HELP - How to open IDML?

[A***@adobeforums.com]

How to open IDML in other editors, when I tried to open in Notepad it's showing as junk and also how to edit the IDML file?

Pl. help.

Thanks,

ArcRaj

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Ignore that. I mis-read the IDML bit as I'm not geared up with CS4 yet.

Perhaps a forum host could delete my earlier reply and this one. I can't edit it because I am bizarrely unable to access
Adobe.com from this computer.

k

[unknown]

Ken is whispering...

[K***@adobeforums.com]

Ken posted a crass reply so wiped it out to prevent total embarrassment.

k

[K***@adobeforums.com]

"when I tried to open in Notepad it's showing as junk"

So will any file that's anything more than just words and spaces.

InDesign files can only be edited by InDesign. Chopping around inside with anything else will almost certainly corrupt
them and make them unusable.

Why do you want to edit them outside InDesign anyway?

k

[unknown]

IDML is a zip archive of a folder structure with an IDML extension. If
you want to examine the contents, you can just change the extension to
zip and decompress.

If you want to actually do anything useful with it, you should do a
proper expand and package of the IDML. The easiest way is with a script
from within InDesign. Here's what I use:

Script #1

//DESCRIPTION: Expands an IDML file into folder format
ExpandIDML();
function ExpandIDML(){
var fromIDMLFile = File.openDialog( "Please Select The IDML File to
unpackage" );
if(! fromIDMLFile){return}
var fullName = fromIDMLFile.fullName;
fullName = fullName.replace(/\.idml/,"");
var toFolder = new Folder( fullName );
app.unpackageUCF( fromIDMLFile, toFolder );
}

Script #2

//DESCRIPTION:Produces an IDML package from the contents of a directory:
CreateIDML();
function CreateIDML(){
var fromFolder = Folder.selectDialog("Please Select The Folder to
package as IDML");
if(!fromFolder){return}
var fullName = fromFolder.fullName;
// var name = fromFolder.name;
// var path = fromFolder.path;
var toIDMLFile = new File( fullName+".idml" );
app.packageUCF( fromFolder, toIDMLFile );
}