InDesign CS5 and CS6 users with Apple’s brand new MacBook Pro with Retina Display and updated MacBook Air have been suffering with a bug that leaves the professional design application essentially unusable, but that’s changing now that Adobe has a temporary fix available while it sorts out a better solution.
InDesign users have been complaining about an issue where the application crashes when ever dialog windows appear, and considering how many actions trigger dialog windows, it left many unhappy designers unable to do their job. The problem affects InDesign users with a MacBook Pro with Retina Display or MacBook Air with USB 3.0 support, that have installed MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) Software Update 1.0.
According to Adobe’s Scott Worthington, “At this time it appears the update is removing an API we use to control our use of system icons.”
The fix Adobe is offering for now is clearly a temporary work around and involves accessing the InDesign package contents — a process that not all Mac users will be comfortable with. Once inside the application package, users need to copy supplied icons into a specific folder, and then relaunch InDesign.
Since the workaround involves changing the InDesign application package contents, it’s a good idea to make sure you have a good backup before trying the fix.
Adobe acknowledged the fix is complicated and somewhat kludgy, but it does get designers buck up and running.
“Adobe is working closely with Apple on both their current and future OS releases to resolve this issue in a more comprehensive manner,” the company said in its related knowledge base article.
There isn’t any word yet on when a more elegant fix for the InDesign crash issue will be available.