Mac InDesign CS5.5: can someone please check if variables do not cause crash when copied

Question

Hello
There is a bug in Mac InDesign CS4 and CS5 which causes InDesign to crash if text containing a variable is copied. I am hoping this bug is fixed in CS5.5.
So can someone with Mac CS5.5 try this for me and report back:
1. create a variable, or use one already created by Adobe
2. insert it into some text
3. copy the text
4a. try pasting it into another part of the same document
4b. try pasting it into an external document, for example an Excel file.
Hopefully it won't crash and you will be able to tell me whether it is fixed or not! If variables do not cause InDesign to crash when copied then it might be worthwhile for me to upgrade to CS5.5.

Answer 1

These problems are rarely easy to debug.
It appears from your crash report:
5   com.adobe.PDFL                     0x216ef8e3 PDDocGetMergedXAPKeywords + 86221
That the problem is in the Adobe PDF Library (not surprising, this is what reads PDF files) when getting "merged XAP keywords," whatever those are.
I believe the XAP: metadata has been superceded by XMP metadata, so this suggests your PDF files have corrupt XMP metadata, or XMP metadata that InDesign cannot deal with.
You might try running some of the preflights and fixups in Acrobat that relate to analysis of XMP metadata,
or simply removing XMP Metadata from the PDF entirely, again in Acrobat.
It sounds like this is a genuine InDesign bug (even if your PDF file was damaged, it should not crash ID!), so you should open a case with Adobe Support and get them to file a bug (http://adobe.com/go/supportportal). Optimistically, such a bug is unlikely to be fixed in time for CS6, so don't expect miracles. Think of it as making sure your bug doesn't hurt other people two years from now.