Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

Bugsimus

Member
I'll be working on a job this afternoon where i'll have to place 300 page pdf into InDesign... Any ideas for a fast way to do this besides manually? The reason why I want to do this is I have to place scanned images into the job and thats all the client supplied :-(
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

Make 300 pages in you document (Is this possible? Should you make multiple docs?) . If it's a single PDF with 300 pages you can click on import options when you choose place and select all pages (You can also set crop to trim, media, bleed etc.). Then just click to place each page. You don't have to get picture each time. Some of the others may have a better solution for you.
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

It shouldn't be too horrible if you plan ahead. For starters, I think I would break it down into several smaller, more manageable documents -- maybe six 50-pagers. Put a picture box on a Master Page -- be very exact with your size and position. For best results, center it on the page and make it the EXACT size of the PDF's Media Box (or Bleed Box, or whatever page box you are going to designate when placing the PDF.)

Then, zoom out quite a bit so yo can see several pages on your screen. Place the PDF, but make sure when you are navigating to the PDF that you have "Show Import Options" checked. In the following dialog, select the PDF, and you can also select a page range to place. This is also where you tell InDesign which Page Box to crop to. Click OK and you'll have a loaded cursor - click once in each picture box in your document to place the pages. If you set up your picture box size and position correctly, the placed pages will be perfectly centered in each picture box, thereby saving you from clicking the Center Content button 300 times.

edit: Looks like Rab beat me to the punch while I was typing!

Edited by: Dan Curry on Sep 13, 2007 8:22 PM
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

Yeah, thats the only way i know atm... But i'm looking for a better way in between jobs atm... Hopefully I find one before I start it :)
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

Brilliant... You can get the script in the CS2 CD or if you have CS3 its already installed.
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

That script is cool... and I found another program/plugin for Indesign called [PDF2ID|http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/e...31642&CUR=840&DSP=&PGRP=0&ABCODE=&CACHE_ID=0] and that will create a indd file out of your pdf.

Also I noticed that when using that script it places all my page boxes at X-0 Y-0 coordinates, but my document has bleed. But you can use another script in that package that will move all the page boxes. I just had to edit it a little because the measurements were set to points, so I just change that to millimeters.
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

That PDF2ID plugin looks great but does it work great as well? No weird looking objects or so? What happens with subsetted font items?

Would be a great help taht plugin if it works like they say it works. Since we moved from quark to indesign moest internal documents have to be remade...
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

Its not too bad from what i've tried of the demo so far, i'm trying to get IT to buy it soon and give it a more in depth go :)

But if your changing from Quark to Indesign, this one here ([Q2ID|http://www.markzware.com/q2id/]) looks pretty cool for that... I'm gonna get IT to buy that too, because I don't think we are going to be buying Quark anymore.
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

What is the reason you are trying to place a 300 page document into indesign? Seems like an extreme option with maybe an easier solution.
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

This is a little script that will ask you to choose a PDF, will then open it in Acrobat to check the amout of pages and size of pages and then create a new InDesign document the same dimension and page number as your PDF and place every PDF page to it's corresponding inDesign page.
I tested it with Acrobat 8 and InDesign CS3. You can also change the PDF cropping you want to use by changing 2 words in the code. Keep in mind that it will only works with PDFs that have the same page measurements throughout the document.
Just copy the script in Script Editor and press the run button.
Hope this helps.

--Script by Colorblind, tested with Acrobat 8 and InDesign CS3

tell application "Finder"
activate
set mypdf to choose file with prompt "Choose the PDF you want to place in InDesign" as string
open file mypdf using application file id "CARO"
tell application "Adobe Acrobat Professional"
activate
set b to get crop box of page 1 of active doc
set w1 to item 3 of b as integer
set w0 to item 1 of b as integer
set h1 to item 2 of b as integer
set h0 to item 4 of b as integer
set PDFheight to (h1 - h0) / 72
set PDFwidth to (w1 - w0) / 72
set pagecount to count every page of active doc
set idh to PDFheight & " i" as string
set idw to PDFwidth & " i" as string

end tell


set idpage to 1
set pdfpage to 1

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS3"
activate
set mydoc to make document
tell document preferences of mydoc
set facing pages to false
set page width to idw
set page height to idh
set pages per document to pagecount

end tell
repeat pagecount times
set page number of PDF place preferences to pdfpage

-- the "crop PDF" parameter can be changed to the following: crop content/crop art/
--crop PDF/crop trim/crop bleed/crop media/crop content/crop art/¬
--crop PDF / crop trim / crop bleed / crop media

set PDF crop of PDF place preferences to crop PDF

set mypdfpage to place mypdf on page idpage of mydoc
set idpage to idpage + 1
set pdfpage to pdfpage + 1
end repeat
end tell
end tell
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

Hey, that a cool script too. Thanks for sharing it. Works as expected.

The only drawback is that is is for mac only. Windows user be able to use it.

PS: By the way, I just notice we both work in Montreal... You might even be located next door. Who know!
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

What about doing everything with a PDF editting tool. Then you avoid having to go back to InDesign all together.

Regards,
Greg

System Engineer
OneVision, Inc.
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

That PDF2ID looks really cool if it works great. InDesign, the new PDF editor? (If you've got InDesign, why not if it works well? The plugin's cheaper than any true PDF editor out there that handles transparency)

Don
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

Glad you like my script :) . Applescript is SO usefull but not well known and underused.
For Windows, you could probably (I'm not sure) use Javascript to accomplish the same thing.
Where are you in Montreal? As for me, I'm downtown.
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

> {quote:title=Colorblind wrote:}{quote}
> Glad you like my script :) . Applescript is SO usefull but not well known and underused.
> For Windows, you could probably (I'm not sure) use Javascript to accomplish the same thing.
> Where are you in Montreal? As for me, I'm downtown.

I do prefere to write with applescript too. Never had the time to learn Javascript.

I'm in the middle of Montreal (Saint-Urbain and near Beaubien).
 
Re: Whats the best way to place a 300 page pdf into InDesign?

Not sure if i was mentioned here, but there's a script called "PDF2IDCS" that will handle this also. It's simple, relatively fast & has saved my bacon on numerous counts!

Oh, and it's not $250 either. B-)
 

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