Michael wrote:
How could I send an InDesign file to the client, without giving them all my work? Any chance I can erase all styles, master page layouts, and other “secrets”?
I assume your client has asked that you give them your files. This (giving clients original files) is a very strange practice, I think, but one that I have been hearing about increasingly over the past decade. Ultimately, the question needs to be addressed in a written contract between the designer (or agency) and the client. I personally think the idea of a designer giving their files to a client is crazy, but sometimes there is little choice. If the designer agrees to give the client the original files, then you should not strip out all the work that went into creating them. The written agreement should state whether the client can take your files to a different designer or agency.
That said, if the agreement was murky or you’re sending the file to a client for some other reason, and you decide you want to “cripple” the file so they cannot do much with it, I supposed you could do it by stripping out the styles and master pages. But it would be a bit tedious:
For each spread of the document:
- Choose Override All Master Page Items (or press Command-Option-Shift-L/Ctrl-Alt-Shift-L)
- Select All (cmd/ctrl-A)
- Choose Break Link to Style from Paragraph Styles panel menu
- Choose Break Link to Style from Character Styles panel menu
- If you’ve used object styles, break those links, too.
Then, when you’re done with all the document spreads, deselect everything and delete all the character styles and paragraph styles. When InDesign asks what you want to replace the paragraph styles with, choose “[No paragraph style]” and turn on the Preserve Formatting checkbox.
Finally, delete all extra master pages and delete all the items on Master Page A.
Don’t forget to use Save As now, not Save! Keep your original files in a nice safe place. And next time, tell your client that you’re providing a final PDF, and not the originals.
This article was last modified on December 19, 2021
This article was first published on December 5, 2008
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