Saving Adobe InDesign CS6 to work in Adobe InDesign CS5.

 

To open an InDesign CS6 document in InDesign CS5, do two things. First, in InDesign CS6, export the document to the InDesign Markup Language (IDML). (The IDML format replaces the Interchange INX format used for saving backwards in previous versions.)

Second, make sure that the computer running InDesign CS5 is updated with the appropriate plug-ins so that it can open the exported IDML file. The person running InDesign CS5 can obtain the compatibility plug-ins by choosing Help > Updates and following the prompts. Plug-ins can also be installed from the Adobe website: Choose Support > Updates in the Adobe website, and go to the InDesign Downloads page.

Opening a document in a previous version of InDesign is also referred to as “saving down.”

Note: Content created using features specific to InDesign CS6 may be modified or omitted when you open the document in InDesign CS5.
  1. Choose File > Export.
  2. From the File Type (Windows) or Format (Mac OS) menu, choose InDesign Markup (IDML).
  3. Click Save.

You can open the .idml file in InDesign CS5 to convert it to an untitled InDesign document.

Note: To open the InDesign CS6 document in InDesign CS4, open the exported IDML file in InDesign CS5, save it and export it to InDesign CS4 Interchange (INX), and then open the exported INX file in InDesign CS4. Make sure that all InDesign versions are up to date.