How to Export separate pdf files from a book, but keep their original file names?! Help

Hi Melissa,

see also into the script pdf_individuals.jsx written by Peter Kahrel, in case you need to export to PDF Interactive as well:

Export book documents to individual PDF files
by Peter Kahrel
Version history: 21 June 2020: Added support for interactive PDF export.

https://creativepro.com/files/kahrel/indesign/pdf_individuals.html

FWIW:

I tweaked the width and height values of the UI a bit so that I can see longer file names.

And I reduced the overall height of the script's UI so that it will better fit to my laptop's screen when the book contains a large number of documents like in this case:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

Hi, I've put together a script that (I think) will do what you want. Just change the parameters to your needs. Let me know if it works for you.

- Mark

/*

    Export Book As Individual PDFs

    by m1b, posted here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/how-to-export-separate-pdf-files-from-a-book-but-keep-their-original-file-names-help/m-p/12418944#M447167

*/

function main() {

    exportBookAsIndividualPDFs({

        // 2-number array of 1-based document numbers
        // range: undefined, will export all documents of book
        // range: [1, 4], exports only the first 4 documents of book
        range: undefined,

        // name of folder to export pdfs into
        // will be created if it doesn't exist
        // folder is in same folder as book
        folderName: 'PDFs',

        // the PDF preset name
        PDFPresetName: '[Press Quality]'

    });

    function exportBookAsIndividualPDFs(params) {
        var range = params.range,
            folderName = params.folderName,
            presetName = params.PDFPresetName;

        folderName = folderName || 'PDFs';
        PDFPresetName = presetName || '[Press Quality]';

        try {

            var myPDFExportPreset = app.pdfExportPresets.itemByName(PDFPresetName)
            if (!myPDFExportPreset.isValid)
                throw 'PDF Preset "' + PDFPresetName + '" is not valid.';

            if (app.books.length == 0)
                throw 'No books currently open.'

            var book = app.books[0],
                exportPath = book.filePath + '/' + folderName + '/',
                exportFolder = new Folder(exportPath);

            // prepare the document range, if specified
            if (range == undefined || range.length != 2)
                range = [1, book.bookContents.length];

            // get the book contents
            var bkContents = book.bookContents.itemByRange(range[0] - 1, range[1] - 1);
            if (bkContents.constructor.name != 'BookContent')
                throw 'Could not get book content for range ' + range + '.'

            // this gets file references
            var exportDocs = bkContents.fullName;

            // set up folder
            if (!exportFolder.exists)
                exportFolder.create();

            // export each document
            var i;
            for (i = 0, r = range[0] - 1; r < range[1]; i++, r++) {
                var doc = exportDocs[i],
                    filename = doc.name.replace(/\.indd$/, '.pdf'),
                    exportFile = File(exportPath + filename);

                // export
                book.exportFile(
                    ExportFormat.PDF_TYPE,
                    exportFile,
                    false,
                    myPDFExportPreset,
                    [book.bookContents.item(r)]
                );
            }

            // done
            alert(i + ' PDFs exported.');
            // reveal folder
            exportFile.parent.execute();

        } catch (error) {
            alert('Export failed\n' + error);
        }
    }

} // end main

app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Export Book As Individual PDFs');