Working remotely and on-site

[zoran]

What kind of file setup would you do if you were a graphic designer and 2days of the week you would work remotely from home and the rest 3days you would work from your work office?
The apps that would be used would be Adobe CC apps. But the problem is not the apps but the files.Where the files have to be for access from home and from the office?

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

In my current and previous job, all my files have lived on the servers at work and I VPN'd in when I was offsite and mounted the servers from there.

Otherwise...are you using different computers? If so, then I'd go with whichever cloud storage company you like best. Next best option would be a fast external SSD that you took with you back and forth.

 

[zoran]

What apps were you using?

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

What apps were you using?

Indesign, illustrator, photoshop, acrobat, dreamweaver…

 

[zoran]

Indesign, illustrator, photoshop, acrobat, dreamweaver…

That’s exactly what apps i want to use but I believe they might be a problem with the links (photos) that are used by some applications.
For example im worried how indesign would react with the path of those linked files when it would change.
Unless when the server is used there wouldn’t be an issue ?

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

That’s exactly what apps i want to use but I believe they might be a problem with the links (photos) that are used by some applications.
For example im worried how in design would react with those linked files.

They would be broken links if you weren’t connected to the vpn and had the servers mounted, but once you mount again, it will fix itself.

Or if you go with the cloud storage, you won’t have any issue.

 

[kpluck]

I think the answer will depend on how you organize your files at the office. For example…

Lets say your jobs are each in their own unique folders. Inside those folders you organize the various elements of that job into their own folders. I have included a screen cap to illustrate.

If organized in this fashion, you could move the "Sample Job" folder to any volume (or Mac) and it would find the links as long as the folder organization inside the "Sample Job" folder remains intact.

This is how I organize the files for a small printer I work for and I use DropBox to keep two Macs sync'd without any problems (one at home, one at office).

However, if the linked assets are spread out over multiple volumes, unless you can set up a VPN to access the same volumes at home, you will have broken links.

-kp

 

[zoran]

When the “Sample folder” changes computer, how can the links work? Won’t the link path change?

 

[kpluck]

The link path would change at the Volume level of course, but inside the folder where the InDesign file is located the folders are the same. As long as the paths inside the "Sample Folder" are unchanged, InDesign is able to maintain the links.

I think all Adobe is doing here is when the original volume/folder can't be found for a link on opening, it immediately checks the folder where the InDesign file is located, if it finds the folder/links there, it uses them.

You can check to see if it works easily enough. Just copy a job folder from work onto to a flash drive and transfer it to your home system. Then open the InDesign file. It should find the links for you as long as the InDesign file is in the same folder.

In fact, since DropBox offers free 2GB accounts, you could install DropBox on your work and home systems and test if for free.

-kp