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• • April 13, 2011 at 5:47 am #59239
    maggs

    Member

    This is something that has bugged me for a while. I am using InDesign CS4. Does anyone know why wrong file names are picked when exporting to pdf? And, where (or if) this can be headed off before it happens? (I am a former Quark user and this problem could be corrected by making sure the layout name is same as the file name.)

    Thanks for your help,

    Maggs

  • April 13, 2011 at 7:53 am #59242
    marxid

    Member

    Hi there, I have had what I believe is the same problem when I someone has created a document and exported as a PDF, but for some reason or another they have changed the name of the file in the 'Save as' field. For example, you have a file called 'Document 1' and when you go to export it to PDF you change the name in the 'Save as' field to 'Document XX.pdf' and export it, it will retain 'Document XX.pdf' whenever you export it, you can even duplicate the document, change its name and when you go to export it, it will still have 'Document XX.pdf'! I think this is really bad but some may find it useful.

    Anyway, the only way I have found to change this (there maybe more sophisticated or more efficient ways, this is just how I get over the problem) is to either change the name in the 'Save as' field to what it should be, which is what caused the problem to begin with, or you can export the document as an INX, reopen it, save it with the correct filename and then export as a PDF. Then even if you copy the document and rename the document in the finder, it will export with the correct filename.

    I hope this helps, sorry for waffling on if this has nothing to do with your problem. Oh and if you go to export (OS X), if you click on another file in the dialogue box, it will copy that filename, but I don't think that's the issue.

    Mark

  • April 13, 2011 at 3:05 pm #59253
    Alan Gilbertson

    Participant

    Hi Maggs… Once you (or someone) has changed the name in an export dialog to something other than the document name, it's “sticky,” as you've noticed. To get back to the default, change the export name to the same name as the document, then save and close. Save As will thereafter default to the new document name in the export dialog.

  • May 13, 2011 at 4:02 pm #59599
    avaubel

    Participant

    I believe I'm having a similar issue. I've copied an original document and renamed it for use with another project. Fine and dandy, new filename is retained when I “Save As”. However, when I “Export” the file it reverts the name to the old filename, which forces me to retype the new filename again. This also happens when I export using an “Adobe PDF Preset”. I tried Alan's suggestion to “Save As” and close the file again, but I still run into the same issue with exporting, including the PDF presets, when i reopen the file. This issue really puts a cramp in my workflow. Is there any fix to this issue where you can force InDesign to use the new filename that's been set? Quark and every other layout program uses the current filename when doing a “Save As” or export, so why is this an issue with InDesign? Is it fixed in CS5?

  • May 31, 2011 at 1:24 pm #59725
    linabella

    Member

    I am using CS5 and used CS3 before that, and both of them sometimes populate the name filed with that of a previous file.

    Really messes with my workflow. Yes, I can re-type the name every time, but I don't always remember and it's caused me tremendous frustration when I can't find a file I just worked on.

    Anyone who finds a way to fix this will have my unding gratitude.

  • June 1, 2011 at 8:41 am #59732
    Jackspratt

    Member

    But you don't have to do it every time, just once with each document, then it remembers it forever more.

    I find the advantage with the way Adobe has done this is that I usually DON'T want my pdf to have the same name as my ID document as my ID doc has to have a job number in it, and the pdf needs to be shortened for publishing on the web.

    If you are creating a series of documents with similar names eg Doc1.pdf, Doc2.pdf etc, then do the first one with just Doc.pdf before you copy it, then you just have to hit Apple E (for export), right arrow, and 1, or 2. All done in seconds with just a couple of keyboard shortcuts and very little typing.

    As Mark also points out in his last paragraph, if you go to export, it will take you to the same folder as your ID file by default, then you can highlight your ID doc, re-select that youwant it to be a pdf file, hit save – job done.

    Hope this helps.

    Jackie

  • June 1, 2011 at 10:46 am #59736
    linabella

    Member

    Sounds like it works for you. That's good.

    If it defaulted to a blank title, it would even be better than having the title of a previous document as default on SOME of the documents (but not all). None of the other applications I use have this anomaly, so for us it's an issue.

    We also work with interns who are learning and find they've been replacing every document that they edited with the same name is a lot of wasted work. Maybe we need to be working in Photoshop instead. Doesn't happen in Photoshop – just INDesign and just some files.

    I might try re-installing it if I have time after re-creating the last four files that were written over.

    ACK.

  • June 1, 2011 at 11:55 pm #59749
    Jackspratt

    Member

    Oops, come to think of it I remember doing that in the beginning too and it did take me a while to realise what I was doing. As has been said above, it's kind of a hangover from Quark and always expecting it to use the layout name. I guess it would be good to have the option….

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