Placing All the Pages of a PDF Inside InDesign
January 28th, 2008About a year ago, we discussed several options for importing multi-page PDF files into InDesign. Then, last autumn, I created a free video tutorial for MOGO Media that shows how you can import or export multi-page PDF files. In that video, I showed Scott Zanelli’s free Page Exporter Utility script for exporting PDF files as individual pages. [In that movie, I said I didn’t know where you could find the script. Fortunately, Scott updated the script and we’ve posted it here.]
In the MOGO movie, I also showed a script that let you place multi-page PDF files into InDesign, one page a time. That script (PlaceMultipagePDF) was written by Olav Martin Kvern and ships free with InDesign. But today I just received a new Zanelli script, called PDFplacer, which does the same thing… but even better. (Ironically, Scott didn’t even realize Kvern’s script was available when he wrote this. He just knew he needed something to do this, so he wrote his own.)
Scott wrote about some things his PDFplacer.jsx script does that the PlaceMultiPagePDF.jsx script doesn’t do:
“…it allows the user to choose a page range from the PDF being placed, the crop type to use when placing, the page in the InDesign document to start placing on (adding new pages as needed), where to place it on the page (upper right, centered, etc., and using an optional offset), and whether to scale the PDF to the existing page size. If an InDesign doc isn’t open, it will read the size from the PDF and create a new InDesign document at the size of the PDF before placing the pages.”
Here’s a screen capture of the script’s main dialog box:
When I asked him if we could post the script for anyone to download, he said: Yes! So here it is, free. After you unzip the file, read the enclosed PDF file for more information about installation and use.
I can’t guarantee it will work perfectly for you, but it seems to be working great for me so far. It’s so great to automate this stuff. Thank you Scott!
Does anyone know of a script to place all the pages of an InDesign file inside another InDesign file?
Cool script. Thanks for sharing, again I’ll pass it on and give the necessary credit. Thanks guys!
Surely the PDF script can be altered somehow to put in the .indd file? Surely, and find/replacing pdf with indd doesn’t work, I already tried that. I’ll get there some day, when I get a chance to sit down at it properly. Someday.
Yeah! another fabulous script by Scott. Thanks for sharing it.
guys, would someone be so kind as to post up a link to the unzipped file/s?
my work server blocks downloads of .zip files.
many thanks in advance…
ps - i’m an InDesign newbie, mad keen to learn - thanks for this great site!
Horseyboy, I’ve saved the files into a gzip tar archive… can
you download this file? Do many other people have trouble with zip files these days? What is the best alternative?ZIP is only a problem for paranoid server guys.
Since this is JavaScript, a plain-text listing in HTML/TXT would serve just as well to overcome the paranoia — you must then choose to save the file with a .JSX extension.
Actually, the problem here is that it’s not just a jsx file. It’s a folder with a jsx file, two text files, and a PDF. I was trying to figure out how to bundle it all up into one download.
I read before somewhere recently where you could put a zip/compressed folder inside a jpeg, you can view the jpg as normal, but you can also unzip it to a folder using the contextual menu. Sounds cool, haven’t tried it.
David, many thanks for trying…but that file is blocked too (our IT dept do not hold truck with us having different needs to the normal pen-pushers in our organisation - access to all sorts of useful content is blocked).
thanks for trying anyway - i’ll keep checking back to see if there are other ideas - but i guess it’s a problem i’m going to have grabbing any of the goodies you post here.
apologies for any hassle & thanks anyway for the brilliant free advice on this site
Good idea, Eugene! Replacing the .ZIP extension with any “acceptable” extension would probably work fine. Simply replacing the false extension with .ZIP should make the file function like normal.
Hey, I just tried this now, from my own server, and it works fine as long as you choose “Save As” and don’t Open the fake filetype.
Okay, then, right-click on this link, choose Save Target As (or whatever your browser uses), then change the downloaded file from .zap to .zip.
