Indesign placed page in multiple objects at once

[cotcodac]

So, that was one difficult title to come up with... 

So: I use an indesign doc to import another indesign doc with 2 pages. I'm basically using this for imposition purposes (think business cards with 2 pages, import in another id doc to impose 10 of them on an A4 pages). So, when I select all 10 objects (all with page 1) I would like to run a script that would iterate thru the 10 of them, take the first one and prompt the user to choose the place pdf/indesign options, and remember those choices and apply them to all of the rest in the selection. I can do this one by one with PDFoptions Editor, but doing it 10 times per document, several times a day makes you wish you had a better way...

Thank you. (I know its lazy for not giving it a try myself, will do give it a try but if in the meantime somebody could point to another solution that escapes me, or if somebody could code in 5 min what would take me a full day... 😄 - Greatly appreciated !).

[Mike Bro]

Hello,

Take a look at the MultiPageImporter2.6.2.jsx Script for automating the placing\importing of PDF and InDesign files inside Adobe InDesign. it sould handle what you're looking to do. You can download the code from either of the links below.

https://github.com/mike-edel/ID-MultiPageImporter/releases

https://github.com/mike-edel/ID-MultiPageImporter/blob/master/MultiPageImporter.jsx

More info....

https://creativepro.com/placing-all-the-pages-of-a-pdf-inside-indesign/

Regards,

Mike

[Eugene Tyson]

First off - I don't have any scripting skills.

Second off - I'd rename the files for imposition as 001 to 100 or something like that.  Place those files. When it comes to the next imposition - replace the 001.pdf to 100.pdf files with the new ones and then update the InDesign links.

Thirdly:

You'd be better off investing in some imposition software.

I've used this and it's quite robust

https://www.devalipi.com/

There's also Quite Imposing (plugin for Acrobat).

Hope that helps

[cotcodac]

Thank you Eugene, I am familiar with impositions solutions, I really like the freedom Indesign gives me with my workflow. Both your solutions work with intermediary pdfs, my workflow imports directly indd file into another indd document and keeping the link live, and exports just one pdf in the end. Have a modification to do? amend the design file, open the print file that will alert me the design file has changed, accept changes and export again. 

[Peter Spier]

I'm not sure I understand the work flow here, so let's see if I have it right:

You make a two-page document, and on those pages you create 10 different business cards, with one side of each card on page 1 and the other side on page 2. Now you want to create ten two-page files, each with a single card 10-up.

Is that really it? If it is, the first thing I would suggest is a workflow change. I have some clients for whom I do business cards, and some have multiple employees. I do these all as multi-page files set up at single card dimensions, one card per page, then when I need to make a sheet of ten I simply place the appropriate page from that file into a new ten-up sized file (I've got templates I made for these in horizontal and vertical orientations) in the upper left position, then run Step-and-Repeat to create the grid. This would be fairly easy to automate with a multipage importer (I've used Scott Zanelli's script since CS4) and a second script to do the step and repeat, or a modification to do it in one, I imagine.

One reason for keeping the cards separate this way, in my opinion, is it allows for easy updating of individual cards and  adding/removing employees as staff changes, as well as making it easy to select less than all cards for imposing when the client places an order for a new batch (they never seem to want the same number of cards for everyone, or need them for everyone at the same time).

As a bonus, if you keep the ten-up files as well, you can just update your original one-up and refresh the links so there's no need to re-impose much of the time.

[cotcodac]

Uau, that is a complicated workflow... And I think it's not what I'm doing, I will try to explain it better. I really like to import indesign documents in indesign for the sake of imposition, as you have a live link to the design file in the print file. So, when I design a business card I create a 85x55mm 2 page doc for front and verso of that business card - (the design doc). To multiply that design and to carefully adjust anything I want for my printer, I create another indesign document (the print doc), lets say A4, where I import the first page of the design document and place it 10 times (same thing). Export to pdf and print. Then I need to change the imported page in the A4 document to have the second page of the design. One way to do it is to import everything again, or to use pdf/indd import options to change the page atribute of the imported document. Both time consuming, the second one a bit closer to what I need but still... I would like to select all 10 placed documents and ask once for the pdf/indd import options and do the same with all objects in the selection.

So the starting point would be the PDFoptions editor script, modified to work with indd files as well as pdfs.

Will look into multipage importer but I dont think it works how I want it... Will try to remember how scripting works in the meantime. Thank you...

[Peter Spier]

We're doing nearly the same thing. I do step and repeat (one command, no measuring), you place ten times (nine commands, and you either need to have pre-set frames or get the positioning right when you place); you do two docs for output of two sides, I do one two-page file (or several cards in one output file if I need the same quantity).

Why not just choose relink and specify page 2 from your ID file, then export your second PDF?

[cotcodac]

(I was saying complicated about the workflow you thought I was doing, not yours).

I'm trying to avoid doing step and repeat, just because I might have moved the objects, or applied special formating. Relink... You would need to relink each object one by one, I dont see a way to avoid indesign asking each time for the page number, maybe relink to a different indesign doc (split the design doc into front doc and verso doc). So... back to scripting, the story for the script would be: select a bunch of placed objects, ask for the place options (like a relink) for the first in the selection and then relink all of them using the same as the user input for the first one without asking for each one.

[Peter Spier]

> Relink... You would need to relink each object one by one

No. Click on the link name with the down arrow next to it and you'll relink all inistance of the link at once.

And I think Step and repeat is a fantastic way to go here -- just enter the dimensions of the card plus any desired gap (if they need to bleed) into the dialog for length and width, click the create grid box and say OK. Presto.

Even if you were mis-aligned on the first one for some reason, your grid will all be aligned and you can make a correction on the cutter.

[cotcodac]

> Relink... You would need to relink each object one by one

No. Click on the link name with the down arrow next to it and you'll relink all inistance of the link at once.

By @Peter Spier

Not if you need to change the page in the linked doc. Looks like indesign is giving each of us different tools to do the same thing and I have become attached to my ways... 😄 Anyway my snippet (not mine, but...) woks exactly like I want it, and I use it instead of PDFOptionseditor which can handle only one selected object, mine doesnt care... Hurray... 😄 

[cotcodac · Accepted solution]

Hurray ! Found a snippet that helps a lot, I just need to tidy up the iteration and try to make it a bit error proof.

myDoc.selection[1].place(n.itemLink.filePath,1, undefined);
myDoc.selection[2].place(n.itemLink.filePath,0, undefined);

First line asks the user to specify import options for the selected placed indesign doc, the second modifies the next object in selection without asking, based on how ID works (keeping th eplace preferences in some kind of preference). The second argument is the one determining if the user is being asked or not...