Links Pallet Missing. Adobe Help Line baffled.

Question

A day killed on the Adobe Help Line and no hope in sight. The Links Pallet is AWOL and Adobe tech support can't find it.
Originally the problem was an error when trying to export a 275 page book to idml format as something was going wrong with the minor panic of losing months worth of work. It kept crashing InDesign CS5 on Win-7 64 Pro.
In three very long calls over the period of the day, creating new ID's, wiping out all sorts of stuff, including a reinstall of just ID, the Adobe help line finally had us permanently deregister the Suite, remove the whole suite, clean everything with a piece of code they recommended, and reinstall.  It was a clean install. Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection on two DVDs, selected to install every option that had a check box - take a lunch break while it does its thing. Then updated to the latest code for InDesign (7.0.4) and Photoshop (all three check boxes) since those are the only two we generally use.  We went through all the drills such as trashing to preferences, and so on. All the ID extensions are checked as well. When all was said and done, the file still crashed the system, suggesting the problem was a corrupt file. Time to go to plan B...
We managed to find an older version idml copy that could be updated using draft printouts, and patched our way back to sanity only to discover that none of the images were linked, and when we went to fix this using the link pallet, it was not there. No link panel, not on the /window drop down, not anywhere. We finally relinked the images by using the Package "Repair All". However, one image was RGB, and when we right clicked to edit in orginal (Photoshop), there was no such option anymore. The tech support guy at Adobe was baffled (politely).
Somehow an awful lot of features related to images have vanished in this futile attempt to fix another problem. We are now worse off than we were this morning.
We figure there is some sort of switch somewhere, that Adobe tech should know, but their help line seems to be staffed by people whose solution is to delete everything and start over. When that failed to work, they said they will call back, but by the time we rang them back they were closed.
Has anyone either had this happen, or know what might be causing it? Links is an important feature, and without it, we might as well go back to CS-4...
Hmmm, good thought, let's try it.  Just tried it before hitting Post Message, saving the file as IDML, but before it would open, the old ID-CS4 crashed with an error "Failed to open plugin resources: PARAGRAPH COMPOSER.RPLN" argh! (Don't let this one distract the question... all we want to know is how to find the Links Pallet on ID-CS5 v 7.0.4)

