7 Replies Latest reply: Jul 12, 2010 3:55 AM by Eugene Tyson RSS

    InDesign PDF Presets Bug

    Ratko Asanovic Community Member

      Hello everyone,

       

      I have noted this problem since cs5 version came out but I am reporting it now. Well, here is the thing: if I have some multi page or single page document in InDesign and I want to export it in some of Adobe PDF Presets for printing for example like [PDF/X - 4:2008] as usual I get the progress how much of the pages are exported and when progress dialog is gone when I go to the location of the exported PDF i get 0kb PDF file. So there is nothing in it and when I try to open it it reports error. After few minutes passed I see size of the PDF is changed and exported PDF is there now and it can be opened. So basically after export progress is finished at start you won't have any data in exported PDF and after couple of minutes passed it will fill that PDF with exported data. So does any of you have experienced such behavior? I think this is a bug and this behavior is tested and confirmed on Mac OS Snow Leopard 10.6.4 and Windows 7 64bit.

       

      Best regards,

      Ratko Asanovic

        • 1. Re: InDesign PDF Presets Bug
          Stix Hart Community Member

          This is standard behaviour.  In CS5 you don't get a progress bar, you have to go to Window > Utilities > Background Tasks and if you've got something there it hasn't finished exporting.  And yes a PDF will appear that is 0kb, that happened in CS3 too.  For an old fashioned foreground export try the script at the end of this post here.

          • 2. Re: InDesign PDF Presets Bug
            Ratko Asanovic Community Member

            Well both in CS3 and CS4 when you have Generate PDF dialog that shows a progress of building PDF when finished you have PDF that is done and with the proper size after export. Concerning Background Tasks panel, many thanks for that. Somehow I neglected it because i get use to Generate PDF.

            • 3. Re: InDesign PDF Presets Bug
              Eugene Tyson CommunityMVP

              There is a very small indicator on the Control Bar that indiciates a background task is being performed

               

              http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/795/backgroundtasks.png

               

              You can't click it - but it's at least something to let you know what's going on. But as suggested go to Window>Utilities>Background Tasks (I've assigned a Keyboard Shortcut for this using Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts)

              • 4. Re: InDesign PDF Presets Bug
                Ratko Asanovic Community Member

                Background Tasks panel replaced Generate PDF dialog and from there can be seen progress of exporting in percentages.

                • 5. Re: InDesign PDF Presets Bug
                  Eugene Tyson CommunityMVP

                  It's not really a bug. The PDF file is being built, that's why you see it in folder. It won't be ready to open until the Background Task is completed.


                  • 6. Re: InDesign PDF Presets Bug
                    P Spier CommunityMVP

                    In theory this is an improvement since it allows you to continue to work while your PDF is being processed, which can take quite a while with a long document full of images, but there are a lot of reports of the background task freezing, so don't be shy about checking if things seem to take longer than you expect.

                    • 7. Re: InDesign PDF Presets Bug
                      Eugene Tyson CommunityMVP

                      Here's a few things I wished the Background Task did.

                       

                      1. The Indicator in the Control be clickable to open the panel (else add a background tasks button where the other buttons are Guide Screen Mode and Arrange Documents)

                       

                      2. The list of Background Tasks performed remained and you can open the PDF from the background task panel. The point of the background panel is to allow you to work while pdfs are being generated. Well if I'm working I don't want a PDF jumping up when the option is clicked in the settings to open the pdf. Instead I'd prefer the Background Panel icon to turn Green or something when PDFs are in the Background Panel. That would give me a visual indicator that I have PDFs created that need to be looked at in Acrobat. I can then open the panel via the shortcut on the control bar and commence checking my PDFs created that day.

                       

                       

                      It just falls a little short for me at the moment.