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I have an indesign file that's larger than needed. Is there a way for me to "scan" the document to find out exactly what files/objects are taking up most of the file space?

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    I'm thinking Window > Links is a good place to start. In the panels corner menu Panel options > Show column > Size. Then in the panel, sort them by Size. That way you can easily see the biggest files. In the end though, what file size you can export out of Indesign matters more than the size of the .Indd file.
    – Joonas
    Apr 23, 2015 at 10:06
  • @joonas: no, it's possible to link huge files to InDesign but that does not necessarily mean the InDesign file size increases by much. Some of InDesign's design choices are quite esotoric: the size of a preview, for example, depends on the dpi of the original image. Doing a regular Save As brings down the file size as much as possible. Also, you should never embed images.
    – Jongware
    May 5, 2015 at 8:52

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Here's the best and fastest way to know what resources are the biggest. You cannot "search" for a resource based on the link's size, but this is as close as I can get you to help you do what you want.

1 - Export your project as a package.

the "package" function of InDesign

2 - Click on "Package"

the "Package" window of InDesign

3 - Click on "Package" again making sure these boxes are ticked:

the last "packaging" step in InDesign

4 - Open the "Links" folder where the files / links have been exported

example of an exported "Package" via InDesign

5 - Sort out the files by size, the largest ones on top.

enter image description here

I'm aware that you wish to "search" for the largest file within InDesign. Such a feature doesn't exist to the best of my knowledge and research, so here's what I suggest if you have a large document with too many linked files that you want to clean up.

Other than that, you might be able to write an InDesign script, to achieve what you want, it's worth looking into it if you need to do this often.

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  • I wonder if you read my comment below the question.
    – Joonas
    May 5, 2015 at 6:56
  • I just did! If you have an answer to a question, what's the point in writing it as a "comment" not as an "answer"? May 5, 2015 at 16:40
  • Some might diasgree with me. In fact most probably would, but I don't believe in answering a question if I don't feel the answer satisfies me fully. Just as Jongware pointed out, linked files are not the only things that can bloat up the filesize. In fact you could easily make a super heavy file with no linked files what so ever. The way the OP worded the question made me think that he knew this and wanted to know if Indesign had a way to check the size of all possible objects, to determine what was hogging all the space.
    – Joonas
    May 5, 2015 at 17:01
  • The only situation where I believe either of our methods do any good is if you need to send a package of the indd file to someone, but even then it's kind of a fools errand to start reducing the filesize of multiple files. Unless you can reduze something like 300MB psd file to 3MB, which I guess is possible.
    – Joonas
    May 5, 2015 at 17:07
  • Your solution would work better than mine, but I usually read comments very quickly. I was looking for questions that are unanswered to get about the 50 reputation that currently allows me to answer you, and wouldn't be able to if it wasn't for this answer! (SE works in mysterious ways...) May 5, 2015 at 17:16

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