Answer 1

lewenz wrote:
We are writing this saga in hopes someone in management at Adobe may actually read it and make some changes to their company. While they may think they save money farming their support out to a call centre in India, they have chosen the wrong centre, or their quality control is bad. While their hourly costs may be lower than running support out of their home office, we suggest Adobe is paying more because the call centre takes so much time, and creates so many new problems. In fact, we do wonder if the reason the call centre people are so polite and constantly repeating and apologising is not cultural, but so they can keep the meter running longer. Memo to Adobe: You are being ripped off. Even if you don't care about your customers, your too-smart cost-cutters are losing you money. Better to provide high-quality tech support that knows what is wrong and finds the solution in minutes than wasting hours and days as happens now.
It turns out that the support rep at Adobe gave us bad information and was about to propose more bad answers had we not become stroppy and demanded to speak to someone more competent. The support technician's next step was for us to:
Load ID CS5 on another windows PC
If the software worked on that PC either call Microsoft (yeah right) or
Delete and reinstall Windows 7 Pro
They did not volunteer any more than step 1, but having lost patience with their erroneous advice in the prior round, we pressed for what they would recommend next, since in fact the CS5 products had been working fine on the main desktop until they started telling us to start deleting and reinstalling things. On a complex multi-application computer, deleting and reinstalling Windows is not a simple matter, it usually results in downtime of three days and invariably important programs are reset, losing customisation that has been done over time. Our team concluded that rather than do this, if there was no other solution, we would trash CS5 and either go back to CS4 or purchase an Apple desktop solely to handle InDesign. Therefore, instead of continuing down this line of blind nonsense, we demanded to speak to someone who spoke better English, had a better phone connection and knew more than to tell us to keep damaging our systems.
Finally, we got a call back from a more informed 1st tier support rep who goes by the nickname Sonny. For some reason the connection was far better, and we could understand every word of his much better English. It turns out that the Adobe support rep had walked us through the delete and recovery procedure and omitted a key step. This was only learned by pressing Sonny hard, until he realised the missing step. The prior rep walked us through the following support process and only told us to call back after we had begun step 5.
Deactivate the CS5 Master Collection,
Download and Unzip Creative Suite Cleaner Tool
Create a new User ID with Administrator Level authority and sign on to it
Close all programs and run the Cleaner Tool
Reinstall CS5
Download the updates (which is a problem when one is on a 10gb cap broadband plan)
Of course, this did not fix the problem we had called about (manuscript kept crashing ID), but additionally the Links Pallet was completely missing as was the Edit Original right click function which made managing images in a manuscript impossible.
When we reviewed this with Sonny, he finally identified the missing step. Before Step 4, running the Cleaner Tool, run the Microsoft Control Panel Uninstall Program to remove all the programs. Then run the cleaner tool to find files that Microsoft missed. Finally, after Step 4, add an additional step of manually looking at the files using File Manager to make sure all files were cleaned out and gone. When all this is done, go to Step 5 reboot and reinstall.
Well the reboot took about 15 minutes as all sorts of orphan files came up, but when all was reinstalled, the InDesign functioned as it was supposed to function. The links pallet and edit orginal image was back where they belonged.
The only thing we discovered is that when we went to email, eleven years worth of emails had vanished. We are now in correspondence with the email support team (thankfully, we use a commercial product, not a free one) to see if these can be recovered. It appears the Cleaner cleaned out more than Adobe. Oops, sorry about that. Argh!
So what have we learned?
The original problem appears to have been a corrupted file. Since this was a 275 page manuscript, it was not something that could easily be given up. We called Adobe hoping to figure out why the application program was crashing. This was never answered. It would crash when we ran spell check and it would crash when we tried to export it to an IDML file. This is a deficiency in the Adobe product that it allows this. Adobe never addressed this, or identified this.
It was only when we started doing our own trouble shooting while waiting for Adobe to call back after they trashed the delete and restore application, that we realised we were being supported by ignorant technicians who appear to have little understanding of their products, very poor communications technology (it's hard to understand them due to a low quality line and in some cases a strong Indian accent), and whose "solutions" were to remove and reinstall their products. In this solution approach, the support technicians don't always get the steps right, with the outcome that the "solution" does not work.
At this point, we realised we were in worse shape than when we made the original call. So we searched our files to find the most recent IDML backup that did work, imported it and then took pdf printouts to re-enter all the changes to the manuscript since that backup was made. We hope we located all the differences between the two drafts. This of course is a manual process and what we sought to avoid by calling Adobe in the first place, but we realised that the Adobe support was going to take more time than clerical re-work. Thus we ended up with a repaired manuscript - no thanks to Adobe, and a newly defective application program where their next "solution: was to trash the operating system.
At no time did the technician ask the key questions to review what they might have done or not done that could have caused the problem. In other words, Adobe does not run a technical support line, but a trash and rebuild line. They waste hours of their own call centre time, not to mention the client time, creating further problems, call centre hours that we presume Adobe must pay for.
That we must listen very carefully to what the technician says back, since over 50% of the time, they do not understand. When the record is read back, it is wrong (they wrote down that ID crashed on opening... never true).
That it is not impolite to ask them to stop wasting time with very long apologies as the opening of every sentence.
That it is essential that you have the customer identity information in the right order, so they do not spend 10 minutes verifying who you are.
That it is not impolite to tell them to stop filling the air with nonsense and either answer the questions or get someone who can.
That it is not inappropriate to threaten to document the call and file a formal complaint with Adobe.
So for anyone who uses Adobe Help:
Demand someone who can speak clear English on a clear phone connection. Write down their name and location so they can be tracked.
Write down every step they propose and ask what is the next step if it fails to achieve the desired outcome.
Demand that each step be written down in their documentation as well.
Demand to know every custom file such as preferences and language dictionaries and their location. Make copies outside of Adobe so the cleaner file does not delete them. A folder on the desktop is the safest.
When it becomes clear the technician does not have a clue what they are doing, demand to speak to their boss.
Document every step here on this forum, so when they ask how they did, refer them to the public record.
Thanks to Peter Spier and Jongware for their attempts at solutions. Turned out it was a corrupt file that would have been a disaster had we not made backups and a defective Adobe technical support system that threated to trash our whole operation.
Bravo for persisting, insisting, asserting, relying on your own intelligence as you realized you were being not only ill-served, but wrongly-served and unforgivably-destructively-served. Sorry to hear how your own civility kept you from acting protectively sooner.
I agree about escalating cases to the highest-level support manager ASAP as you discover incompetent support. I've written about this in a few posts that you can find with this Google search link: InDesign knowhow pro escalate support. I usually offer "I don't mean to be rude, but if you're not expert with this issue..." or I substitute "...aren't able to read the case notes and have expertise," and similar phrases, THEN I PRESS FOR ESCALATION, EVEN IF I NEED TO BE RUDE TO GET IT.
However, with the increasing complexity of the stuff we use, and, as in your example, it takes a few days to rebuild a system, don't be lulled by the concurrent increased confidence you get from smarter hardware and software. I suggest cloning working systems for backups in disasters like you're reporting. Don't overwrite stored clone backups with unproven current systems that may have unbeknownst to you just gone bad. Consider virtual software like VMware Fusion or Parallels, even if you're committed to Windows; you can install one or more virtual Windows systems on a real Windows system, make snapshots and revert to them if needed. I think these are more robust than Windows Restore Points, because snapshots track everything done on the virtual drive, whereas restore points only undo the Registry, IIRC, so corrupted user files remain corrupt, lost files remain lost.
IOW, practice safe computing.
I heard of a business professional who sued his doctor for time lost when he was kept waiting for an extremely long period with no explanation, offer to reschedule, etc. (IOW, he got "airline treatment.") Whether he collected isn't the point so much as the recognition of the concept, and the corresponding smart pro-customer-service steps taken across many industries and companies. Whether defensive or pro-active, better customer service is better for everyone in chain of relationships.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices