Betalogue

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a new problem with Mac OS X 10.7.4 that causes InDesign CS6 crashes when using certain functions, such as the “Package…” command and deleting pages with content, because they display a warning dialog. In Mac OS X 10.7.4, the warning dialog box is blank and the application crashes.

At the time, I noted that a workaround to avoid the crashes with the “Package…” command was not to include fonts in the package, because not including them would cause InDesign not to display the warning dialog and thus avoid the step causing the crash.

Now, it appears that Adobe has finally noticed the problem, because it also affects users with newer MacBook Pro computers from 2012, which can only run Mac OS X 10.7.4 and not any previous version of the operating system.

There is an article on AppleInsider with a misleading headline: “Adobe acknowledges InDesign crashes with Apple’s 2012 MacBooks”

This article fails to mention that the problem also affects older computers, as long as they are running InDesign CS5 or CS6 under Mac OS X 10.7.4. And it fails to link to the “fix” posted by Adobe on a help page: “InDesign Crashes with Blank Dialog Boxes on MacOS 10.7.4”

First of all, you just have to admire a prominent Mac developer that is not even able to spell the name of the operating system properly. Then one should note that the help page contains similarly misleading information, stating that the problem affects people working within “InDesign or InCopy CS5 or later on a 2012 MacOS system” — unless by “2012 MacOS system” they really mean “Mac OS X 10.7.4”, of course. Who knows? (The alternative solution mentioned in the help page is to “remove the installation of the MacOS Mid 2012 Software Update for 10.7.4”, so clearly Apple’s PR people have major language issues.)

Anyway, the fix is, in typical Adobe fashion, an ugly procedure that involves repeated use of the “Show Package Contents” command in the Finder to access the innards of the InDesign application. Apparently, with all the resources at their disposal, Adobe’s people are unable to come up with a simple AppleScript to automate the process.

The thing is, the fix actually works. I applied it to InDesign CS6 on my machine and I no longer get a crash when attempting to use the “Package…” command while including the fonts in the package. So that’s a relief.

[UPDATED ON 2012-10-24: Looks like Adobe has now added a script to the help page for the fix. But they are so confident about their ability to provide a user-friendly solution that they have still left the manual steps as an alternate solution on the page…]

This entry was posted by Pierre Igot on Friday, July 13th, 2012 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Macintosh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.