As I write this the current most popular post in the LinkedIn Adobe® InDesign® | InCopy® | InDesign® Server group is asking about back saving InDesign files. Now, whilst I whole heartily agree that back saving InDesign files can (and probably will) lead to layout errors, in the real world companies don’t upgrade on the same cadence as Adobe produces releases.

UPDATE (April 14th): It has since been pointed out that you CAN run your previous version as well as the upgrade on the same computer – from the CS5 licence aggrement;

If the Software is an upgrade or update to a previous version of Adobe software, you must possess a valid license to such previous version in order to use such upgrade or update. After you install such update or upgrade, you may continue to use any such previous version in accordance with its end-user license agreement only if (a) the upgrade or update and all previous versions are installed on the same Computer, (b) the previous versions or copies thereof are not transferred to another party or device unless all copies of the update or upgrade are also transferred to such party or device, and (c) you acknowledge that any obligation Adobe may have to support the previous version(s) may end upon the availability of the upgrade or update. No other use of the previous version(s) is permitted after installation of an update or upgrade. Upgrades and updates may be licensed to you by Adobe with additional or different terms.

Freelancers are hit pretty hard by this; at each new release of CS we have to make a choice, upgrade to save cash but risk not being compatible with a bunch of our clients, or buy a new full suite licence (to the best of my knowledge upgrade licences rely on previous versions, you cannot install both versions side by side).

InDesign is the only CS application that is not either fully file compatible (a la Photoshop and Fireworks) or has the ability to save back to previous versions (aka Illustrator – honestly; is ANYONE out there still using Illustrator 3 )

I think it’s time for a little lateral thinking here – and maybe some pressure from user groups like this. Here are a couple of suggestions to kick off (in order of  my preference);

1. Add back saving into the application proper; similar to how MS Word does it, if you are using features that are not supported in the version you want to save back to you are warned what’s wrong.
2. A web service that takes your InDesign document and saves it back to whatever version you require.
3. Your licence for copy of CS*latest* enables you to run any previous stand-alone version of InDesign (special downloadable version if necessary) This is already true – see above.
4. Adobe supply a virtual machine with all previous versions of InDesign preinstalled but hobbled so they can only open a file and save as IDML. (both Mac and Windows can run a Windows VM with relative ease)

Any other ideas? Discuss