While exporting separate PDFs from single InDesign file, how do you specify where to save them?

It seems Adobe have done this in order to force users to split the document into many PDFs using Adobe Acrobat. This means you may need to export one PDF with 600 pages and then use Acrobat to split it into individual PDF files. A waste of time and effort is you ask me.

I know this is an old post but find this feature troublesome also. It makes one useless extra folder inside the folder I choose and then I have to go move the files from that newly created folder to the folder I actually want them in and delete the useless extra folder.

So as an example I have a folder called PRINT which is where I save all the PDF files ready for print and I want to export my next file into separate PDFs, I choose the folder called PRINT and then indesign creates a NEW folder inside that PRINT folder and puts the files there. Now I have to go to that folder, and move the created files back into PRINT folder and then delete the empty folder that indesign created. I can't have any sub-folders inside my PRINT folder because the contents of that folder will later be uploaded to be printed and no folders can be uploaded to the print houses cloud server. So this is really an annoying feature. If someone wants to have the separate PDFs in a new folder they could just create a new folder earlier in the export dialog when you choose the folder. That's what you normally do when you want to store the files in a new folder. 

In addition to the export dialog box, I have a free script where you can export an InDesign file into PDF pages of any page length, including one page. It also chooses the destination folder and PDF export settings to use. The script can be found on my scripts page here: https://colecandoo.com/scripts/ look for Export an InDesign file to PDFs of set page lengths

Hi Cherry, 

Thanks for reaching out. This is an expected behavior with InDesign. It saves all the PDF's in one folder created with the file name. 
If you want this to be changed, I would request if you can share this feature request on our UserVoice page (https://indesign.uservoice.com/). 
This is the best way of communicating with the Engineering and Product Management teams regarding issues and suggestions so they can be implemented in future releases.

Regards,

Srishti

You select the type of PDF you want (either one of the Presets or one from Export) and a dialogue box comes up, Select New Folder, Name and Save it. Then tick, in the next dialogue box, called Export Adobe PDF,  Create Separate PDF Files and this will create in your newly created folder, indvidual page PDFs each separately numbered.