Errors

Here are some explanations of common error messages you might get, and how you can potentially work around them. Also, if there’s a feature that has been working that stops working after you update to a new version, the workaround is temporarily returning to a previous app version.

Cloud files

If you try to open a PDF that is “online only” on the cloud (eg Dropbox, Google Cloud, etc), you’ll get a little error message, since it’s not actually saved on your computer yet.

You’ll need to get the file fully onto your computer before Layout Department can use it. The easiest way to do that on a Mac is: go to Finder, double click on the file (this will download it, and also open it in Preview). Then just pop that file back into Layout Department again, and you’ll be good to go.

We couldn’t understand that pdf file

If you see this error, something may be wrong with your file - please check that your pdf can be opened in Preview.

If you can open it, please get in touch - we’d like to fix this bug.