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What do I need to consider when opening old InDesign documents?

There are several options to convert older documents if you want to use them with InDesign CS5 oder 5.5:

Option 1:
Simply open the document with the current version and save it
You may open your "old" InDesign document simply with the current version of the application and save it from there. In this case you have the least danger of reflowing the text. However, you should be aware that the document might not be fully adapted for the new version of the application. You might face unexpected behavior.

Option 2:
Clean up the document and save it
If a document has a long history, like having been created using InDesign CS3 and worked on with other versions of the application, you should consider cleaning it once a while for better compatibility with later versions.
You can inspect the history of an InDesign document by pressing the command and alt keys while choosing About InDesign from the InDesign menu on Mac OS X, or by pressing the ctrl and alt keys while choosing About InDesign from the Help menu on Windows.
This will open an information window for the current document. This window shows in its lower left pane the complete history of the document. You can see when the document has been saved, converted or recoverd and many thing more.
To clean up a document with a long history, you export it as an IDML file (InDesign Markup Language, CS4 and later) or as an INX file (InDesign Interchange, CS3 and earlier) and open this export file directly from InDesign. Save the file with a new name. If you now take a look at the document history as described above, you will see that every event earlier than exporting the document is gone from the history. The document will show as having been created by the current version of the application. On top, the unique IDs of the file will have been cleaned up as well.

Option 3:
Create a new document using page copy
Even exporting the document will preserve the whole content of the previous version. After opening the exported document, you will still have all unused style sheets, swatches and master pages. If you want to keep only those elements of the document, which are actually in use, you will need to create a page copy.
To create a page copy, you need to create a new document window next to the existing document. Then you open the Pages palette for the old document, select all document pages and drag them into the window of the new document. InDesign will only copy the dragged pages and those style sheets, swatches and master pages, which are being used by these pages. Please save the new document after this process.

Option 4:
Rebuild the document manually
If you want to be absolutely sure that your document is in perfect condition, you need to rebuild it manually. This process gives you the chance to review all preferences, style sheets, swatches, etc. while reproducing the old document.

Category: InDesign, XTensions / Plug-Ins