🖼️ Why can't I see the page previews?

Redokun displays page previews for InDesign (.idml) and PowerPoint (.pptx) files to help translators maintain context. If you're not seeing previews, here's how to troubleshoot.


🕒 1. Wait for Previews to Generate (PowerPoint only)

After uploading a document, Redokun may display "Generating Page preview".

  1. Wait a few minutes.
  2. Refresh the page to see if the previews appear.

❗ Note: For InDesign files, page previews are embedded directly in the IDML package by InDesign itself. Redokun extracts them immediately upon upload — so if the preview is missing, it's likely not included in the file. If you're having issues with InDesign previews, skip to the next section to learn how to generate them properly.


🧬 2. Understand Limitations in InDesign Files

Some text segments in InDesign files may not have previews because they're not linked to a specific page. These include:

  • Parent pages (formerly master pages)
  • Variables
  • Table of contents entries

Redokun may not display previews for these elements.


🧵 3. Why Some Text Doesn’t Match the Correct Page Preview?

Due to the way the IDML file format stores text position information, Redokun extracts the text correctly but may not match it to the correct page preview in the Web Editor.

As a result:

  • Some segments from threaded frames may appear with the wrong previews in the Web Editor.
  • The final translated document will still display the content correctly.

Fix the issue: To improve preview accuracy for threaded text frames, we recommend indexing the file using Redokun’s InDesign Extension.


🛠️ 4. Use Redokun's InDesign Extension

If you're missing previews for an InDesign file:

  1. Install Redokun's InDesign extension.
  2. Restart InDesign.
  3. Save your INDD file under a new name.
  4. Export a new IDML file from the renamed INDD file.
  5. Upload the new IDML file to Redokun.

This process helps generate accurate page previews.


🔄 5. Restart InDesign and Re-export

If you've installed the extension but still don't see previews:

  1. Restart InDesign.
  2. Open your INDD file.
  3. Save it under a new name.
  4. Export a new IDML file.
  5. Upload the new IDML to Redokun.

This forces InDesign to generate new page previews.


✅ 6. How to Fix Preview Issues

To ensure accurate previews, follow these steps based on your situation:

📌 Scenario 1: You installed the InDesign Extension after exporting the IDML

If you uploaded an IDML that was created before installing the Redokun extension, that file won’t contain the indexing Redokun needs for previews.

Re-export the IDML after installing the extension.


🐞 Scenario 2: You had previews working before, but they’re suddenly missing

InDesign has a known bug where the preview/indexing process may silently fail.

Try this:

  1. Restart InDesign.
  2. Open the original .indd file.
  3. Save it under a new name.
  4. Open the newly saved .indd file.
  5. Export a fresh .idml file from this new version.
  6. Upload it again to Redokun.

This will often resolve missing previews caused by the internal failure to trigger indexing.


⚙️ 7. Configure InDesign Settings Manually

❗ These settings activate the page previews generation but do not resolve the issue where threaded text frames don’t match the correct page preview. For that, use Redokun’s InDesign Extension.

If you prefer not to use the extension:

  1. Open InDesign.
  2. Go to Preferences > File Handling.
  3. Check Always Save Preview Images with Documents.
  4. Set Pages to All Pages.
  5. Set Preview Size to Extra Large 1024x1024.
  6. Restart InDesign.
  7. Then, save your INDD file and export a new IDML for upload.

If you're still experiencing issues, please contact our support team for further assistance.

Did this answer your question? Thanks for the feedback There was a problem submitting your feedback. Please try again later.

Still need help? Contact Us Contact Us