Breaking large document into multiple smaller ones

[jblair1948]

I'm using indesign 4 & win 7.

I have a 47 page document I'm trying to break into several smaller ones.  The original document is 45,420 KB in size.

I copied that document and renamed it to Part1.  Not the original and Part1 are the same size.

I open Part1 and delete from pages 8 - 47.  Now Part1 is only 7 pages in length, text and pictures.  I save it out.  However, it is still showing 45,000+KB in size.  Same size as the original 47 page document.

I went to the last text block, using the selection pointer, I double clicked on the larger square box  to try and delete any text that Part1 might be holding on to.    With the Show Text Threads turned on, the is nothing connected to the out port of the last text box on the last page.  Save Part1 again.  It's still showing 45,000kb.

How do I shrink this document down to what it should be, my guess would be about 1/5 of the original size or 9,000KB. 

TIA

JohnT,

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

CS4 is old enough that some of this may not be quite the same, but the way I would break up a document is to make X copies (four, in your case) and then carefully delete the unwanted pages from each. Lots of room to make mistakes, so don't touch your original document and make sure you have backup copies.

As for the file size(s), what I think you've run into is the fairly common (integral, really) ID file bloat. ID, like Word and some other apps, saves tons of undo, preview and other data with each save. This can add up until your four-page resume is 4-5GB in size.

The solution is to save each file using Save As to a new filename, which purges nearly all of that "junk in the trunk." It's good practice on any project file that's developed over time or continually edited, to do a 'Save As' at intervals — daily isn't too often, for an active project — both to clear this bloat and give you a chain of recoverable backups. (The next frantic post from users like yourself is often how to recover a huge, bloated, broken file that won't open any more... 😛 )

If that doesn't work in reducing the file sizes (and it should, but...) is to save or export each file to IDML format (which I think exists in CS4), then open that file and save again as INDD under a new name. That does the purge above and some significant structural rewriting that can clear up all kinds of small faults and glitches.

Ask away if that doesn't solve your issues.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@jblair1948 

As @James Gifford—NitroPress pointed out - if you make a copy of your file - outside of InDesign - and keep working on it - new Undo History is being added.

In order to purge the Undo History and do a basic housekeeping - you need to do Save As from withing InDesign.

IDMLing also removes all previews - and InDesign will re-generate them when you open this IDML file.

But one more thing - what James didn't mention - are your images LINKED - placed using Ctrl+D and kept as links - or EMBEDED - you've done copy&paste from some other application or manually selected an option for the link?

There are only few situations that you could embed something in the InDesign file - otherwise it should never be done.

[TᴀW]

Do a "Save As" (as mentioned above) to the new document, that normally reduced the file size dramatically.

Lots of room to make mistakes, so don't touch your original document and make sure you have backup copies.

Very true.

There are scripts out there to make the process of splitting a large document into multiple small ones an accident-free, simple, one-click operation, not least of which is my (not free) https://www.id-extras.com/products/extract-pages/

Might be worth looking into if you're doing a lot of this.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

My reading was that keeping it simple was the best route. 🙂

But yes, there are multiple ways to handle document split/merge/management etc.