InDesign Truncates File Names

[Mari Anderson]

Small, but annoying problem:

When exporting to PDF in InDesign, my filename gets truncated to nothing., ie. 063442 Eng-Chi Broch.indd gets exported as Chi Broch.pdf

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Mari

[The_Black_Knight]

Unfortunately, if you're using InDesign 3.0 or a previous version, it truncates the file names of exported PDFs so that they will be less than 31 characters. There is no fix for it that I know of, except to upgrade to InDesign 4.0 (part of Adobe CS2).

Oh, and welcome to the GDF!

[Mari Anderson]

Well thanks, Black Knight, for your welcome.

My version of InDesign is CS2, so I'm not sure your answer applies. I should have mentioned that.

[Mynock]

Try underscores instead of spaces.

[The_Black_Knight]

Well thanks, Black Knight, for your welcome.

My version of InDesign is CS2, so I'm not sure your answer applies. I should have mentioned that.Ah, nevermind then. I tried to reproduce this problem using CS2, but I was unable to. Are you running on a Mac or Windows?

[Mari Anderson]

I am running on Mac.

[The_Black_Knight]

And is it OS X 10.4 or previous? If it's a previous version of OS X, which version is it? Did you use the exact file name that you provided in your original post, or is that just a random example (because copying and pasting the file name you gave, then exporting a PDF with that name worked for me on my computer).

[Mari Anderson]

OSX 10.4.7

Oh, and sometimes it does export correctly. Further confusing the issue.

It also happens on my co-workers computer. We are on the same server.

[SharkFinStudios]

I have heard that it will soemtimes do that across a network. I used to have that problem pulling an InDesign file from the server and trying to export to a PDF on my computer. The way I resolved it was to keep the native InDesign file on my MAC and exporting it to pdf from there. Once it was approved I moved it to the server.

Good luck. If you find the answer I'd love to hear it.

[Mari Anderson]

Turns out it wasn't an exact copy of the message that didn't work. Somehow, it got changed since I had last done it (prob. because our server rejects / marks) but the problem was the / in the title. It truncated everything before that. When I took out the / it didn't happen & vice versa. Thanks!! Black Knight, You got me thinking.

[jimking]

Try underscores instead of spaces.
On a server, then you sould use underscores as Mynock refered to and no /-...