Best workflow for updating CS3 files to CS5

Question

Hi everyone,
My company is going to be purchasing CS5 in the next few months. We have been using CS3 (Mac OS 10.5.8).
I've read some threads on here that indicate opening CS3 files or templates directly in CS5 has caused some people some problems.
Since my job involves maintaining the integrity of our many templates, would it be best to recreate them from scratch in CS5 (as I did when we switched from Quark) or is opening them and resaving as CS5 files considered safe?
We have a copy of CS4. Would it be better to open/save in CS4 before opening in CS5?
This transition needs to be as smooth as possible for the art directors and editors even if it means a bit more work for me.
Thought? Suggestions?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi cj, welcome to the forum.
This advice about starting from scratch is a belt-and-suspenders safety issue for CS5. There are a dozen or so reports floating here from folks whp've had various sorts of problems ranging from very minor to complete loss of an 1100 page book when working with files converted from previous versions. I've not had a problem, nor has anyone I know who is a regular here, but the reports are enough at this point to make me think it isn't necessarily all user error. Being pragmatic, I think it's less work to start a template from scratch than to try to rescue a job gone bad.
And I said don't overwrite an older version file, as in save the new version in the same location with the same name, thus replacing the old one with no opportunity to get it back. Given that ID can only export a file that can be opened by the previous version, nothing earlier, this is just prudent workflow. If you have a disaster, you won't have lost your earlier version, too.
And in general I don't recommend a workflow that uses the same document over and over, doing a save as for each new iteration. If you used PM for that many years I'm sure you know why. Small corruptions have a way of creeping into a document over time as you work. Recycling the document not only carries the unavoidable risk for new coirruption, but also brings any old bad stuff along too. Eventually this can cause complete document failure and we get periodic reports here from (mosstly magzine or newspaper) users who have lost weeks of work when the file can no longer be opened, usually with no apparent reason -- it worked fine all the previous day. Using a template instead means each new iteration starts from the same, hopefully clean, second generation file. ID is very stable, but it does happen. I also keep a spare tire in the trunk of my car, and back up may data every night.