The fake extension thing works great. We get e-mail with a .dat (still don’t know why, but now I don’t care) I just change the .dat to .doc or .pdf and try until I get the right extension. Works all the time. (knock on wood)
SUCCESS! thanks david (any everyone for stting the gears in motion!). does this mean i have to ’special request’ downloads from you in future?
Great tip David! I love MOGO, too!
horseboy, you have just met the wonderful world of indesigners! this is just the way things are…helpful, friendly, funny, and extraordinarily talented. I’m glad I found them, too!
Slight procedural improvement:
“MyFile.ChangeThisToOnlyZIP”
:-)
I don’t know the limit, but extensions are certainly not limited anymore to those measly 3-4 characters.
Yes but klaus, adding extra characters to the file name makes the file bigger! You don’t want to fill your magnetic tape with a file name with more than 3 characters in the extension.
Eugene, you got me — I fold!
Chris, the .dat files may be from it being sent from a Mac to your PC, and as there’s no extension, Windows adds the dat. I got one of those today. I do the same thing, try a couple of extensions and see what works. If I’m not getting very far, I change it to .txt, open the file in a text editor and see whether the first few lines might tell me more about what the actual file type is.
Got to use this script the other day for a 192 page pdf. Worked fantastically. Saved a lot of time and things like that. So thanks a million. It’s great.
This script is great. It helps me do what i’ve been trying to do for a long time, which is use indesign CS3s booklet imposing function and then place that PDF onto another document in order to combine saddle-stitched booklets to be trimmed later.
If there is an easier way to do this? Please let me know.
This is brilliant. Saves me so much time. Great site, guys. Thanks.
Ok, I’ve tried everything and I can’t figure out how to work this script. I have CS2 and I can’t even get the script installed, HELP PLEASE!
See folio page 3 of the manual. It shows what folder to place the .jsx file into.
If you are having other problems, email me via the address given on the copyright page in the manual.
Ok this is a fgreat application. Very glad you posted it.
This is a great script, but I need it to do a bit more (of course!). I need it to place 514 pages into a InD doc, resized to 92%, but then offset each page by 24 pts. from the gutter of facing pages (not single page). Currently, the script cannot fit to page and offset from the gutter. I was hoping to have the art placed into a graphic box that is already on my page. Any suggestions of alternative scripts?
Hi,I just came across an article on Scott Zanelli which I thought you might like to share with others.<a xhref=”http://www.cs.umb.edu/www/news_and_events/announcements/29/” mce_href=”http://www.cs.umb.edu/www/news_and_events/announcements/29/” rel=”nofollow”>Scott Zanelli Wins Award for Excellence in Software Engineering
</a>Posted On: April 07, 2008The Computer Science Alumni/ae Award for Excellence in Software Engineering is awarded annually to a graduating bachelor’s degree student in Computer Science who has an outstanding academic record. I’m happy to tell you that this year the winner of the Alumni/ae Award is Scott Zanelli.Scott is graduating with a BS in Computer Science in Spring 2008 with near perfect GPAs of 3.907 overall and 3.889 in the major. Before coming to UMB, Scott worked as a desktop publisher. While on the job, he learned to write programs to automate repetitive tasks. Eventually, he decided to turn his programming “hobby” into a career and began taking classes at UMB on a part-time basis. After completing half his major, he combined his newfound knowledge from his classes with his desktop publishing experience and created several freeware programs for printing companies. One of these programs has been downloaded over 2500 times from the Adobe Systems website.In addition to his academic excellence, Scott has distinguished himself by his helpfulness. He is always willing to assist students in the computer lab who are having trouble with their projects. He is a very active participant in online class discussion forums, and has been an informal mentor to students.After graduation, he plans to work in the software industry for at least a year and then pursue his Master’s degree. The Department of Computer Science congratulates Scott on his achievements and extends its best wishes for his future career.http://www.cs.umb.edu/www/news_and_events/announcements/29/