Bad, corrupted or crashing Adobe InDesign software documents are unfortunately a reality. Hopefully this will not be something you experience, but if you do, here is a great work-around for recovering flaky InDesign layout files. Note – here is a listing of the various InDesign error or crash messages you may get:
http://www.screencast.com/users/Markzware/playlists/Corrupt%20InDesign%20Files/

These are the instructions, with inventory list of software (XTensions and Plug-ins) needed. It is a work-around, however one which is working quite well…
SEE BELOW FOR A SERVICE WE ARE OFFERING TO *FIX* THESE FILES…

* = You need it
-= What to do

— — — — —
*QuarkXPress 6 or 7
*ID2Q from Markzware loaded
-Open InDesign file in QuarkXPress via ID2Q (Under “Utilities)
-Save (hopefully) converted bad InDesign file now as a QuarkXpress file to your desktop with a “.qxp” extension.
*InDesign CS2 or CS3
*Q2ID plugin from Markzware
-In InDesign (after Q2ID is loaded) simply to a “file->open”
-Select the salvaged file now in a “.qxp” or QuarkXPress form
*** If it opens, it is generally RECOVERED!***

TIP- after you get the InDesign salvaged it is BEST to then EXPORT it as an “.INX” or Adobe Interchange format.. this will zap any corruption that may be lingering in most cases… then you can work-on!  Read more... (357 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

by Claudia McCue
April 2008

If like many designers you are in the process of making the big switch from QuarkXPress to InDesign, you know it is not a trivial undertaking. You have to retrain your brain to a new way of working and remind your fingers which keys to hit for those newfangled shortcuts. You are in a hurry to get up to speed, and you have just been asked to create a client’s next newsletter in InDesign. The template for the newsletter is currently in QuarkXPress. You’ve finally come to that fork in the road: Do you build a new newsletter template from scratch, or do you take the easy way out and just open the file with InDesign? If there’s a lot of work in the template, go for File > Open. While it’s surprising this works at all, you should know what converts and what does not.

OPENING QUARKXPRESS FILES IN INDESIGN
Since the beginning, InDesign has had the ability to open QuarkXPress files created in versions 3.32 through 4.11—that hasn’t changed since InDesign One-Oh. What has changed, of course, is QuarkXPress itself; after all, we’re up to version 7.0 now. Yet InDesign CS3 still cannot open up documents created in QuarkXPress versions later than 4.11. Why is that? At the release of QuarkXPress 5.0, the file architecture of QuarkXPress documents changed—one imagines, to thwart opening by wily InDesign users.  Read more... (2018 words, 3 images, estimated 8:04 mins reading time)

Hello, my name is David Dilling from Markzware, thanks for joining us today. We are going to go over FlightCheck Professional, Markzware advanced preflight tool in comparison to Adobe built-in preflight within InDesign CS3 and CS2 I believe.

Over the years, we have seen more and more seemingly thinking that they are getting full-fledged preflight if they use Adobe InDesign built-in preflight tool within InDesign. Well, I am here to tell you that simply is not true.

Furthermore even calling it a preflight function is actually stretching the truth. It is not rules based, meaning you cannot even change what you want to check for, you have no say in that whatsoever in the built-in feature within InDesign it just gives you the information it gives you. Yes, it has nice info for colors, fonts and images even though it is pretty limited at that so it has a certain use for sure, however it is far from a professional preflight tool, such as FlightCheck.  Read more... (1380 words, estimated 5:31 mins reading time)

Have any damaged InDesign files laying around? Markzware wants ‘em.

Markzware, developer of the Quark to InDesign conversion plug-in, Q2ID, is enjoying recent publicity for their role in helping a desperate designer recover a toasted InDesign layout, one so damaged that InDesign just couldn’t open it any longer.

Hi, I have something interesting here that you might want to see. I’ve got this InDesign document that is corrupted and there is a whole lot of information in there that could not be reached. Let me open it for you so that you can see what happens. I open it in InDesign, InDesign tries it, but crashes the file. I have to cancel this and my InDesign was totally crashed I’m not able to open it.

So I cancel this and what I try is – well I know I have a great conversion tool called ID2Q, InDesign to Quark which is a great XTension within Quark. So, I can now just go to the file, it’s here and open the InDesign file and convert it to a Quark document. And, the good thing is – even though I’m not able to open it in InDesign, I’m not able to convert it to Quark and it seems to work. So this is a great feature of the ID2Q XTension from Markzware. It converts the whole file and you can see it as a Quark file now. All the data is right there at my screen.  Read more... (468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)