Preparing InDesign documents for output
This section describes workflows and tasks you’re likely to perform when preparing a customer’s file for output. Understanding these procedures is well worth the time, because you may find these operations to be more efficient in Adobe InDesign CS2 than in other page-layout programs.
Working with a book file
Adobe InDesign CS2 can organize and manage sets of Adobe InDesign CS2 files in a book file, a file that works with a collection of documents that can dynamically share attributes and formats.
For example, a reference book with ten chapters can be created as ten files that exist separately but are managed together for pagination, indexing, and other operations. If a customer has used a book file, you’ll want to know about it because you’ll manage prepress operations such as preflighting and printing across all documents in a book. This requires using the book palette, which displays a book’s Adobe InDesign documents as a list.
Book palette
A Style source document icon
B Pagination column
C Palette menu
D Missing document icon
E Modified document icon
F Open document icon
G Document in use or read-only icon
H Remove document button
I
Add document button
J Print book (or selected files) button
K Save book button
L Synchronize book button
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
L K J I H
Keep the following in mind when working with book files:
• You open a book using the File > Open command. Book files use the .indb file name extension.
(If you don’t see any file name extensions, you may need to turn on a setting in your operating system that makes file name extensions visible).
• A book file appears as a palette when it’s open. Note that there is no Book palette command under the Window menu, because book palettes only exist when one or more book files are open. If more than one book is open, you’ll see multiple book palettes. A book palette’s name is the name of its book file.
• To find commands that affect files in a book, look on the palette menu for that book. For example, to preflight a book, you choose Preflight Book from the book palette menu. If you choose Preflight from the File menu, you’ll preflight the frontmost open document only, regardless of the documents selected in the book palette. Similarly, the File menu commands to print or export a PDF file affect the frontmost document only, not books; to print or export books you must choose Print or Export commands from the book’s palette menu. The exact name of the commands can change according to whether or not documents are selected in the book palette.
• Always preflight a book before creating output from it. Alert messages, such as those about missing fonts and graphics, don’t appear when you open a book file because a book containing many documents could potentially generate an unwanted number of alert messages.
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• Pay attention to which documents are selected in the book file. Some commands in the book palette menu, such as the Preflight Book, Export Book to PDF, and Print Book commands, operate on the selected documents only. To preflight, export, or print the entire book, make sure that either no documents are selected or all documents are selected in the book palette.
When documents are selected in the book palette, the Preflight Book, Export Book to PDF, and
Print Book commands appear as the Preflight Selected Documents, Export Selected Documents to PDF, and Print Selected Documents commands.
• It’s possible to create and print a book where the page size and orientation varies with each document in the book. You may want to verify the page orientations of your book files before setting up output media by double-clicking each file in the book palette to open and check them. Normally there’s no need to open individual files before creating output from a book.
Resolving modified icons in a book
A modified icon ( ) appears when a document in a book has changed since the last time the book was saved. When a document in a book has been modified, it’s no longer certain that the book’s pagination is correct because pages may have been added to or deleted from the modified document. For this reason, the only way to resolve a modified icon is to repaginate the book, so that InDesign can determine whether pages were added or deleted from the modified document and update the book accordingly.
Before you repaginate a particular book for the first time, it’s a good idea to preflight the book first to ensure that all necessary fonts are present. If fonts are missing, text may recompose, causing line breaks to change. Repaginate only after consulting with the customer, because it may alter the content (such as page numbering) of documents in the book.
To repaginate a book:
Choose Repaginate from a book’s palette menu.
Synchronizing documents in a book
When you synchronize a book, styles and swatches from the style source document replace those in the other documents. A document can belong to multiple book files. For these reasons, when a customer uses a book file, he or she should identify the style source document.
A book’s formatting is controlled by a style source document, a document in the book that controls all other documents in the book. Any document in a book can be a style source document, but by default, it’s the first document in the book file. When synchronizing, the following attributes are made consistent with the book’s style source document:
• Table of contents styles
• Character styles
• Paragraph styles
• Trap styles
• Swatches (color, gradient, and mixed ink swatches)
Note: Synchronizing a book file won’t resolve color management profile inconsistencies among book documents. To anticipate color management error messages before high-resolution output, export to PDF as a test, because profile conflict alert messages appear when the book is printed or exported. If you encounter a color profile conflict error message, determine the correct settings
(which may require a discussion with the customer) and change the color settings in documents as needed. Remember that you can quickly do this by saving the correct settings to a file (in the
Edit > Color Settings dialog box) and then loading them into other documents.
Because a book can contain complex links, cross-references, and other dependencies, it’s probably best to have customers synchronize, preflight, package, and proof book files so that the customer can resolve outstanding book-level issues before the files are handed off. If necessary, you can synchronize a book as long as you have the book file and all documents in its list.
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