Nice one Peter!

It’s okay to simply rename — not do a Save As or dupe it — an ID file (assuming no one has stories checked out of the layout for editing at the moment), but if you’re using an Assignments workflow, that’ll break the link to the Assignments. I personally don’t use that method nor teach it; I use use the INDD file (a “layout workflow”) as the central document and export the stories to the Unassigned Content category in the Assignments panel. One or more InCopy users can open the INDD file *in InCopy* and check out stories to edit even if the designer has the file open.

The whole point of the workflow is to *not* use versions of the ID file. No versionitis, no dupes floating around, no checking v1 vs v2 etc. That’s what saves a ton of time. I’ve not had clients regret this as far as I know and I’ve been teaching/consulting on it for 20 years. The one layout that gets shared with the editors is ultimately going to be the same file that is output for final. You can export PDFs for archival/date stamping if you want. Editors rely on track changes if they need to keep track of what words they’re changing.

That said, it *is* possible to do a Save As for these INDD files to change their names and make a new version of the file; but It’s not straightforward. You need to first open it in ID and be sure that all stories are checked in and up to date, then delete the links to them so they’re no longer editable. Then you can do the Save As, rename it, and re-export the stories to InCopy format in a new folder. If you neglect to do the unlink/rexport steps, you end up with a new INDD file linked to the same original stories, seldom what anyone wants/expects.

Hope that helps! I have a chapter on using ID/IC in my InDesign Remote Workflows course on LinkedIn Learning, the first video in the ID/IC chapter is free:
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/collaborative-workflows-for-editors-and-designers/incopy-and-indesign-workflow

Steve, nice work! What did you do to fix it?

Yes. Create another document (I’ll call it “source”) that is made up of the common pages only … let’s say 5 pages. Insert blank pages if necessary to force left/right.

In the source document, use the same parent pages as you would in the 7 target documents (In fact you could create it by “moving/duplicating” these pages from one of the target documents, which should bring along their parent page as long as it’s uniquely named). These common pages are going to come in as full-page “images” so don’t use anything on their parent pages that needs to get updated in the target document, like automatic page numbers. Instead put those in the target document and leave blank space for them in the source.

Then in one of your 7 target documents, go to one of the common pages and delete everything on the page. Choose File > Place and select the source INDD file, and in Place Options navigate to the page you want to insert. Make sure “selected page only” is chosen in the Place Options, then click OK.

With your loaded Place cursor, click to insert that page from Source into your Target document. The Links panel will show it’s a linked page. It may look like an image but when you print/PDF the live InDesign data from the Source file will be used.

Do that for all your other target files, importing page/s from the Source file as necessary.

So that’s the set-up, takes a little time and care. But NOW when you need to update one of the common pages, open the SOURCE file, update it, and save. Your target documents will show an Out of Date icon in the linked pages. Just click Update in the usual way.

AM