Opening InDesign documents in previous versions

Because of how InDesign documents are versioned, it's impossible to open them directly in earlier versions of InDesign, InCopy, or InDesign Server. For example, a document created in InDesign 2015 cannot be directly opened in InDesign 2014 or CS6.

You can use any of the following techniques to share files if the document creator has a higher version of InDesign:

  • Customers with access to Creative Cloud services can use the Simple Saveback service to open documents created by someone using a higher version of InDesign.

    Adobe InDesign alert suggesting to update or convert a file created in a newer version for compatibility.
    Update InDesign or convert the file to fix version compatibility issues.

  • You can save the document in IDML format and distribute it to the user with the previous version.

If you open an InDesign document in an earlier version, the content created using features specific to a particular version is sometimes modified or omitted. Carefully review any document opened in an earlier version.

 Adobe

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