Exporting an InDesign book of documents into InCopy

I work with a lot of books, and I frequently get the request to suddenly provide an entire book of documents in InCopy to an editor (on or offsite). I'm just curious if anyone knows of a plugin or script that does all the manual work of opening each document in a book, exporting all stories to an assignment and then combining the assignments into something that can be easily portable? It can become a very time consuming task when my books can contain as many as 30 or 40 documents.

E Diane King wrote:
I'm just curious if anyone knows of a plugin or script ..
PC or Mac platform ?
robin
www.adobescripts.com

Similar Messages

Can I select layers when exporting an Indesign book to PDF ?

Hello,
I've created a book consisting of separate Indesign files, each containing different languages. Each language is in a separate layer.
I then created 4 different book which each contain about 5 files. This makes that I have 4 books with all languages spread over different layers. When I export the book to PDF I would like to be able to select the language layer so I can create a PDF file per language. I can open each file to hide all language layers except the one I want to export, but that is a time consuming work.
I am wandering if there is a quicker way to export to PDF each language without having to open and resave each separate Indesign file.
Thanks for all the feedback.
Tom

Why do you need to omit the French layer for a German book?
Just export with all the layers.
Then, in Acrobat, turn off the French (Italian, Spanish, English?) and leave German exposed.
Save as "Meine tollen deutschen Buchmarkt.pdf".
Then, turn off all the layers except Frenh, and save it as "Mon excellent livre français.pdf"
I promise you that no one outside of a very few people will ever know that there are layers with other languages hidden. Hardly anyone who uses Acrobat knows there are layers at all. (Except the brilliant people on this forum)

JS InDesign CS4: save document into specific location on a network

Hi,
I been able to save my document with new name, but I am not sure how to specify new network location for it. Here what I have:
app.activeDocument.save (myFileName+".indd");
Thank you very much for your help.
Yulia

(Aside: me not a John, me a Theun. [JW] is just a convenient handle.)
"/SPACE"+yourfilename is not a fully qualified path name. For one, with a 'yourfilename' of "foo", it will result into a full string
/SPACEfoo
and this can be taken apart in a path "/" (the root of your current drive) and a filename "SPACEfoo". You need another slash after "SPACE".
Second, you should investigate what a full path looks like. I seriously doubt "/SPACE/" is a valid path on your machine. Use the one line script I showed to check what it looks like for a saved ID document.
A small trick you might want to use is, pressing Ctrl+C (or Cmd+C, on Apples) with a dialog on screen copies the entire text of that dialog. That's how I copied the full path and file name into my previous mail -- I didn't type it in manually.
[EDIT] Sorry, I did not include that one line script. It simply is
alert (app.activeDocument.fullName);

Export from Address Book to import into database?

Hi all,
Is there any way to export my contacts as something other than a v-card?
I am trying to put my contact management to work in a Filemaker database, and I am hoping to automate the process of exporting more than 2000 contacts into something that I can import into filemaker.
This could be any one of a variety of formats (Tab delimited, Comma delimited, excel workbooks, etc), but not a v-card.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt

export as a vcard and use a converter like this one to convert to csv.
http://labs.brotherli.ch/vcfconvert/

Export an alternate layout from a indesign book

Hello,
I'm working on a big file, which has been, for size reasons, separated in multiple files that have then been assembled in an indesign book
Problem: This document is edited for print and also as an interactive pdf for ipad, which is why I have created an alternate layout for the ipad version, which contains a navigation based on hyperlinks, linking different pages and documents from the Book.
But here is the thing, when exporting the whole book to pdf (using the Indesign Book panel), I can't choose the layout I want to export, as I can do when I export from a single document with several alternate layouts
What I get when I export from a single file with two alternate layouts to interactive pdf
What I get when I export the Indesign Book with two alternate layouts to an interative pdf
Why is that? Is there a way I can export only one layout without having to RE-assemble the whole document into one file?
If I export the whole book as it is, my two alternate layouts are just following each other and it's a big mess, not to mention the hyperlinks don't work anymore.
Also, if the only way is to make one file, the file is then too heavy to be worked with, it's 280 pages long, with HD images on every page ( and the alternate layouts double the pages...)
Does anyone have a solution?

