Fix CS3's Print Booklet !!

[_Myrna_Larson_]

The Print Booklet feature in InDesign CS3 is a step backward!

CS2's InBooklet could create a new document. I BADLY need that feature, as I must print odd spreads in landscape mode, but even numbered spreads in reverse landscape mode.

Having to export/print to PDF, then rotate the pages in Acrobat and print from there is unnecessarily cumbersome.

[_Dave_Saunders_]

But the documents that InBooklet produced have a fatal flaw. As long as you don't use footnotes, you might not care. But the process that destroys footnote numbering in CS2 booklet documents will equally destroy numbered lists in CS3.

"Fixing" this problem involves a whole different approach to imposing live pages. My BuildBooklet script (which produces saddle-stitched printer spreads) uses one technique that preserves numbered lists. But it doesn't have the same flexibility as CS2's otherwise excellent InBooklet.

Perhaps it will do all you need. You can download it from:

http://pdsassoc.com/downloads/Buildbooklet.zip

Dave

[_Myrna_Larson_]

Hi, Dave:

Footnotes are not an issue for me, nor are images that span the 2 sheets of a spread.

I have your excellent script. But it doesn't solve my problem because I need to create a new document with each SPREAD on a separate page (i.e. the 2 original pages combined into 1 page), as InBooklet does.

The reason is, I have to print double-sided, and since my printer has unequal minimum top and bottom margins, the center lines on the spreads on either side of the printed sheet do not align.

My workaround for this is to create a new document with InBooklet and print it in 2 runs: (a) even-numbered spreads in landscape mode, (b) odd-numbered spreads in reverse landscape mode, reverse order, turning the paper appropriately when I reinsert it in the printer to do the 2nd side.

Another workaround is to export to PDF, then in Acrobat rotate either the odd or even pages 180 degrees, then print from Acrobat using my printer's duplex mode.

Is there any chance you could modify your script to create a new document, as InBooklet does?

I've used your script to impose the pages in the correct order, then tried copying one spread at a time to a new document with double width pages, but I have numbered lists, and the numbering is not preserved.

Or can you point me to some script(s) that demonstrates how to copy all of the items on a single page of the original document and paste to the left (or right) half of a double-size page in a new document? I understand the logic re selecting and pasting the pages in the right order and the correct side of the page, but the InD Scripting Help file isn't very helpful in finding the right methods and properties. It needs lots more sample code.....

I have 10+ years programming in Visual Basic, but I can also handle Java script.

[_Myrna_Larson_]

PS:

If I can't resolve this booklet printing issue, I can't upgrade to CS3.

Do you know if you can have both InD CS2 and InD CS3 installed at the same time?

[BobLevine]

You can have both with no problems.

Bob

[_Myrna_Larson_]

Boy, that's an instant response!

Thanks.

[_Dave_Saunders_]

It would be a lot of work. It would involve resolving all auto-page number symbols, for one thing.

What I do is use my script and then export the spreads to PDFs and print that.

Dave

[BobLevine]

Dave,

How hard would be to modify the script to do the impostition and the PDF
export?

Bob

[_Myrna_Larson_]

Reply to #6<br /><br />Thanks, Dave. I'm not using a lot of features, page numbering among them, but I realize that a script would have to handle a lot of things that don't matter to me.<br /><br />Thanks for the info. It looks like the PDF export, rotate pages and print there, is the simplest solution until Adobe "fixes" Print Booklet (fingers crossed <g>).

[Peter Spier]

You can print direct to PDF from print booklet, I imagine (I don't have CS3 yet) and perhaps save a step.

Nothing wrong with Dave's script though. I use and recommend it all the time. :)

[_Dave_Saunders_]

I just posted a new script for CS3 only that takes advantage of the new ability to import pages from other documents. This first version is little more than a proof of concept and so it provides the bare minimum of functionality:

As long as your document has been saved and is a multiple of four pages long, the script produces something that looks a lot like the PageMaker booklets (i.e., single-sided document with double-sized pages with your pages in printer spreads.

The differences are:

1. I save the booklet file to the same folder as the original (to minimize the risk of the user saving over the orginal document and losing everything).
2. The pages are imported and linked rather than reshuffled. Thus, everything about the pages is perfectly preserved including footnote numbers, page breaks in text and what have you.

This also means that you can make the booklet as early in the process as you like and as you work on the original, the booklet will be automatically updated each time you open it (just don't change the number of pages -- if you do, you'll have to make a new booklet).

I've not given much thought to where to take this script in terms of new functionality. Obvious candidates are:

1. Supporting creep.
2. Supporting signatures.
3. Supporting InDesign Books.
4. Supporting Bleed and Slug (including at the binding).
5. Other kinds of n-up arrangements.

