Problems making a PDF from Indesign CS5

[Teddy_Boi_Toronto]

Hi friends. I have recently switched to CS5 and I find that I usually need to close the program and then reopen it before I can make a PDF. It says it is working in the background but all it does is spin without creating the PDF. Anyone else having this problem? 

TED

[Monarki Creative]

I would also like to know when this issue is going to be fixed. I am having a lot of issues exporting pdfs (print). The problem is the same one described in the post...the export in the background just spins continuously, and i have to force quit. Once I restart indesign, I am able to export one pdf. the next pdf I try to export again goes to the perpetual spinning. Its becoming extremely frustrating! COME ON ADOBE!

[Teddy_Boi_Toronto]

Hey Everyone.

Well it is nice to see I am not the only one having this issue. So the next question is to Adobe asking... "when are you going to fix this problem?" It is very frustrating.

[bamit]

Same problem for me. This is really shocking. Whose idea was it to make pdf creation a background process? I upgraded to CS5 and found out I couldn't make a pdf from indesign in the middle of a freelance project...

[TimUrchin]

Yeah!
Screwed me right at the end of getting a whole mag to print! I'm having to export eps files and re-export from illustrator like a shmuck!

They have to fix this!!! Some dumb ass at Adobe told me it was a licensing problem. WTF? Yeah we just paid $2000 for it and you want another $680 to be able to make PDF's?

[Daniel Cilia]

No I do not agree, background Pdf printing is a great idea from Adobe. One can continue working whilst a Pdf is being created. It just needs to work, or at the very least for now, until they fix it ... and I do not think it should be a great deal of work for Adobe... is to make the cancel the background Pdf working work. At the moment the only way to stop and continue on the document is force quit InDesign. Or another option give us the possibility to choose to print Pdfs in the 'foreground' just like in CS4 and before.

[Guest]

I had the same problem. I would export pdf and it would go to background and create pdf. I would open my next document to make a pdf and and it would get hung up at 9% and spin, always 9%. this was at 2:00 am with a 10:00 am deadline, I love stress.

My work around would be to launch indesign CS5 export hat document, save, close document, shutdown indesign CS5, restart indesign CS5 open new job to export and repeat the whole process for each Document.

I hope they fix it, cause its a huge waste of time.

[wilbyers2]

I'm pretty furious about this problem with PDFing files from InDesign CS5. I've been an Adobe user for about 12 or 13 years now and this problem sucks. What happens to me is I try to make a PDF file for printing on a Heldelberg press with the preset given by my printer. The program then just goes off into some endless loop, without an error message I might add! I have to force quit the program on my Intel based Mac that is running OSX 10.6.4, with 4 gigs of memory... When I restart the program and open the file I can then print one PDF file. After that the program goes back into the same model of running off in some endless loop without an error message. Note too, I quit all other applications, so that there are no conflicts.

Adobe, THIS IS THE WAY WE MAKE OUR LIVING. You might just want to fix this problem and post an update soon! This is the kind of thing that gives companies a very, very bad name!

Interestingly, we bought a Volume license for the product and now Adobe wants us to pay more to get a fix!  😞

[Daniel Cilia]

I really hope that Adobe fixes this really soon, yet my way around the problem ( I already mentioned it earlier on)  is to make a new book, insert the document I want to do the Pdf of and then print the Pdf from the book panel. By doing this it does not do the background 'printing' and works like CS4 without background printing. I think the problem lies in the new background printing in CS5.

[Teddy_Boi_Toronto]

Hey guys. Well misery does like company. I can't believe adobe has actually told people they would have to pay for the fix. Isn't the $2000 enough? Let's keep complaining-they have to listen evenually don't they? I guess there is always quark.

[bamit]

I've found if you force quit Indesign it stops the hung up background process and when you restart the app it will make a pdf (at least so far today)

Somebody at Adobe tested making pdfs in Indesign CS5 BEFORE it went gold master right?

[Daniel Cilia]

We might complain about Adobe for messing up the background pdf printing yet I am sure they are working on it and will fix it with the next update for free. Something like this cannot be fixed for at a charge. Can someone at Adobe please confirm this.

[BobLevine]

This is not a direct line to Adobe. It's a user to user forum.

If you wish to make you case directly, do so here: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

The more people they hear from the better.

That said, I've yet to see this issue and while there have been several reports, it doesn't seem like a widespread problem, so the more details you can provide the better chance of seeing it fixed.

Bob

[designerBeans]

This is not the only thread talking about this problem.

Personally, I've spent hours on the phone with tech support since I upgraded and they've given me several workarounds which are not any better than the Export to PDF...force quilt... Export PDF steps that I'm having to do now to make a PDF for each legacy document/book!

I just reported the bug as you've advised. I hope everyone else on this thread is doing so as well!

[Daniel Cilia]

Thanks Bob for the info about Adobe.

