What’s New with InDesign CC

Small tweaks and fixes—along with a new file format—mark the 12th major version of InDesign.

Adobe seems to have some confusion about dates. Throughout 2016, the most up-to-date versions of InDesign CC have been called InDesign CC 2015. Now, just before the end of 2016, a new version arrives called InDesign CC 2017 (Figure 1). I think we can attribute this to the strange quirks of Adobe Marketing.

This new version is significant because it’s a major update that requires a new file format version. This means that if someone using InDesign CC 2017 creates a new file, and you open it using an earlier version of InDesign CC, the Creative Cloud will convert the file to your older version. (There were five versions of InDesign CC 2015. No conversion was necessary between those versions.) If you’re unfamiliar with the process, I’ll explain how it works at the end of the article.


Figure 1: Do not adjust your calendars; “2017” is arriving a little early.