For now, you can give it a whirl by downloading:

http://pdsassoc.com/downloads/MakeBooklet.zip

After unzipping, put the .jsxbin file in the Scripts Panel folder in the Scripts folder of the Version 5.0 folder in the Adobe InDesign folder in Preferences. You can if you wish create subfolders in the Scripts Panel folder.

Access the Scripts panel via View/Automation.

To use the script, open a document that has a page length that is an exact multiple of four and then double-click the script's name in the panel.

Dave

[_Cyndee_Meystel_]

Thanks Dave. I'll be trying this. I am very disappointed in CS3's print
booklet function -- it didn't even impose my pages in the correct order when
I used it.

Cyndee

[_Myrna_Larson_]

Dave:

This is WONDERFUL!!! THANK YOU.

If you are looking for suggestions for further development, one thing I noted relates to margins:

In my original document the pages are 4.75" x 4.75", with 0.25" margins all around. The newly created booklet has the correct size pages (9.5" wide x 4.75" high), but the margins are 0.5" all around. Setting the booklet margins to match the original would be a nice touch.

But of course there are "complications" if the margins vary from page to page in the original.

Handling creep would be a nice addition for long documents, of course.

[_Dave_Saunders_]

Myrna,

Perhaps it would be best if I set the margin to zero because I certainly can't have margins that are different on the two-sides. Perhaps I could put guides where the margins were.

What I'm working on is a script to allow Edit Original to open the original document at the right page -- I can't believe that the product doesn't automatically do that.

If you're interested, I've been blogging on the subject here:

http://jsid.blogspot.com/

Dave

[_Myrna_Larson_]

Hi, Dave:

Re the margins, I was a bit confused when I saw my pages all extending beyond the margins of the booklet. Perhaps it wouldn't matter to most people.

Assuming the only purpose of the document is to print it, since InD prints things that extend beyond the margins, I guess there is no "real" problem. OTOH, a 0" margin would work well (IMO).

I've discovered a small glitch. Let's say I open a document and immediately create the booklet. Then I close the booklet and delete its file from disk. All the while the original document remains open.

Then I try to run the script again: I get the message that unsaved documents cannot be processed. But Save is grayed out on the File menu since I haven't made any changes to the original. I tried Save As, specifying the same file name, but that doesn't fix the problem. To run the script again, I have to close the document and reopen it.

Do you know what is going on here?

[_Dave_Saunders_]

I ran into a variation of that problem. I believe it might be a bug in the scripting system itself. If I can repeat your experience, I'll report it to the Adobe scripting team. I even restructured the script to avoid the variation I ran into, but I didn't try the seqence you describe.

Dave

Dave

[_calsharp_]

This lack of an imposition feature makes CS3 virtually unusable for us. What I've been doing is exporting the CS3 document in InDesign Interchange format and opening it in CS2 so I can use the InBooklet feature to make printer spreads. I'm the only one using CS3, and no one else will be getting it until this issue is resolved. This is an egregious upgrade.

CS

[_Dave_Saunders_]

Cal,

Did you try my script? It does a much more secure job of producing booklet documents that CS2 ever did.

Dave

[_calsharp_]

Yes I did, Dave, but it didn't help. I'll go back and try it again; I was in a rush and maybe I didn't have something set correctly. I'm just trying to create printer spreads (11x17) from a multiple-of-four 8 1/2 x 11 document. Thanks.

CS

[_Dave_Saunders_]

If it really didn't help, can you give me details on what went wrong, please.

Dave

[_Stephen_Carlsen_]

Two other booklet/imposition scripts for InDesign CS, CS2, and CS3 are "Booklet CE", http://products.carlsenenterprises.com, and "ImpositionCompanion", http://www.rorohiko.com/. Both are for Mac and Windows.

[_calsharp_]

Dave, I've tried it two more times on a Mac Pro and it seems to be working great now, but it didn't work at all on an older Powerbook; half the content on each page was off on the pasteboard. Maybe I missed the part about it being only for Intel Macs.
Thanks a bunch.

CS

[_Dave_Saunders_]

No, it's not only for MacIntels. It could well be that you've identified a real bug. I bet it has to do with the default ruler origin settings on the two machines. I'll take a look at the script and update it if necessary.

Dave

[Baltioliver]

I've been using InDesign CS2's InBooklet feature for almost all my works and it always worked perfectly, without any problems.

It's just too bad that Adobe Team didn't keep it. As Myrna wrote " a step backward".

Hopefully this will be soon fixed with an upcoming patch.

[_Dave_Saunders_]

I gather that you don't use footnotes and you don't care much about numbered lists. Those two features just don't work in CS2's implementation of make booklet. And with the more sophisticated numbering in CS3, it's even more of a problem.

Dave