Preflighting and packaging a completed document

Available Files

The following files are available for download:

Download Exercise Files

At this point, we've finished laying out the contents of the Midwest Pet Pals Gazette, and now we can prepare it for printing. This involves checking the document for any errors, then packaging the completed document and all its associated files.

Whenever we send an InDesign document to a print service or send it to another location outside of our own computer, we want to make sure that the contents are error-free and that there's no overset text or missing links. Additionally, we need to make sure that all of the project's assets, such as graphics, fonts, and other necessary files are included along with the InDesign document. If someone opens the document on another computer, and InDesign can't find the files and fonts we used in our publication, our document won't look right or print properly. InDesign will make substitutions for any missing fonts, and graphics will display at a very low resolution or won't display at all. We can prevent this by preflighting and packaging the finished document.

Preflighting a publication

Let's preflight the Midwest Pet Pals Gazette newsletter and make sure we don't have any errors with our file, then we'll package it so it can be sent off for printing.

When we preflight a project, InDesign looks for any problems with the document, such as missing fonts, missing or modified links, and overset text, then lets us know if it encountered any issues and what page. The preflight section of the Status bar can tell us at a glance if the document has any errors. For example, if you've been working through the InDesign: The Basics materials from beginning to end, or are starting with this section and using the exercise files provided for this section, you'll likely see the following preflight status:

Status bar at the bottom of the InDesign window, with an arrow pointing to the preflight status message. The status message is currently showing a green circle icon with the words 'No errors' next to it.

If everything is alright with the document, we'll see the green dot and the text "No errors" for the preflight status.

However, if a document has issues, like extras.indd did when we first opened it, you may see something similar to the preflight status in the following image:

When we first opened extras.indd in a previous section, it had 8 problems that need fixing. Opening the Preflight panel for that document would have shown us the following list of problems:

Preflight panel, showing a number of link and text errors.

With each section expanded, we can see that there are a number of modified links in the document, as well as a missing font.

The following video demonstrates how to preflight a document, so you can see how to accomplish the process even though our newsletter doesn't currently have any errors.

Watch this video to see how the Preflight panel can help you find errors in your InDesign documents.

Description of the video:

[music] In this video, I’ll demonstrate how to use the Preflight panel in InDesign to check a document for errors. Preflighting a document is often done before packaging a publication, to ensure the document is error free and that all the assets used in the document are available for packaging. Let’s see how to use the Preflight panel by using it to check the Classroom Technology Today document I have open in InDesign. To start, I’ll look at the bottom of the document window for the Preflight indicator. Right now, it’s showing a red circle along with the text “5 errors”. To view the full list of errors, I’ll want to open the Preflight panel. I can do that by double-clicking on the error indicator. [mouse double-clicking] The Preflight panel appears, and shows that I have three link errors and two text errors. To see specific information about the errors in the document, I’ll click on the arrow to the left of the error category's name to expand the category’s contents. To demonstrate how this works, I’ll click the arrow next to the Links category title to expand it, then I’ll click the arrow next to Missing link to see what linked files are missing in the document. I’ll also do the same for the text errors. Expanding the Text section shows that I have overset text and a missing font. I can double-click on any error listed in the Preflight panel to be brought directly to the error’s location in the document. For example, if I double-click on Text Frame in the Overset text category, I’ll be brought to the text frame on page 4 that contains overset text. For the sake of time, I won’t walk through the process of fixing every error in the document, but I will show you where to start with fixing the three types of errors we typically see in the Preflight panel. To fix missing link errors, use the Links panel to relink each of the missing linked files in the document. Fixing missing font errors can be done using the Find/Replace Font dialog box. To fix the overset text, the contents of the text frame can be edited using the Story Editor so you can better see the overset text. Detailed instructions on how to fix each of these errors can be found in IT Training’s course InDesign: The Basics. To learn how to fix missing link and font errors, check out the page “Fixing broken links and missing fonts” at go.iu.edu/4NMA. To see how to use the Story Editor to resolve overset text errors, look at the section “Editing overset text in the Story Editor” on the page “Additional tools for refining a document’s text”, available at go.iu.edu/4NMB. Once the errors have been fixed, the error indicator at the bottom left of the Preflight panel will show a green circle with the text “No errors” next to it, as will the Preflight indicator at the bottom of the document window. This shows that the document is now error free and is ready for packaging. [music]

If you're working with another document that has errors, or if your copy of Pet Pals Gazette.indd has errors, the instructions and links in the following accordion will help you fix errors in a document.

To open the Preflight panel, at the bottom of the InDesign window,
Double-Click

NOTE: You may see a different number of errors in your document.

To expand the list of errors, to the left of the error category's name in the Preflight panel,
Click the arrow to expand the list
To view the location of an error in the document,
Double-Click the error in the list

The following links bring you to other sections of the InDesign: The Basics materials that will help you address some of the most common errors that appear in the Preflight panel:

To fix missing links: Fixing broken links and missing fonts, specifically the content under the Fixing missing links heading.
To fix overset text: Additional tools for refining a document's text, specifically the content under the Editing overset text in the Story Editor heading.
To fix missing fonts:Fixing broken links and missing fonts, specifically the content under the Fixing missing font errors heading.

If any errors appeared in your document, take a moment to fix them using the linked instructions. Once your document is error free, we'll close the Preflight panel and save the document.

To close the Preflight panel after the errors have been resolved, in the upper right corner of the panel,
Click
Repeat step a with any other panels, such as the Links panel, that you may have opened while fixing errors in the document.

Packaging a publication

When you're ready to send a publication elsewhere for printing, review, or for any other tasks where the publication will be viewed outside of your computer, it's a good idea to package the publication. When packaging a publication, InDesign collects all the files and fonts used in the InDesign document and places them together in a folder for easy distribution. This step is especially important if you are sending your document elsewhere to be printed, to ensure you have everything collected in one place and ready to send to a print service.

Let's package the finished Midwest Pet Pals Gazette newsletter. We'll do this using the Package dialog box.

To open the Package dialog box, on the Menu bar,
Click File, Click Package…
To start the packaging process, at the bottom of the Package dialog box,
Click
To save the publication, if necessary,
Click
In the Package Publication dialog box, to indicate where the packaged files should be saved, if necessary, navigate to the InDesign Basics folder.
To package the publication, at the bottom of the Package Publication dialog box,
Click
To dismiss the font copyright warning dialog box, if necessary,
Click

Once InDesign is finished packaging the document, you'll find a new folder inside of the InDesign Basics folder labeled Pet Pals Gazette Folder that contains the following items:

The Document Fonts folder, containing copies of all the varieties of the Verdana and Georgia fonts used in the document
The Links folder, containing copies of every image used in the document
Pet Pals Gazette.idml, which is a type of InDesign file that can be opened by older versions of InDesign
Pet Pals Gazette.indd, which is the main document we've been working with
Pet Pals Gazette.pdf, a PDF export of our document

This folder can now be sent out to a print service so the Midwest Pet Pals Gazette can be printed.

NOTE: If you're interested in only exporting a PDF version of an InDesign document, instructions for how to do this are located in the section Exporting an InDesign document as a PDF in the course appendix.

At this point, we're finished creating the newsletter and can exit InDesign.

To save Pet Pals Gazette.indd, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S
To close InDesign, on the Menu bar,
Click File, Click Exit

Preflighting and packaging a completed document

Available Files

Preflighting a publication

How to preflight a document and fix errors that appear

Packaging a publication

Step 1. Package the Midwest Pet Pals Gazette newsletter.

Step 3. Save the newsletter and exit InDesign.