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Placing an .indd file within another .indd file

Community Beginner ,
May 01, 2017 May 01, 2017

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I know it is possible to place multiple pages from a PDF with autoflow using the scripts found within InDesign, however, I am wondering if it is possible also with another .indd file? I have manuals for the same products with different covers, but the content is the same within the manual. I don't want to have too many .indd files to maintain and would like the changes applied to one file to be carried over to the other. Is there a script or something that can make it possible for me to place the entire .indd file and not only the first page?

Thanks!

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , May 02, 2017 May 02, 2017

Hi biancaho ,

I would favour PDF placing.

Why?

1. There are some free scripts out for it.

2. You cannot place InDesign documents of higher version in lower version documents.

But if you want to do it with InDesign document files go ahead using this trick:

Check the option to do Static Captions while placing.

That will load the placegun with all the InDesign pages. Plus the captions, of course.
Don't get irritated by looking at the placegun cursor. It does not seem, that it is loaded with all the pages,

...

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Community Expert ,
May 02, 2017 May 02, 2017

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Hi biancaho ,

I would favour PDF placing.

Why?

1. There are some free scripts out for it.

2. You cannot place InDesign documents of higher version in lower version documents.

But if you want to do it with InDesign document files go ahead using this trick:

Check the option to do Static Captions while placing.

That will load the placegun with all the InDesign pages. Plus the captions, of course.
Don't get irritated by looking at the placegun cursor. It does not seem, that it is loaded with all the pages, but it is.

If you reach the last page when placing the cursor is still filled with all the caption frames.

Just change the tool to the Select Tool to unload the placegun.

Here some screenshots from a movie I did after loading the placegun with a 10-pages InDesign document where the page numbers are the only contents of the document. German InDesign CC 2017.1.

Use the Options while placing.
Check Static Captions and Show Import Options.

PlaceWithStaticCaptions-1.png

Select All or Page Range:

PlaceWithStaticCaptions-2.png

The placegun is loaded.
With all pages and all captions!

PlacingMultiplePages-InDesign-Documents-1.png

PlacingMultiplePages-InDesign-Documents-2.png

PlacingMultiplePages-InDesign-Documents-3.png

Now get rid of the Static Captions:

PlacingMultiplePages-InDesign-Documents-4.png

PlacingMultiplePages-InDesign-Documents-5.png

Hope, that helps…

Regards,
Uwe

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Community Beginner ,
May 03, 2017 May 03, 2017

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Thank you!

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Advocate ,
May 04, 2017 May 04, 2017

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I didnt knew that either 🙂 Just yesterday I was placing an 8 page document by hand, no big whoop.
But I guess, when it comes to page count above ~15, youll better off using a script.

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Community Expert ,
May 04, 2017 May 04, 2017

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Hi Jan,

depends if you are placing to predefined containers.

Then even 200 clicks may be faster than writing a script 🙂

Regards,
Uwe

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Advocate ,
May 04, 2017 May 04, 2017

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LATEST

I assumed it couldnt be that hard to rewrite that bit…

on myPlacePDF(myDocument, myPage, myPDF)

    tell application "Adobe InDesign CC 2017"

        set myDone to false

        set PDF crop of PDF place preferences to crop media

        set myCounter to 1

        repeat until myDone is true

            tell myDocument

                if myCounter > 1 then

                    set myPage to make page at after myPage

                end if

            end tell

            set page number of PDF place preferences to myCounter

            get page number of PDF place preferences

            tell myPage

                set myPDFPage to place myPDF

                set myPDFPage to item 1 of myPDFPage

            end tell

            get properties of PDF attributes of myPDFPage

            if myCounter = 1 then

                set myFirstPage to page number of PDF attributes of myPDFPage

            else

                if page number of PDF attributes of myPDFPage = myFirstPage then

                    tell myPage to delete

                    set myDone to true

                end if

            end if

            set myCounter to myCounter + 1

        end repeat

    end tell

end myPlacePDF

Only thing to find out, if these values are somewhere found within InD prefs:

set PDF crop of PDF place preferences to crop media

get page number of PDF place preferences

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