Thread: Applying a swatch to imported illustrator file (link)

I'm trying to apply a swatch to an object.   It seems if I copy the object from illustrator and paste into InDesign I can apply the swatch.   Does anyone know of any issues of doing this?   Thanks.

It depends on the object. Copy/paste of simple objects from Illy to ID works perfectly well and results in live objects. These objects act exactly the same as something you would have drawn in ID.   With complicated objects however you're going to get an embedded, uneditable PDF.   Bob

The disadvantage is you lose the dynamic nature of a link.   If you have an Illy link placed 50 times in InDesign, if you edit the link in Illy it's global.   If you have 50 native InDesign objects the only way you achieve global behavior is by setting up object styles   You mentioned Photoshop too. Don't paste from Photoshop. That is a train wreck.

Some don't like this, but I have NEVER had an issue with it.... In certain situations ... where you may be editing each graphic differently and you do not need to "link" your graphic, you can copy and paste the AI file into ID.  (ie: it is not a logo that may change and you have a lot of relinking updates across multiple files) Like I said, I have never had an issue and have had some very complicated files to copy and place....