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Known Participant
October 20, 2010
Question

Placing PDF pages on every other page

  • October 20, 2010
  • 4 replies
  • 27143 views

Hello!

I would like to place pages from a PDF on every other page (I don't have empty pages set up for it, I would like InDesign to do it for me, too, if possible).

Is there any way I can do it automaticaly, maybe by script?

Thanks in advance!

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    4 replies

    Inspiring
    April 12, 2017

    This worked like a charm! Thank you so much!

    Participant
    February 23, 2017

    OMG OMG OMG

    Combining Colin's post with Multipage Importer just saved me 2000 clicks!

    Thanks so much for the info, and glad it's still here almost 7 years later.

    Participant
    August 26, 2014

    Thanks to Adobe for keeping this post up here. Even 4 years later, it offered a solution for my similar issue.

    However, the part of  'click in the empty frames one page at a time' would be painfully slow with a large document. My answer was similar though:

    • Run the multi-page import
    • Create a new master and place my desired PDF on the B master in the correct position/orientation.
    • Run the  cdflash script to add a page after each existing page; this asks which Master to use, specify the B master and let it run.
    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 20, 2010

    There are scripts for importing multipage PDFs. One of the best is here: InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Zanelli Releases MultiPageImporter for Importing both PDF and INDD Files

    This won't skip pages, though, as far as I know, but it wouldn't, I think, be hard to write another script in insert a blank page between every pair of pages after placing the PDF.

    Colin Flashman
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 21, 2010

    as peter has written, follow the link and get the multipageimporter2.5.jsx link.

    you will need another script to run afterwards which will insert a blank every second page.

    var doc = app.documents[0];
    var masterNames = doc.masterSpreads.everyItem().name;
    var d = app.dialogs.add({name:"pick a master spread"});
    d.dialogColumns.add().staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Master Pages:"});
    var dd = d.dialogColumns.add().dropdowns.add({stringList:masterNames});
    if(d.show()){
         var index = dd.selectedIndex;
         d.destroy();
    } else {
         d.destroy();exit();
    }
    var master = doc.masterSpreads.item(index);
    for(var i=doc.pages.length-1;i>=0;i--){
         doc.pages.add(LocationOptions.AFTER,doc.pages,{appliedMaster:master});
    }

    highlight the above text, copy into textedit (mac) or notepad (pc) and save as a .jsx file and put into your scripts folder.

    now, i did NOT write this script but i've unfortunately forgotten who wrote it, so can't credit the author for this script.

    If the answer wasn't in my post, perhaps it might be on my blog at colecandoo!
    LGFN1Author
    Known Participant
    October 21, 2010

    Thanks Peter and cdflash!

    The story is that I have already a document with filled pages, I just want to import a PDF page between every InDesign page. What I did as of now is, I used the script that cdflash provided and now I have new empty every second page. What I would like now, is to be able to import a PDF to every other page, --and as extra credit, rotated 180º (which with the script that Peter linked to, is rotation possible).

    Thanks for past and for future!