You mean, breaking the document into two or three files and then exporting each of these and then assembling the pdf files?
But then the hyperlinks from one doc to another don't work. I tried it already.
The problem is that I need to export ALL of these documents into ONE pdf because of the interactivity of the hyperlinks.

Export from indesign into a pdf (destinations)

Hallo,
when I export a indesign file with destinations into a pdf and view in the pdf the destinations, I found that there is now a number added behind the destination. For this reason Links into the pdf does not work any longer.
eg: "dsrg.indd:article_10" changes to "dsrg.indd:article_10:637". How can I avoid the number at the end.
Thank you for your help.
Roland

Hi isarviking,
Would you send your PDF document to [email protected] as an email attachment?
I will check it from my end.Please add the link to this forum post for reference.
Regards,
Florence

InDesign Crashing When Exporting a Large Book

I have a large InDesign book (159 documents) that recently started crashing when I export the whole thing. The book was created years ago, and I can't figure out what would cause this issue all of a sudden. Originally, I thought this was due to the linked cross references I recently added, since it's the only thing that's changed about the book. But I removed all cross references, and I'm still having the same issue. I can export the first half of the book, the second half of the book, or even 3/4 of the book successfully. It's just when I try to export the whole thing that InDesign crashes.
I'm using the latest version of InDesign CS 5.5 on OS X 10.8.2.
I have another discussion posted about this (http://forums.adobe.com/message/5132896), but decided to start a new thread since the other one was focused on the cross references. Toward the end of that discussion, people started suggesting that this was just an issue with my computer--that I don't have enough free space, etc. But I had my company's IT guy watch Activity Monitor while I tried to export the book, and he assured me that my computer is completely capable of completing this export. This makes sense to me since I've always been able to export the book using this computer, and the book hasn't gotten significantly larger or more complex.
One workaround we found was to export the book as an interactive PDF instead of a print PDF. However, I've been battling bolder text on pages with transparency for years, and exporting as an interactive PDF seems to make this issue much worse. (For more info on this issue, see the following thread: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/421267.)
Is there anyone smarter than me that has a guess as to why I'd be able to export the book as an interactive PDF, but not as a print PDF? I'm hoping this new info will help in troubleshooting the crashing.

Eureka! I re-created the book from scratch, and I can export just fine now. The book file must have been corrupt.
This has been sitting at the bottom of my list of things to try the whole time, but I never thought it would be the solution. Hopefully if anyone else has this issue, they will stumble upon this and try this first instead of last!

How to convert a large document into a InDesign Book w/Chapters?

Hello!
I just started a position with a company that has a number of catalogs full of the widgets they sell. Previously the catalog work was outsourced to a company that uses Quark, and the first thing I did when I started was to convert them to InDesign using a 3rd party plugin.
The one I'm working on now is 400+ pages, including a TOC and 2 indexes (words / item nos.), and is currently 4 VERY large files that take 5-10 minutes each to open.
What I'd like to do is split the entire catalog along logical lines into a bunch of 10-50 page documents, then stitch them all back together as Chapters in a Book file. The plan is to have the smaller documents be usable either as stand-alone brochures or as pieces of the big catalog. Once I can get it all organized the way I want, I'll be redoing the TOC and indexes as well.
So, to boil it down to a few questions:
1. How do I split a large document into smaller pieces?
2. I have a basic understanding of creating a Book file, but are there any pitfalls I should watch out for when stitching the bits back together?
3. Is it possible to have page numbering automated so that if I open a chapter on its own the pages will be, say, 1-20; but if I open it in the context of the book file the pages will be, say, 84-104?
4. Are the page numbering, TOC, and indexing tools flexible enough to where if I modify a section such that it adds or removes pages in that section, the entire book file will restructure to accommodate?
A thousand thanks in advance to all who read this, and to any who respond!

