Print IDCS2 Book using InBooklet?

Question

I have created a photo album as an IDCS2 Book. The pages are 8 1/2 x 11, and I have a local printer who will print a single copy as color laser output on 11 x 17, chop it in half and 3 hole drill it. The final is intended to be "bound" by putting the pages in a photo album type 3 ring binder. This will allow me to interleave mylar sleeves holding ephemera gathered on the trip: tickets, brochures, menus, postcards, etc. So far so good. (I think, given the text I've typeset amongst the digital photos, and the wish to include the ephemera, this is the best solution to how to incorporate all the materials: trip journal, photos and extra stuff.)
My local printer doesn't --and I don't-- know how best to handle the IDCS2 Book files. There are 15 files to the 264 page book, and it is set up, and I want it to, print "run-in." That is, I've allowed IDCS2 to handle creating the spreads from file to file, with no section starts. So sometimes a file will end recto, and the next file begin verso, etc.
My local printer wants to use InBooklet to impose the whole shebang as --I think-- a 2-up saddle stitch print job, cut all the 4-page signatures down the middle and flop the two "halves" together. Then 3 hole drill at the spine and be done. Never having turned a Book file into an actual print job, I don't how how best or most efficiently to proceed. (Maybe using the local printer for this isn't the most efficient way to go, but I like the folks, they're helpful and willing to learn.)
Note that 264 pages of mostly photos has created an immense set of files: my Mac finder says the IDCS2 files alone are 1.18 gigabytes, and the original JPEGs are 1.19 gb. I'll burn all this onto a DVD for delivery, so that's not a problem, but I hope to avoid trying to create some kind of unwieldy interim document. In other words, can we use the Book files directly? My local printer has IDCS2, so can work with the raw files.
Any advice as to best practice here would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I think I understand what you are trying to do here, i.e. you are looking for a way to print one copy of your book. If I understand, the printer wants to print this on 11 x 17, probably to save on click charges.
Here's the bad news. InBooklet is not available for book files -- it only works with a single .indd file. You basically have two choices, ask the printer how much more it will cost to print on letter-size paper, or find a way to combine the book components into a single file. Which way to go may be a trade-off between printing costs and the value of your time.
There are two common methods for consolidating books. The first is to print the first is to export to PDF, at which point you can use a script to place the multipage PDF into a new InDesign document which may be imposed using InBooklet, but of course there is no way to edit the content.
The second method is to open the first file in the book, then each of the remaining files, one at a time, in order. Be sure you are able to see both document windows at the same time. Select all the pages of each later section in the pages palette, then drag from the palette and drop them onto the document window (not the pages palette) of the first section. Save the file with a new name.
Peter