

InDesignProxy<\/em> fixes the problem by working as a ‘stand-in’ for InDesign and InCopy.<\/p>\n

You can drag\/drop any of a number of InDesign-related files onto the\u00a0InDesignProxy<\/em> application, and InDesignProxy<\/em> will analyze the dropped document and will then forward it to the appropriate version of InDesign or InCopy.<\/p>\n

You can also use the features of the Finder to have these files automatically opened by InDesignProxy<\/em> instead of by Adobe InDesign – so your InDesign documents start behaving themselves even when you double-click them.<\/p>\n

Currently, InDesignProxy<\/em> supports .indd, .indt, .incd, .incx<\/em>, or .icml<\/em> files. Any InDesign-related files that carry a different file name extension are not supported.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to show your appreciation, encourage us, and support us in our continued efforts to provide the designer and prepress communities with helpful tools, you can do a US$4 donation – roughly the price of a cup of coffee – by clicking the button below. You need to know that software development is not cheap and giving away freebies does not come easy for a small company like Rorohiko.<\/p>\n

We use PayPal as our payment processor, but all you need is a credit card – you can send us a cup of coffee without need for a PayPal account.<\/p>\n

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Installing<\/h4>\n

To download the .dmg<\/em> file, click the link below:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rorohiko.com\/downloads\/InDesignProxy.1.0.7.dmg<\/a><\/p>\n

Open the .dmg<\/em> file and drag the InDesignProxy<\/em> application to your Applications<\/em> folder.<\/p>\n

After that, drag the InDesignProxy<\/em> icon you just copied from your Applications<\/em> folder to your Dock – this gives you a handy drag\/drop point to drag\/drop InDesign files. You can also double-click this Dock icon to bring up the InDesignProxy<\/em> configuration screen<\/p>\n

Alternatively, you can tell the Finder to open all .indd<\/em>, .indt<\/em>, etc… files with InDesignProxy<\/em> instead of with InDesign. That way you can simply double-click any .indd<\/em> file, have it open in LB InDesignProxy<\/em>, who then launches the proper Adobe application and forwards the document.<\/p>\n

When you do that, your files will get a green InDesignProxy<\/em> icon at first. This is because InDesignProxy<\/em> has not yet been able to determine what version of InDesign to associate with each of them.<\/p>\n

Here’s a little ‘how-to’ – I’ll go through the motions for handling all files with an .indd<\/em> file name extension.<\/p>\n

The same procedure should then be repeated for any other file name extensions you might want to handle (.indt<\/em> etc…).<\/p>\n

In the Finder, go look for any .indd<\/em> file to serve as a sample – here, I’ve got one sitting on my desktop.<\/p>\n

Hold down the Control<\/em> key, and click the file’s icon – that should cause a contextual menu to appear. Select the Get Info<\/em> menu option from the context menu.<\/p>\n

\"picture-74\"<\/p>\n

Find the Open With<\/em> section – it will typically display one of your installed versions of InDesign.<\/p>\n

\"picture-116\"<\/p>\n

Use the popup menu to select InDesignProxy 1.0.6<\/em> or higher (as you can see, I have quite a few apps installed):<\/p>\n

\"picture-29\"<\/p>\n

Then click the Change All…<\/em> button so the change will affect all .indd<\/em> files, not just this sample document.<\/p>\n

\"picture-37\"<\/p>\n

From now on, all .indd<\/em> files on your computer will be opened via LB InDesignProxy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now repeat the same procedure for any other file name extensions you might want to handle (.indt<\/em> etc…).<\/p>\n

Using<\/h4>\n

To use: if the file name extension has been linked to LB InDesignProxy<\/em> as described in the previous section, all you need to do is double-click the file.<\/p>\n

Initially, all files assigned to InDesignProxy<\/em> get a green icon:<\/p>\n

\"picture-83\"<\/p>\n

When you double-click such a file, LB InDesignProxy<\/em> will analyze it and replace the green icon with the appropriate InDesign document icon – in this case the file was actually an InDesign CS file:<\/p>\n

\"picture-63\"<\/p>\n

Is that cool or what? Y’all have Her Geekness Anne-Marie Concepci\u00f3n to thank for this feature; she’s the one that made me add it!<\/p>\n

Alternatively, if you decided to not<\/em> assign the .indd<\/em> file name extension to InDesignProxy<\/em>, you can drag\/drop any InDesign file onto the InDesignProxy<\/em> icon. It will open in the appropriate version of InDesign or InCopy.<\/p>\n

An example: assume you have both InDesign CS3 and InDesign CS4 installed, and you already have InDesign CS4 running.<\/p>\n

Dragging an InDesign CS3 document onto InDesignProxy will launch CS3 and open the document in CS3, even though CS4 is already running.<\/p>\n

Configuring<\/h4>\n

By default, LB InDesignProxy<\/em> assumes that the various InDesign and InCopy application files are in their ‘standard’ locations – i.e. if you have one or more versions of InDesign or InCopy installed then they are expected to be at respectively:<\/p>\n

\/Applications\/Adobe InDesign CS\/InDesign CS
\n<\/code>\/Applications\/Adobe InCopy CS\/<\/code>InCopy<\/code> CS
\n<\/code>\/Applications\/Adobe InDesign CS2\/Adobe InDesign CS2
\n<\/code>\/Applications\/Adobe <\/code>InCopy<\/code> CS2\/Adobe <\/code>InCopy<\/code> CS2
\n<\/code>\/Applications\/Adobe InDesign CS3\/Adobe InDesign CS3
\n<\/code>\/Applications\/Adobe <\/code>InCopy<\/code> CS3\/Adobe <\/code>InCopy<\/code> CS3
\n<\/code> <\/code>\/Applications\/Adobe InDesign CS4\/Adobe InDesign CS4<\/code>
\n\/Applications\/Adobe <\/code>InCopy<\/code> CS4\/Adobe <\/code>InCopy<\/code> CS4
\n<\/code><\/p>\n

You don’t need to have all of these installed, of course! As soon as you have at least two versions of InDesign and\/or InCopy installed, you can make use of LB InDesignProxy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If the locations on your computer deviate from the ones listed above, you will need to configure LB InDesignProxy<\/em>. (You might have manually selected a different install location, or possibly the install location might be different because you are on a non-English version of Mac OS X).<\/p>\n

Configuring is fairly simple – double-clicking the LB InDesignProxy<\/em> application icon itself gives you a preferences dialog.<\/p>\n

\"picture-124\"<\/p>\n

\n

Use the Browse…<\/em> buttons and and point out where each application file is – if you have a copy of that version available, of course.<\/p>\n

LB InDesignProxy<\/em> supports any mix of InDesign\/InCopy CS\/CS2\/CS3\/CS4 installations.<\/p>\n

If any version is unavailable when you drop a document, it will ‘pick’ the closest higher version that is available – e.g. if you have CS and CS3 installed, but no CS2, it will use CS3 when presented with a a CS2 document.<\/p>\n

Options Dialog<\/h4>\n

Rick Gordon suggested the following enhancement: from version 1.0.2 onwards, you can hold the <Option> (a.k.a. <Alt>) key while drag\/dropping a document onto LB InDesignProxy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This will bring up a dialog for selecting an alternate version of InDesign or InCopy – e.g. if you drag\/drop a CS2 version, this dialog would allow you to enforce the document to be opened in InDesign CS3, even if you have InDesign CS2 installed.<\/p>\n

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There’s a bit of a trick to it; the proper sequence is:<\/p>\n