S_Atwood wrote:
Hello!
I just started a position with a company that has a number of catalogs full of the widgets they sell. Previously the catalog work was outsourced to a company that uses Quark, and the first thing I did when I started was to convert them to InDesign using a 3rd party plugin.
The one I'm working on now is 400+ pages, including a TOC and 2 indexes (words / item nos.), and is currently 4 VERY large files that take 5-10 minutes each to open.
What I'd like to do is split the entire catalog along logical lines into a bunch of 10-50 page documents, then stitch them all back together as Chapters in a Book file. The plan is to have the smaller documents be usable either as stand-alone brochures or as pieces of the big catalog. Once I can get it all organized the way I want, I'll be redoing the TOC and indexes as well.
So, to boil it down to a few questions:
1. How do I split a large document into smaller pieces?
Saving x-number of copies as new names, then chop off the unwanted parts is pretty efficient.
2. I have a basic understanding of creating a Book file, but are there any pitfalls I should watch out for when stitching the bits back together?
Nothing specific, other than learning the ins and outs of working with book files. For example, if you change a style in one file, you'd want to use the Synchronize feature to propagate the change to the other files, but you'd also need to remember if any change in one file shouldn't be propagated to others, and deselect it in the Synchronize dialog box.
It's a good idea to open all and save all book files before doing any book-wide operation; even better to save the whole directory for safety. Working on open files gives you some undo powers that working with closed files doesn't.
3. Is it possible to have page numbering automated so that if I open a chapter on its own the pages will be, say, 1-20; but if I open it in the context of the book file the pages will be, say, 84-104?
The individual files need to be checked and perhaps updated or have their numbering restarted when they're removed from the book file's control. It depends on how you've set up the numbering.
4. Are the page numbering, TOC, and indexing tools flexible enough to where if I modify a section such that it adds or removes pages in that section, the entire book file will restructure to accommodate?
A thousand thanks in advance to all who read this, and to any who respond!
Both TOC and Index have check boxes to include all files in the current book. You need to update the TOC, and generate the index again with Replace Existing Index checked, after making changes.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Export Indesign Document to Incopy Document

Hi,
I need to export the Indesign Document(.indd) to Incopy Document(.incx).I have used the following code
app.documents[0].exportFile(ExportFormat.INCOPY_DOCUMENT, File("C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe InDesign CS3/Scripts/test/Input_Output/test.incx"), false);
But it shows error like "The specified object doesn't support the desired export format".
Please suggest me.
Regards
Kumar

Could you send me a sample document (askoldich [at] yahoo [dot] com) so I could recreate the problem? I wrote this script for our own workflow and it has been working for us without any problems for about 9 months — probably your documents have a different set up than ours — I'd like to see what causes the error .
Kasyan

I need to turn an indesign document into an editable pdf. how do I do that?

I need to turn an indesign document into an editable pdf, how do I do that?

InCopy is a solution, but it's not the only viable solution.
I update many books, from 200 pages to 3,200 pages every year, long document, very techincal tax books.
Some are done through InCopy, some are edited word files and rtfs exported from InDesign, some are marked up hard copies etc.
It totally depends on the clients technical ability with computers. Last year I taught over 30 authors of ours how to use InCopy. Some were receptive, some were dubious, some were totally clueless.
And on the dubious and totally clueless I spent more time troubleshooting their problems than I would normally with a Word/RTF option.
Some people are capable of switching to InCopy or even know how to use it in the first place. For anyone never used InDesign or InCopy before then it's a massive learning curve to jump from MS Word et al word processors, to InCopy.
I do agree, it is the best solution that's out there, technically. But that solution is not usable by a lot of people.
Yeh if the client is comfortable with InCopy then it's the way forward.
But in most cases, in my experience, it's faster and more efficient to Export the text as RTF and let the author update the RTF. That leaves you in control of reinserting the text and formatting it correctly. Rather than letting the client add bold, underline, italics, superscript, subscripts, crazy workarounds because they didn't know how to do it properly. And in the end you end up with 2 or 3 times the amount of work than is necessary, just cleaning up what the client has done in InCopy that does not suit the overall formatting of the publications.

