Creating a Document Package

If you've ever had the experience of giving a page-layout document to a service bureau , only to be called several hours later by the person who is outputting your document because some of the files necessary to output it are missing, you'll love the Package feature in InDesign.

This command, which you access by choosing File ‚ Package, or Option+Shift+ z +P or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P, copies all the font, color -output, and picture files necessary to output your document into a folder. It also generates a report that contains all the information about your document that a service bureau is ever likely to need, including the document's fonts, dimensions, and trapping information. You can also create an instructions file that has your contact information and any particulars you want to say about the document.

When you run the Package command, InDesign preflights your document automatically and gives you the option of viewing any problems it encounters. If you elect to view that information, you're shown the Preflight dialog box (refer to Figures 30-3 through 30-8). You can continue to package your document from that dialog box by clicking the Package button once you've assured yourself none of the problems will affect the document's output.

Before you can actually package the document, you'll be asked to save the current document and then fill in the Printing Instructions form shown in Figure 30-9. You can change the default filename from Instructions.txt to something more like the name of your job.

Figure 30-9: The Printing Instructions dialog box.

Caution ‚  

If you don't want to create an instructions form, don't click Cancel ‚ that cancels the entire package operation. Just click Continue, leaving the form blank. Similarly, you must click Save at the request to save the document; clicking Cancel stops the package operation as well.

The next step is to create the package folder, which you do in the dialog box that follows , called Create Package Folder on the Mac and Package Publication in Windows. Figure 30-10 shows both versions.

Figure 30-10: The Create Package Folder (Mac, left) and equivalent Package Publication (Windows, right) dialog boxes.

Platform Difference ‚  

The Create Package Folder and Package Publication dialog boxes ‚ different names for the same function ‚ look substantively different between the Mac and Windows versions of InDesign. Both use their operating systems' standard Save dialog box formats, so even though they offer the same features, they're arranged differently on-screen.

In the dialog box, you can select what is copied : the fonts, color output profiles, and linked graphics (graphics pasted into an InDesign document rather than imported are automatically included). You can also have InDesign update the graphics links for those that were modified or moved; if this option is not selected, any missing or modified graphics files will not be copied with the document.

You can tell InDesign to include fonts and links from hidden layers (which you would do only if you wanted the service bureau to print those hidden layers or if you were giving the document's files to a colleague to do further work on).

You also can specify whether the document should use only the hyphenation exceptions defined within it. This often makes sense, since it ensures that the printer's hyphenation dictionary ‚ which may differ from yours ‚ doesn't cause text to flow differently.

Cross-Reference ‚  

See Chapter 15 for more details on these dictionaries. Chapter 31 explains which files you should send to others using your documents.

You can also modify the instructions text file by clicking the Instructions button.

Finally, you can view the report after the package is created ‚ on the Mac, InDesign will launch TextEdit and display the report file, while on Windows it will launch the Notepad and display the report file.

Click the Package button when everything is ready to go. Your document will be placed in the folder you specified, as will the instructions file (the report). There will also be a folder called Fonts that includes the fonts, a folder called Links that has the graphics files, and a folder called Output Profiles that has the color output profiles.

We strongly recommend using the Package feature. It ensures that your service bureau has all the necessary files and information to output your document correctly.