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andyb26437871
New Participant
November 20, 2018
Answered

Is it possible to combine multiple InDesign books

  • November 20, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 1980 views

Hey Everyone,

I'm currently working on a large product catalogue made up of several major sections (product types), each one containing several smaller sections (product families).

Each product type section is an InDesign book containing the multiple individual files that make up each product family section.

However, as the finished catalogue needs to be made up of all the major sections it would be good to be able to have them all linked (in the same way as the individual files are by the Book file). This would ideally allow me to make the page numbering continuous and update automatically, as well as allowing me to sync common styles across the whole catalogue.

I had thought to simply make a top level book which then contained each of the lower level books, but I do not appear to be able to do this. When I try to add the lower level books to the top level book I am unable to select them.

I could make a single book containing all the individual files, but ideally I would like to keep the sections separate.

Does anyone know a way in which I can combine the books for syncing and numbering purposes but still keep them as separate books with style syncing capabilities at the lower book level?

Thanks guys.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Scott Citron

    A book (.indb) file is, as I think you understand, a collection of InDesign documents (.indd). There is currently no way to aggregate .indb files into one complete book file. Of course, you could export a book file to .pdf, but as a PDF there's no way to update without going back to the original .indb book document.

    My suggestion would be to try to work within the existing book framework (.indb) as it is.

    4 replies

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    Peter Kahrel
    Community Expert
    November 28, 2018

    Say you have books A and B, each with a number of indds in them. If you want to combine A and B, can't you just take the indds from B.indb and add them to A.indb? I'm probably missing something obvious.

    A
    andyb26437871Author
    New Participant
    November 28, 2018

    Hey Peter,

    Thanks for your suggestion. You are correct that the easy answer is to simply take the INDDs from book B and add them to book A.

    However, I want to keep each book individual so that book A has it's own styles that can be synced across the book, and the same with book B.

    The reason I want to do this is because each book has overlapping style names (e.g. "Product Name", "Part Number" etc., but due to the different product types each book has very different styles for the commonly named items. So "Part number" might be Helvetica bold 16pt in red in one book, but 18pt Helvetica bold in grey in another. I know it sounds weird from a consistency point of view, but trust me it is necessary for this particular job. Anyway, if I had a single book and synced the styles then the differences would be lost.

    Anyway, thanks for the suggestion. :-)

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    andyb26437871Author
    New Participant
    November 28, 2018

    Alas... it is as I feared!

    Thanks Scott and Srishti for your answers.

    Scott Citron
    Scott CitronCorrect answer
    Brainiac
    November 28, 2018

    A book (.indb) file is, as I think you understand, a collection of InDesign documents (.indd). There is currently no way to aggregate .indb files into one complete book file. Of course, you could export a book file to .pdf, but as a PDF there's no way to update without going back to the original .indb book document.

    My suggestion would be to try to work within the existing book framework (.indb) as it is.

      Srishti Bali
      Community Manager
      Srishti BaliCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      November 28, 2018

      Hi there,

      As per your query, you are trying to bind several books in one big book. Unfortunately, InDesign does not have that option right now. InDesign book can only select documents, not another book. You may raise this as a feature request here: Adobe InDesign Feedback. This is the best way of communicating with the Engineering and Product Management teams regarding issues and suggestions so they can be implemented in future releases.

      Here is the complete workflow for InDesign Book: Create book files with Adobe InDesign

      Regards,

      Srishti

        A
        andyb26437871Author
        New Participant
        November 28, 2018

        Thanks Srishti.

        Some very helpful links there.

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