Export Large Indesign Document to Hyperlinked/Bookmarked PDF

I am trying to export a 600+ Indesign book as a PDF with hyperlinks and bookmarks but it constantly crashes. I have tried many things, including splitting the document into small batches, exporting and appending the pdfs but that is most time-consuming and definitely not efficient. I am using CS5. Does anyone have any solutions. Thanks.

There’s a script floating around but it’s easier to export one PDF and then use the extract pages command in Acrobat to make single pages.
Bob

How Do I combine 2 InDesign Documents into 1 (in a very particular way)

How do I combine two InDesign Documents into one in a very specific way.
Here's my problem: I have two separate InDesign CS5 files for playing cards. File one is the front. File two is the back.
The company that does my final print production needs the the cards sent as two separate PDFs. One for the card fronts, one for the card backs. Both of these InDesign (and the PDF export) files are arranged in the same way: page 1 is card #1, page 2 is card #2, etc. Nice and simple.
However, I use a different company for producing prototype versions of the decks (the production printer can't do this economically). My prototype producer needs me to send a single PDF where page 1 is Card #1 Back, page 2 is Card #1 Front, Page 3 is Card #2 back, Page 4 is Card #2 front, etc.
The decks I am building usually run 56 cards, but can be as large as 180 cards.
So, what's the easiest way to automate this process? is there a way to combine two separate indesign files by "interleaving" the pages from the two original documents into a new larger document (where I could do a new PDF export)? Or, is there a better way to do this in Acrobat Pro? At the moment I have to resort to drag and dropping each card from one PDF thumbnail pallet to the other. It's really time consuming and mind-numbingly boring. Any Ideas?

This script is actually pretty straightforward, so it's a good first
challenge I think.
I would script this in InDesign -- probably because I'm more familiar
with InDesign scripting.
To start learning the InDesign scripting basics, open the ExtendScript
Toolkit (ESTK) which is almost certainly installed on your computer
already. Go to the Help menu, and you'll find an entry there called
Adobe Intro to Scripting. Read that. I think that's the best place to start.
For the script in question, you would want to:
1. make sure both InDesign documents are open. They would both have the
same number of pages. (No scripting involved here, just make sure
they're open before running the script.)
2. loop backwards through the collection of document pages of one of the
documents. (document.pages is the collection you're looking for)
3. use the move() method of a document page to move it. (myPage.move())
4. Learn about the LocationOptions enumerator so that when you move the
page you can tell InDesign if you want to move it before, or after
another page. (LocationOptions.AFTER or LocationOptions.BEFORE)
5. Get a reference to the page in the second document before (or after)
which you want to move the page in the first document.
5. that's basically it
I suggest that as you work your way through this (if you decide to take
up the challenge), you post any questions you may have on the InDesign
Scripting forum here.

