FrameMaker vs InDesign book files

[Steve Rickaby]

Here is an issue that just caught me out, so I'm posting it here in case it's of use to anyone who uses both apps.

When versioning books in FrameMaker, I duplicate the entire enclosing folder and then create an alias to the book file in the copied folder. This is a common operation.

The alias is a red herring here, but when you duplicate a book's enclosing folder in InDesign, open the book file in the duplicate and from there open a chapter file in the book, InD opens the *original* chapter file and not the corresponding chapter file in the duplicated book. This is because InD's references to files in a book are absolute and not relative: this can be confirmed by hovering over the chapter name in the book file. This is potentially very confusing for people who use both applications. The only way around it in InD that I can see is to delete and recreate the book file after duplicating the book's enclosing folder.

This has just landed me with a bit of a version control headache that I had to sort out by hand. There's nothing about book versioning that I can see in InD's help (CS3), and although Kvern and Blattner ('Real World InDesign 2') touch on this in relation to individual chapter files, no thought seems to have been given to versioning entire books. As FrameMaker uses relative file pathnames, its operation is completely different: duplicating a book's folder and then opening the book file in the duplicate accesses the chapter files in the *duplicate* also, as most folks here will know. I find FrameMaker's approach much more logical, but maybe InD is bound by the operation of InCopy or some other part of the Adobe stable.

Something to watch out for. I guess I should be posting this to an InD group, but I'm not on any.

-- 
Steve