I'm getting really sick of the spinning beachball. What's the point of having ID export PDFs in the background if it lugs the application down so much that it takes half a minute to change a letter? Now instead of being able to show my boss why I'm not working (because a PDF is exporting) all he sees is a screen waiting for me to work. The lure is there to be able to work while I'm exporting a PDF, but in reality it doesn't work at all. I've even tried closing everything else open on the computer to free up memory and resources, and it impacts the performance of ID while background tasking--not at all.
I'd rather have the foreground task processess bar prominantly taking up room on my screen, if I can't work. At least I can then point at my screen to explain why I'm sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs.
Rant over.
Have you tried the foreground exporting script? Or you could come up with something else that graphically shows your boss why you're not working. In fact that would be better because you could use it any time! "I can't use Indesign, look at the screen! That's why I'm looking at lolcats instead."