PDF (adobe.com)

Update, restore, and replace links



Use the Links panel to check the status of any link, or to replace files with updated or alternate files.

When you update or reestablish (relink) a link to a file, any transformations performed in InDesign are preserved (if you choose Relink Preserved Dimensions in the File Handling preferences). For example, if you import a square graphic and rotate it 30°, and then you relink it to an unrotated graphic, InDesign rotates it 30° to match the layout of the graphic it’s replacing.

Note: Placed EPS files may contain OPI links, which appear in the Links panel. Don’t relink OPI links to files other than those originally intended by the creator of the EPS file; doing so can cause problems with font downloading and color separations.

Choose how relinked graphics are scaled

When you relink to replace one graphic with a different source file, you can keep the image dimensions of the file that’s being replaced, or you can display the incoming file in its actual dimensions.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > File Handling (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > File Handling (Mac OS).

  2. Choose Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking if you want images to appear at the same size as the images they’re replacing. Deselect this option to have relinked images appear at their actual size.

Update modified links

Modified links are also called “out of date” links.

 In the Links panel, do one of the following:

  • To update specific links, select one or more links marked with the modified-link icon . Then click the Update Link button , or choose Update Link from the Links panel menu.

  • To update all modified links, choose Update All Links from the Links panel menu, or Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Update Link button.

  • To update only one link to a graphic that appears in several places in the document, select only the sublink and choose Update Link. If you select the “parent” link, you can update all links to the modified graphic.

Replace a link with a different source file

  1. Select any link in the Links panel, and click the Relink button  or choose Relink from the Links panel menu. If a “parent” link of multiple instances is selected, choose Relink All Instances Of [Filename] from the Links panel menu.
  2. In the dialog box that appears, select Search For Missing Links In This Folder if you want InDesign to search the folder for files that have the same names as other missing linked files. If this option is not selected, only the selected image is relinked.
  3. Choose Show Import Options if you’ve selected only one link and you want to control how the new source file is imported.
  4. Locate and double-click the new source file.
  5. Choose import options if you clicked the Show Import options option. (See Import options for graphics.)

Restore missing links

  1. To restore a missing link, select any link marked with the missing link icon  in the Links panel, and click the Relink button .
  2. In the dialog box that appears, select Search For Missing Links In This Folder to relink any missing file that appears in the specified folder. Locate and double-click a file.

Find missing links

By default, InDesign checks for missing links and tries to resolve them when you open a document. Two preference options let InDesign check for and find missing links automatically when you open a document.

Check Links Before Opening Document
If you turn off this option, InDesign opens the document immediately, and the link statuses remain pending until links are determined to be up-to-date, missing, or modified. If you turn on this option, InDesign checks for modified or missing links.

Find Missing Links Before Opening Document
If you turn off this option, InDesign does not attempt to resolve the missing links. You may want to turn off this option if links slow performance to a server or if unexpected linkings occur. This option is dimmed if Check Links Before Opening Document is turned off.

Search For Missing Links
Use the Search For Missing Links command to search for and resolve missing links in your document. This command is useful if you turned off the preferences option that checks for missing links when you open a document, and now you have missing links. This command is also useful if you mount a server where images are stored after opening a document.

  • To change link settings, open the File Handling section of the Preferences dialog box, and determine whether the Check Links Before Opening Document and Find Missing Links Before Opening Document options are selected.
  • To let InDesign attempt to resolve missing links, choose Utilities > Search For Missing Links from the Links panel menu.

    This command is dimmed if the document contains no missing links.

Specify a default Relink folder

  1. In the Preferences dialog box, select File Handling.
  2. From the Default Relink Folder menu, choose either of the following options, and then click OK:
    Most Recent Relink Folder
    This option displays the most recently used folder you selected when relinking, matching InDesign CS3 behavior.

    Original Relink Folder
    This option displays the original location of the linked file, matching the behavior of InDesign CS2 and earlier.

Copy links to a different folder

Use the Copy Link(s) To command to copy graphics files to a different folder and redirect the links to the copied files. This command is especially useful for moving files to a different drive, such as moving files from a DVD to a hard drive.

  1. Select the links to the files you want to copy, and choose Utilities > Copy Link(s) To from the Links panel menu.
  2. Specify the folder where the linked files will be copied and choose Select (Windows) or Choose (Mac OS).

Relink to a different folder

When you use the Relink To Folder command, you can point to a folder that contains files with the same names as your out-of-date links. For example, if your current links point to low-resolution images, you can specify a different folder that contains high-resolution images. You can specify a different extension for the files, allowing you to change links from .jpg to .tiff, for example.

  1. Select one or more links in the Links panel.
  2. Choose Relink To Folder from the Links panel menu.
  3. Specify the location of the new folder.
  4. To use a different extension, select Match Same Filename But This Extension, and specify the new extension (such as AI, TIFF, or PSD).
  5. Click Select (Windows) or Choose (Mac OS).

Replace an imported file using the Place command

  1. Do one of the following:

    • To replace the contents of a graphics frame, such as an imported graphic, use the Selection tool  to select the frame.

    • To replace the contents of a text frame, use the Type tool to click an insertion point in a text frame, and choose Edit > Select All.

  2. Choose File > Place.
  3. Locate and select the new file.
  4. Make sure that Replace Selected Item is selected, and then click Open.

Copy the link pathname

You can copy either the full path of the linked image or the platform style path. Copying the full path of the image is useful for notifying team members where art is located. For example, you can copy the full path and paste it into an email message. Copying the platform path is useful for scripting or for specifying image fields in a data merge.

  1. Select a link in the Links panel.
  2. From the Links panel menu, choose Utilities > Copy Full Path or Copy Platform Style Path.
  3. Paste the path.