I do not know if it is a coincidence or just luck, yet since I have started to export to Pdf using File>Adobe PDF Presets and then choosing one of my preset settings, the background Pdf printing has always worked with no hiccups. I have already done a few exports and did not have a problem with InDesign hanging once using this method.

[LucienSchilling]

BobLevine wrote:

This is not a direct line to Adobe. It's a user to user forum.

If you wish to make you case directly, do so here: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

The more people they hear from the better.

That said, I've yet to see this issue and while there have been several reports, it doesn't seem like a widespread problem, so the more details you can provide the better chance of seeing it fixed.

Bob

Adobe monitors the forum...

[Peter Spier]

Some employees monitor some threads some of the time. Most of time they don't participate, and this is not a channel to tech support. Matthew Laun has taken an interest in this particular problem, but this is a rare exception.

[Peter Spier]

And Bob made that comment almost a year ago when this thread was just starting,and it was quite pertinent then.

[Thomas Dearie]

P Spier wrote:

Some employees monitor some threads some of the time. Most of time they don't participate, and this is not a channel to tech support. Matthew Laun has taken an interest in this particular problem, but this is a rare exception.

I trust you're right, Peter, though I certainly don't know one way or the other.

Users come here hoping to converse with Adobe on various issues because they're desperate and don't know of any other outlet to do so. It's a symptom that some kind of venue for robust dialogue between the user community and Adobe is much needed.

Submitting a bug report through the submission system is prudent advice, but it's one way communication and isn't a substitute for open dialogue. It feels like shouting a wish down a well, and doesn't solve the user's immediate need for information.

With individual technical support being overwhelmingly expensive for both users and the developer, there's a need for more proactive and innovative ways for users and Adobe to communicate (and elucidate and tackle sticky technical problems).

Matthew's involvement here has given users productive feedback that is complementary to that provided by other users and is a step in the right direction.

I'm not suggesting that this forum is or isn't the ideal venue for this (I think there are other ways to address these issues and provide after-market value to users).

But, as long as users have nowhere else to go, I think we'll keep seeing people resort to the forum as a communications outlet.

Cheers

Tom

[claidheamdanns]

Thomas, very well put. I could not agree with you more.

And I would also like to say a big THANK YOU to Matthew for his involvement on this forum.

[John Hawkinson]

What Peter is saying, and it is important to say, is that users coming to this forum should not make the mistake of presuming that Adobe personnel are reading the threads and seeing what they say. This isn't to discourage people from coming here and posting. But sometimes people get the impression that Adobe is reading what they say here (or that Peter is an Adobe employee); those things aren't true and it's worth making sure people do not labor under a misapprehension.

[Thomas Dearie]

John Hawkinson wrote:

What Peter is saying, and it is important to say, is that users coming to this forum should not make the mistake of presuming that Adobe personnel are reading the threads and seeing what they say. This isn't to discourage people from coming here and posting. But sometimes people get the impression that Adobe is reading what they say here (or that Peter is an Adobe employee); those things aren't true and it's worth making sure people do not labor under a misapprehension.

Absolutely.

It's a helpful thing for users to know, and I'm sure that was the intent.

It just illuminates a relevant issue that's worthy of note.

As you say, we wouldn't want to discourage people from using the forum to try to open dialogue with Adobe. Quite the opposite - they should jump in and hope for the best since, for now, the forum is the only game in town.

Although it's imperfect for this purpose for the reasons you noted, in this case, the dialogue has been useful and welcome. I'd like to see more of it.

With luck, these discussions stimulate new ideas that can benefit users and developers alike.

[John Hawkinson]

Thomas: On a positive note, Brian Nemhauser, Adobe's new Director of Product Management for InDesign and Illustrator has started taking a more public role. He de-lurked over on InDesign Secrets  last week: http://indesignsecrets.com/indesign-cs-5-5-announced.php#comment-490404.

He also recently started using Twitter: @briannemhauser, so I think he is interested in engaging with customers, at least to some degree.

I'd encourage you to encourage him to be more active on these forums, and to have his technical staff do so as well. (I've already done so, but I imagine it's more useful to hear it from other customers, too.)

[Thomas Dearie]

Yes - I noted that with interest (as I flew through my office on roller skates from one task to another).

His commentary sounded encouraging.

Cheers

Tom

[AnneMarie Concepcion]

"he de-lurked over on InDesignSecrets.com" ... lol.  Like de-cloaked, as in Romulan?

AM

[John Hawkinson]

Yup, that's right! It's actually quite a common term around here so I use it without thinking (that might tell you something about the environment I live in...).

I certainly didn't mean to imply that InDesign Secrets was some kind of Neutral Zone and that we would have to be concerned about the Phasers and Photon Torpedos. Definitely nothing like that.

Especially because Cmd-Opt-Shift-K doesn't do anything useful in InDesign. At least, not like it does in a certain other product. (I'm sure there are people who really use Clipping Path: Options... and would be heartbroken if it caused an interstellar incident).