How may I import Pantone swatches (already on Mac)

Question

Hello
I'm new to all this, having purchased this years ago but not used it much.    I have Indesign CS (3.0.1) on my mac running OSX 10.4.11.I don't have very many color swatches in Indesign so downloaded the files from the Pantone site which put them in my library.  However, following their instructions, I cannot create a new swatch or view their files.  I've tried opening swatches, highlight none, gone to new next to the trash bin, but it is dim and presents a crossed out circle.
So, try to do it manually.  but the file that I eventually get to under Indesign in the Pantone Library, is an .ai file that Indesign doesn't like.
How can I get a decent color library into Indesign.  Pantone would be preferred.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Foz407 wrote:
OK, I stand chastened, but the first image is nothing like what I see in Indesign.
I opened the menu for you in the illustration. The little area I circled is the button to open it. You'll find one on every panel.
You have four choices for swatches, basically, in ID. You can set them as defaults by adding with no docs open. You can load them one at a time in any doc (use the add button, rather than OK in the dialog to avoid closing it). You can load all the swatches from any other document, or you can import an Adobe Swatch Exchange file saved from any Adobe app by using the Load Swatches command (and you can do that with nothing open to set them as defaults). You can import art that uses a defined swatch.
ID will express unhappiness if you try to have more than 10 spot colors defined in a document, and your printer will express unhappiness somewhere around two spot colors in most cases.