Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 for Mac and Adobe Creative Cloud CC 2017 for Windows compatibility

[cuyicastle]

Is Adobe Creative Cloud CC 2017 for Windows compatible with Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 for Mac? Can both systems share files back and forth with no problem? Are there limitations specifically in InDesign?

[BobLevine]

Platform is irrelevant. The problem is the versions. There is no easy way for this workflow to function properly.

CC2017 file will need to be saved back via IDML. Any new features will be lost or mangled and text is likely to reflow.

[cuyicastle]

Thank you Bob, very helpful reply.

[Steve Werner]

Any file created in InDesign CC 2017 will not open in InDesign CS 5.5. You'd have to choose File > Save As > InDesign CS4 or Later. Text might reflow, and any new features would be discarded.

Any file created in CS 5.5 will open in InDesign CC 2017.

It's usually not practical to do extensive exchanging of files between versions so far apart.

[cuyicastle]

Thank you for your reply Steve. It helps me make an important decision.

[SJRiegel · Accepted solution]

CC2017 programs (including InDesign) can open CS5.5 files - no problem there.

But 5.5 programs cannot open CC2017 files. - this is too much to expect - for an older program to be able to open files in a format that was not created yet when that program was released. 

It's possible with InDesign CC2017 to save the file as IDML, which can be opened in InDesign CS5.5, but not without losing any formatting that was added using features in CC that did not exist in CS5.5.

A back-and-forth workflow between versions is never a good idea, and is an invitation to ongoing problems.

[cuyicastle]

It makes sense, SJRiegel. Thank you so much for replying with good and helpful information.