How to create a book/document with custom pages of existing documents?

Question

Hello all,

I'm working on a booklet for 3 products and I currently have 4 different documents each taking up a part (let's call them Part A, B, C & D). There are 3 different products (let's call the product X, Y & Z) which comprises of Part A-D. In each document/part, the document consists of pages that applies to all product X, Y & Z as well as product specific. I'd like to compile these pages to create a book for each product.

Is there a way I could create a book using specific pages of the current 4 documents so that in the end product I have a book for each product X, Y & Z that are made up of the content in the current 4 documents (Part A-D)? Do note that I will be making changes periodically hence why I had a document for each part that allowed me to edit and export conveniently instead of creating a document for each product to begin with.

Thanks a lot in advance! I would appreciate any other solutions too

Randy Hagan · Answer

You're on the right track, but there's an extra step: you need to create separate document(s) which only consist of the pages you want to assemble into your books.

Since you used letters, please allow me use numerals to offer an explanation and contrast. If I have a five-page InDesign document which contains relevant product information on pages 2,3 and 4, I cannot use the book function to "extract" just those pages when I compile my "books." I can only include entire .INDD files in my book compilations.

Which leaves me two options: I can either 1) compile the books and delete the irrelevant pages once the book is put together, or I can 2) create new documents which only contain the relevant pages with the irrelevant ones already deleted. Since Option 1) requires manual intervention every time I compile any book, with the attendant complications you'd expect if the manual deletions aren't done precisely; I'd personally go with Option 2) to create the desired results in the first place, then rely on InDesign's book functions to compile my desired results without worry.

Hope this helps,

Randy

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