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How can I batch PDF the first spread in multi-spread documents?

Participant ,
May 29, 2017 May 29, 2017

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I work for a catalog where each spread in the catalog is separated into individual indesign docs. Hence pages 2-3 is one document, 4-5 is another, 6-7 another, etc.

Until a spread is finalized, there may be instances where spread 4-5 let’s say contains multiple layout ideas within that same document, so that when you look into that 4-5 indesign document, within the document it could feasibly go from page 4 through to page 9 because there are THREE layout ideas being considered until ONE FINAL layout is decided upon for pages 4-5 specifically.

In the interim, there are times when we need to print the whole catalog, i.e. ALL of the separate indesign documents (some containing many layout ideas within one document remember), and as a rule, the chosen layout at the moment is placed at the top of the indesign document, hence a layout that has been worked on and has 5 different layouts for instance, hence pages 4 through 13, the art director will select say pages 10-11 as their top choice at the moment, and will MOVE that spread to the TOP of the document, hence 10-11 becomes 4-5, within that document that will become pages 4-5 in the final catalog. Got it.

Now let’s say you have a lot of documents like that, where ONLY the top spread (i.e. first two pages) of the document need to be PDF’d, how does one go about doing that with a batch PDF process? Currently we have a batch PDF script, but it ends up printing all the spreads in a multi-spread document, when we only need the first spread (i.e. first two pages) output-ed.

*At the office we’re using Indesign CC 2015.

**At home I can test on Indesign CC 2017.

***Both on iMacs from 2011 and up.

Thanks to anyone who can provide any assistance. Cheers.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , May 30, 2017 May 30, 2017

Hi,

for batch processing the first 2 pages of a document with Peter Kahrel's Batch process script see my answer here:

Re: Defining page range for PDF export

Peter Kahrel's script:

Free script Batch convert/export InDesign documents | Peter Kahrel

Regards,
Uwe

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Community Expert ,
May 29, 2017 May 29, 2017

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There is no native function that is going to do something this specialized. I would suggest popping over to the scripting forum and ask if anyone over there can help you out. Be prepared to pay for such a script.

Barring that, my only other suggestion would be to put each layout on a new layer instead of new pages. Without knowing the entire workflow it’s pretty tough to know how well that would work out.

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Community Expert ,
May 29, 2017 May 29, 2017

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I agree with Bob on looking for a script to help you. Here's the link to the InDesign Scripting forum:

InDesign Scripting

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Participant ,
May 29, 2017 May 29, 2017

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Can a moderator move the entire post to the Indesign Scripts area?

Would be preferable to me re-typing all the Tags and re-formatting etc.

Why won’t the site allow me to edit, in order to move my post? This should be a site-wide feature.

If not I’ll move it as soon as I can. Thanks.

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Community Expert ,
May 29, 2017 May 29, 2017

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At your service...

Moving to InDesign Scripting.

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Participant ,
May 29, 2017 May 29, 2017

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Thanks.

So far I’ve been attempting to manually modify a PDF preset .joboptions file via TextEdit, specifically the EndPage (-1 changed to 2)/StartPage (1 left as is) lines, to no avail. It always displays “Pages: All” within indesign via the edit preset dialogue, and using the batch script continues to export all the pages within multi-page documents, instead of the first two pages.

Maybe a script is the answer.

This should be a native feature to indesign’s PDF presets feature.

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Community Expert ,
May 30, 2017 May 30, 2017

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Hi,

for batch processing the first 2 pages of a document with Peter Kahrel's Batch process script see my answer here:

Re: Defining page range for PDF export

Peter Kahrel's script:

Free script Batch convert/export InDesign documents | Peter Kahrel

Regards,
Uwe

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Participant ,
May 30, 2017 May 30, 2017

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Yes, this worked perfectly, PDF-ing the first two spreads in each multi-spread document processed through Peter Kahrel’s script.

Marked as correct, you are the man dogs, for real.

I gotta learn some javascript, seriously.

Much thanks again. Cheers.

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