Are you the InDy geek in the office with twelve custom Print presets? Share the wealth and set up your co-workers with the same goodies (they’ll be extra nice to you on your next birthday). To create stand-alone presets (file type .prst) that you can put on a server or attach to an email, open the Define dialog box for that kind of preset. For example, choose File > Print Presets > Define to make Print Preset files. That’s where you’ll find the magical Save button that prompts you for a Save location (unlike the Save Preset button in the Print dialog box, which just includes presets in your InDesign Preferences file). Your co-workers should use this same dialog box to Load the presets you’ve so generously sent their way.
(From Adobe InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs, by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion.)
This article was last modified on December 18, 2021
This article was first published on May 23, 2006
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
Leave a Reply
Is there a way to share custom document export settings? I have several print shop presets which I’d like to share with my team.
Hi,
Is there anywhere I can download or find already made or configured InDesign presets. Like presets for Posters, business cards, etc?
Alroy: This isn’t exactly what you mean, but perhaps these will help? https://creativepro.com/resources/indesign-templates
Thanks, quite useful when updates wipe out your hard work.
Presets can be usefull for quick printing as long as they are descriptive.
In Indesign how include a “print presets” via script
my preset name=”PScript”
Wow, thank-you for this quick and simple tip. I’ve been looking all over the web AND InDesign help menus and couldn’t find it. And here you have it for us, in just a few simple sentences. Thank-you!
Is there any way to save document preferences like this to share with co-workers or to save in case your computer crashes and you lose your preferences?
Rich, for your presets to be saved into your exported file, you must select/highlight every preset you want exported to the file. My experience has led me to select everything EXCEPT the “Default” setting, since that will add “Default 1” to the already present “Default” on the machine you are importing to.
Okay. I save my CS3 print presets. Put on server. I boot into CS4 on my other machine. I load the presets and the only new addition I see is default 1
@ Dewey. I was able to specify the tray.
File>Print Presets>Define
Select the desired preset
Edit
Click the Setup button at the bottom
Click the Preferences button
Look for a Basic Tab with an Input Tray pulldown.
Beth, CS4 supports conditional text, meaning that you can have a condition for each market area and the text will adjust accordingly. However, for the different logos you could use layers — or perhaps if the graphics are anchored in the text, conditional text can affect those too. I haven’t tried the feature myself…
I am a novice to InDesign, but so far, I love it! Question: I have many documents that need to be customized for certain market areas (different city titles, different logos, etc.). Is there a way to create one master file and then load up customized conditions that I could use to interface with the one master file. Right now, I end up having several different versions of each file, which is an editing/updating nightmare.
Is there a software interface/plug-in I can use for this?
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
@Anthony: I’m not sure, but it appears that print presets are simply stored inside the file called “InDesign Defaults”, which is the program’s basic preferences file.
My wife uses InDesign and her laptop just took a dump. We replaced it and loaded InDesign and transferred all of her files and settings to the new laptop. We cannot get the print presets. Is there a file on her old hard drive where these settings are? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
looking for a way to edit the .prst file and/or prevent this in the future. If I edit in TextEdit, it cannot be Loaded back into InD. Does this happen when you create settings with files open?
I am stumped! I have a problem with a print preset remembering – incorrectly – a file name when I use a print preset to create postscript files.
It is not the InD file itself, but rather the print preset. I can open the .prst file in TextEdit and see that the wrong file name is stored in the .prst file. [@kPrepress File
No, I don’t think there’s any way to assign a keyboard shortcut to that, Chris. You could probably find someone to script it (loading a preset).
Can I create a keyboard shortcut or script to launch the Load button in the Define window?
I’ve been looking for days.
It’s a wierd preference but greatly needed on my part.
Thanks so much.
so, my neurosis makes me a geek? ;-) thank you, i’m about to standardize (is that a word?) our workflows for free-lancers and new co-workers, and i had been looking for this for a little while :-)
nice find
Does anyone know which preference file gets updated when these imports are done? I want to be able to update the presets on 100+ Macs simultaneously.
No, you can’t, Dewey. Print presets can only save the state of all the options in the Print dialog box. But they can’t save device-specific settings, like paper trays. Those options must be set in the dialog boxes specific to that printer. Many printer drivers have options to Save Settings, but this will vary from driver to driver.
Is there a way I can send to a specific printer tray with a preset?
if i do that all the presets are moved nicely, but the printdriver on the other workstations, will not adjust to the presets.
DM: Yes! If you have a lot of presets, you can sort them alphabetcially by holding down Command, Option, and Shift (or Ctrl-Alt-Shift) before selecting the File menu. Then, keep holding those keys down and look in the Print Presets (or Adobe PDF Export Presets) submenu. Those keys make any InDesign menu alphabetical.
I love presets. Is there a way to organize them alphabetically or custom. I would be nice.
thanks, dm
You’re a man of few words, Ray. ;-)
good