Indesign book - export only specified pages to PDF

Report · May 29, 2018

When exporting a regular InDesign file to PDF I have the option of only exporting a specified page range. However when exporting a full book (or selected documents in an InDesign book) that option is greyed out. My book is 1000+ pages and I only want to export the image pages from this book for proof reading. So what I want is to be able to fill in "Export pages: 3-4, 7-8,20,25-26…" and so on.

Is this possible in indesign?

I found a script by Peter Kahrel (Export individual book documents to PDF | Peter Kahrel ) which perhaps could be tweeked to do what I want but not as it is. This script lets me export certain sections of a book but my image pages are scattered throughout the book and think I would only mess things up if I changed these pages to secitons instead. I have never really worked with sections so I'm not sure.

/Simon

Report · May 29, 2018

Hi Simon,

When using a book, the choices out of the box are to export selected chapters or deselect all chapters and export the entire book.

You could manally open each chapter and export pages, then combine them in a new PDF. (Ugh.)

Or if a script doesn't exist you could hire a script writer. There are several on this forum. Since Peter's script is close, you might ask him the price for tweaking it. Or check with others.

~ Jane

Report · May 29, 2018

The best places to ask about scripts are in the InDesign Scripting forum here:

InDesign Scripting

Report · May 29, 2018

That script you found would do the trick there's instructions on using Section Markers - which would be perfect for you

Export individual sections

The selected documents are exported section by section. With Use section markers in the file names checked, the script constructs PDF file names by adding the contents of the document's section marker to the document's name (section markers are set in the Numbering and Section Options dialog in InDesign). If you happen to have several sections with the same name, then the script adds sequential numbers to the PDF file names.
If you opt not to use section markers, or if the section marker contains no text, then the script adds the sections's page range to the name, as in reviews_123-126.pdf.
To have each produced PDF file loaded in Acrobat Reader separately, check check View PDF after exporting.

Report · May 29, 2018

Simon,

Here is the Help for Sections:

Learn how to number pages, chapters, and sections in InDesign

If it were me, I would do one or two chapters and test it before doing all of them.

Report · May 29, 2018

Thanks Eugene! I must have misunderstood when read about the script. I’ll look into it tomorrow.

Report · May 30, 2018

Sorry! but Eugene is wrong on this point! …

What you could need is a script to export as single page all pages containing an image!

=> 10 pages containing an or more images => 10 pdf files!

Best,

Michel, from FRIdNGE

Report · May 30, 2018

What you could need is a script to export as single page all pages containing an image!
=> 10 pages containing an or more images => 10 pdf files!

Well, ideally I would need a script that exports selected pages to one file. But if it could export to separate files that would be simple enough to mend them afterwards.

Report · May 30, 2018

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Eugene+Tyson skrev

That script you found would do the trick there's instructions on using Section Markers - which would be perfect for you

Export individual sections

The selected documents are exported section by section. With Use section markers in the file names checked, the script constructs PDF file names by adding the contents of the document's section marker to the document's name (section markers are set in the Numbering and Section Options dialog in InDesign). If you happen to have several sections with the same name, then the script adds sequential numbers to the PDF file names.
If you opt not to use section markers, or if the section marker contains no text, then the script adds the sections's page range to the name, as in reviews_123-126.pdf.
To have each produced PDF file loaded in Acrobat Reader separately, check check View PDF after exporting.

I don't see how I can use this. From what I understand I would have to define each page with an image as starting a new section. Just doing this would take a lot of time. I would also have to define the first page after each image page as a new section - since a section will be active for all consecutive pages until a new section is defined, right? Even so, I tried setting up just for this but it wouldn't let me choose which sections to export so I don't see how it could be of any use to me. Correct me if I'm wrong.