Assignments relocation problem

Question

Hi,
I'm using InDesign CS5 (Mac) - InCopy (Win) workflow. My client is in a remote location and we exchange packages via email.
Because the project is series, it is often a matter of creating a version based on an older InDesign file (Red Issue 1 Jan, Red Issue 2 Feb, Red Issue 3 Mar, Blue Issue 1 Jan, Blue Issue 2 Feb, ...).
I'm creating a new version of a document by copying all the files to a new folder and copying all the links to this new location (using Links panel / Utilities / Copy Links To...). All the links update to a new location but in the Assignments panel the assignments still point to the old location.
So when I highlight a paragraph that was assigned, I can see a strange thing: the assignment file in the Links panel says it's in the new location and in the Assignments panel it says it's in the old location. And I can't edit it.
Hovering over an assignment, I see the following information: "Unknown" is currently editing "xxx.icml" in Adobe InDesign from document [old location path here]". And that old location doesn't even exist...
Am I doing anything wrong?

Answer 1

Hi Printhouse Corporation. (you don't like giving out your real name huh.... ;-)  )
What Bob says is right, you're doing it wrong. Before you save a version of an ID file you need to shift-click everything in the Assignments panel and click the trash can icon at the bottom. That unlinks all the ICML files and deletes the ICMA (assignment) files. Then you Save As, then you re-export stories and re-create assignments.
The "copy the entire folder and rename it" method is an end run that might let you get away with only deleting the Assignment files (leaving ICML file linkages intact) if you're careful, which it sounds like youare.
The issue with the Assignments linking to the old ICML locations is not so much a bug as it is at "lack of a feature" ;-) Assignments are bizarre files to begin with, I think of them as brain dead zombies. They don't communicate well with other parts of the program; they're not even linked to the INDD file (they don't appear in the Links panel) and so what happens is that people assume they can act just like a normal part of the program, but they don't. I'm sorry to say.
I mean, look at what happens if you simply save a copy of the INDD file in the same location as the original. Everything about the Links panel is fine (all links to the original files are still intact, including the ICML files) but in the Assignments panel, the ICMA files appear as missing and there's no way to relink them --  since they were never linked in the first place. The only thing you can do is recreate them -- what ID euphemistically calls "change location". But what you're actually doing is creating new assignments.
So for your workflow, what I'd try before "creating a version based on an older InDesign file" is to delete just the assignments from the assignments panel; leave the stories as is (they'll automatically appear in the Unassigned InCopy Content section of the panel). Then go ahead and copy the whole folder, and in the new version, see if the Assignments panel knows abou the "new" locations of the stories.   If you're lucky, it will, and then you can just create new Assignments and drag-drop the stories from the Unassigned area to the name of the Assignment.
AM