Your opinon: when to use a book file vs. one LONG document?

[turner111]

I am working on a piece with about 50 articles by different authors.

Front and back matter aside...

I've done two others that are about the same type of content and length, once using each story as a document in a book file, and once creating a long, continuous body.

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I'm now on this third one & trying to decide which way is "better" 😉 .

• The main reason I'm considering individual documents is because it's easier to keep track of the content and arrange the order of the pieces.
• The main reason I'm considering one long body is because I don't like synchronizing 50 files every time I update a style in one (place).

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Would love to hear your thoughts / opinions.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Unless the articles are all available at the same time, I would probably us a Book file. Especially, if the order is changing--cutting & pasting is more troublesome than syncing constant changes. 

However, I understand not wanting to sync every style change. I keep a separate file with just styles in it, usually grouped together by type, and at the end of the book files (so I can remove it before PDF'ing). I just sync any changes to the style guide document as I go. Then I use the style to sync to all the others whenever I feel like it. 

Keep in mind that this advice is given without full knowledge of the project...

[turner111]

I'm hoping Adobe eventually implements the ability to sync to non-book files... how great would that be?

I can't really keep a styles-only doc in place since it will misbehave with my table of contents...

[Peter Spier]

It's a lot easier to edit a short file included in a Book than to scroll through a single long document, and easier to completely replace a section as well, plus if there is corruption (and it happens) you won't lose everything. I'd definitely go with the Book.

[turner111]

Hi Peter,

True about corruption, though I keep a backup just about every day.

Would love it if we could have a dedicated "save backup" button somewhere, or auto-backup every x minutes.

Wait... is that already a thing? (scratches head, gets distracted by something else...)

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

You can use Cntl-Alt-Shift-S (Cmd-Opt-Shift-S) to save all open documents. 

[turner111]

Yes, but not quite the same as a nice, "off-site" backup.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

A couple of other short cuts...

If you select all the [desired] files in the book by shift-clicking, you can double-click on any of the selected files and it will open all of them.

Cntl-Alt-Shift-W (Cmd-Opt-Shift-W) to close all open documents

At the end of a work session, you can Save All and then Close All as a group.

[Randy Hagan]

I'm a big fan of the multi-document/InDesign Book workflow. Not only for the reasons you mentioned, but for the project management advantages too.

When you're working on one big document it's a lot harder to know where you're at in the process. You may know you're behind the curve, but it's hard to determine how much. When it's broken down into a couple of dozen chunks, you can easily track your progress, identify little problems as they occur and make quick in-flight corrections to put yourself on track. And whether you're using a legal pad or a whiteboard, clearly track exactly where you're at in the process.

So I'm a big fan of InDesign's book functions. I recommend them highly.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Laubender]

Hi turner111,

three things that could speak against a workflow with an InDesign Book file:

[1] Footnote management

[2] Endnote management

[3] Publish Online as output is not possible

( Only for every single document. )

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[turner111]

Hi Uwe,

Let's not forget Styles management. That's actually the biggest point of concern for me. If a book file could link styles in all documents it would be a great feature.

As far as Endnotes go, in my case, it's actually better to have individual files as a few stories (maybe 4 out of 55) have endnotes, and they need to be at the end of the stories vs. at the overall end of the book.

Was hoping for this in 2022, but alas.

[Colin Flashman]

Think of a book file like a three stage rocket - there's the same amount of content, but because it is split into smaller parts, it can go further than a rocket that's in one part.

The larger a document is, the slower it will go. Previews in the pages panel need to redraw more pages, preflight needs to check more pages, GREP styles need to be parsed on more pages... there is just more things for the software to do.

There is also the philosophy of putting all eggs in one basket - if the one file becomes corrupt and the last retrievable backup is days ago... that's a lot of work in one document... but if one part of a book becomes corrupt, the time to fix the book isn't as bad.

[SJRiegel]

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@turner111 wrote:

• The main reason I'm considering one long body is because I don't like synchronizing 50 files every time I update a style in one (place).

I have automatic syncing turned off, and only sync when I an ready to do so.

[turner111]

Automatic syncing?

[SJRiegel]

I was thinking of the page numbers. Unless you disable it, page numbers will auto-update in all sections each time you change the page count in any section. This was hampering my workflow, so I turned it off. I run the numbering update only once a day if I have changed page counts.

[turner111]

Ah! Gotcha. 

I thought you meant styles.

Yes, definitely nice not to have to re-number a long file made up of tons of documents...