Cross references corrupted after placing Word document into an InDesign document

I am placing a word document which contains cross references to headers and captions/figures within the document. They seem to be fine and function correctly in the Word document, however, after I place this word doc into my InDesign doc, I take a look at the cross references panel and notice that the cross references have been corrupted. It is wrapping the wrong portions of text from the cross reference destinations. See screenshot for a visual of how the cross references are malformed. For example the 7th cross reference in the list should say Framework Details, not "Framework Detai
InDesign Cross References Panel - showing malformed bits of text
Another visual of this issue can be seen if I view the text frame in Story Editor view, see below. You can see that the cross reference source tags (blue arrow like symbols) are wrapped around the wrong portions of text. The blue tags shoud be wrapped around Framework Details and 52
InDesign Story Editor
You can see below as to why I think the cross references are fine in the Word doc, you can see the same cross reference I used in the example above in the word doc and it is wrapping the correct portion of text:
Word - showing cross reference is formed corerctly
Why is this not being maintained after placing this file into InDesign?
Also I am not performing any cross reference updates after I import, this problem occurs immediately after the place of the doc.
Why would InDesign be having difficulty in importing these cross references? I have set up a simple test Word document with cross references to headers and figures in and they have imported fine. What could be wrong with this other particular word doc that would be causing this "corruption" of cross references? This is not only causing my cross references to break visually and lack the update capability but also I cannot export the InDesign doc to an ePub as it keeps crashing. I believe from my reading on the web that if there is only one broken cross reference source i.e. the cross reference destination that it is trying to link to is missing, then the export to epub will fail. So this is causing a massive headache for me at the minute.
Is there anything I could be looking at in the Word doc to try and figure out why the porblem is occuring in the first place?
If anyone has any tips or a possible solution to this I would really appreciate it. Even better if someone knows the reason why this is happening I can tackle it from the source and prevent it happening time and time again.
Thanks, Dave

Only bad experiences, Peter ...
I've seen this character shifting before on numerous occasions, both with cross references and with hyperlinks. (It's especially funny with hyperlinks, 'cause you can see that the outline box shifts one character at a time per each next link...)
The thing is it's not just limited to hyperlinks and cross refs. Dave's screenshot doesn't show bold, italics, or other local formatting, but it's a fair bet these are off by a couple of characters as well.
Dave's experiment of making a "minimal" Word document to confirm it's a persistent bug didn't work. I found the same thing: either a document comes in fine, or everything is foo-bar right from the start. There must be some internal Word code that InDesign forgets to count as 'a character position'. Without delving into the Word file with some very advanced tools, it's anyone's guess what code that would be.
I can only offer the one solution that works for me: in Word, remove all hyperlinks (which is what Word uses for internal links as well as for external ones) and convert all cross-references to text. Then, if the file finally imports fine, re-build them in InDesign. It's a cumbersome workaround, but slightly better (only just) than checking each reference, delete, rebuild, check next -- etc. (And with that the chance that your other text attributes are also off.)

Exporting Indesign book to single page PDFs

Hi,
I'm after a script that will enable me to select an entire Indesign book and export it as separate individual PDFs in one go.
I know there are a few scripts that either export the book into chapters or export the .indd files to separate single PDFs, but nothing that will do everything in one action. (i.e. take the book and output all the individual pages as single PDFs)
Has anyone written a script like this or is it easy to tweak an existing script?
BTW I have no scripting knowlege whatsoever.
Thank you again
Scott
These are the two scripts I was refering to:
http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/pdf_individuals.html
http://indesignsecrets.com/page-exporter-utility-peu-5-script-updated-for-cs3.php

RichardM0701, are you the same person as scottbentley?
I fear your response doesn't make a lot of sense. The easiest way is to put your files into a book, which will not harm them. The easiest script is often no script at all.
I don't understand your comment about separate text boxes, files contain text boxes and definitionally multiple files means multiple separate text boxes.
I do not know what you are referring to with respect to the toc update, perhaps you could reference a particular command or script, or provide a screenshot.
It sounds like now you are interested in updating multiple tables of contents in a single fell swoop -- this would appear to have nothing to do with the original question. If that's the case, please start a new thread.

Long Word document into InDesign

I understand how to place a Word doc into InDesign and even through InCopy and preserve all the styles etc, but what I am missing is how to get a 100 plus page document into InDesign without having to maually place each page. I am sure there is something simple that I need to set/change to get multiple pages in there automatically.
Thanks for any help!

Autoflow.
Drag in a new page after the last page, go back one page, click the out port (little red plus sign at the bottom right of the frame), take your loaded cursor to the next (last) page, shift click in the upper left margin corner. ID will create as many pages with frames as it needs to flow out all the text.
You can also do this when you first Place the text. Just shift-click the loaded cursor instead of clicking (without shift).
Ken

Exporting an InDesign book of documents into InCopy

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