How Do I Mass Search and Replace Swatch Colors In Entire Indesign CS6 Document?

[FLASHGordon99]

I've jumped from CS4 to CS6 and its been a little while since, but just trying to refamiliarize myself with the many Features of Indesign CS6.
Here's my issue: I have a really old CS4 document I've opened up and saved in CS6. I have to change all swatch colors throughout the document from pantone swatch 295 C to updated pantone swatch 293 C.

Question, without my having to go through the entire document one object at a time looking for each object, HOW do i perform a Mass search and replace of Color swatch references from 295 C to 293C.

I thought i could just click swatch properties and update the color... but No... that doesnt work as swatch properties is just grayed out

I'm sure i've overlooked something but a refresher on how to mass find and replace color in a document would be great.

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from someone.

[Joel Cherney · Accepted solution]

You could just trash the 295C and, when InDesign generates the "Remove and replace with which swatch?" dialog, just specify your 293C.

[FLASHGordon99]

Hey, not a bad idea... but unfortunatally, in CS6 when I try to "Trash" or pull the existing old Swatch down to the "Trash Icon" it does not allow me to delete it because its in use... the Trash icon is grayed out....

It appears i can only trash swatches not in use.

What should i try next? Is there still something i'm missing?

[Peter Spier]

That means it's being used in a linked file, and you have to edit the file.

Turn on separations preview and hide all the other plates. Anything you see on a page is using that color and you can identify the linked files fairly quickly.

[ashleighh77566749]

That's what i do most of the time, however, you don't always want to trash it (it could be in use by a placed object, in which case it doesn't allow you to trash it). It would be great to be able to switch any instance of a color with another color without having to trash it. Does this feature exist?

[rob day]

It would be great to be able to switch any instance of a color with another color without having to trash it. Does this feature exist?

Yes. You can alias one spot color to another via Ink Manager. When you alias the color you can choose whether to leave the alias color as a spot or convert it to process.

[margaridasilvadesign]

thanks

[rob day]

You could also alias 295 to 293 in Ink Manager

[Peter Spier]

Rob Day wrote:

You could also alias 295 to 293 in Ink Manager

A really good plan...

[FLASHGordon99]

Thanks for the tips.... both seem like good options without my having to purchase a 3rd party software to accomplish this...

I must admit... Because I've been stuck in Web Design and Motion Graphics for the past couple of years, when I re-opened my old print work from the CS4 days into CS6 it is obvious I have some catch up to do....

I was almost embarrassed to admit I had forgotten the technique of Alias one color to another using Ink Manager... I had to look it up and found this helpful tutorial http://indesignsecrets.com/alias-one-color-swatch-to-another.php

Thanks for both solutions....

[RadMel]

what if your color swatches don't come up in ink manager? It's only giving me the CMYK color options and one of my swatches - how am i supposed to  make an alias if i can't even select my colors? HALP!

[rob day]

Only Spot colors can be aliased. So here I have PANTONE 293 C which is a spot and I want to alias it to a new version of the color—in this case My293 which is also Spot. Selecting PANTONE 293 I set its Ink Alias to My293

I have to turn on Overprint Preview to see that a PANTONE 293 fill will actually output as My293. If I don't want My293 to output to a separate spot plate I can force it to output as a process color by toggling the left icon in Ink Manager

[RadMel]

While trying to figure this out before you got back to me, I found that I could just open swatch option and change the settings of my swatch to the Pantone 300 that I needed it to be, without aliasing it, and it changed everything that was in the CMYK color previous. Is this also a solution?

[rob day]

If the color is being used by a linked file (the OP's problem) you wouldn't be able to edit the color. If there are no links, then yes just change the color.