Ever since I published the article “Breaking up is hard to do… InDesign files into individual PDFs that is!” on Colecandoo, it has been one of the most searched for and popular stories on this site.
I have also written two articles for InDesignSecrets particularly relating to Data Merge and unique filenames: Data Merging Individual Records to Separate PDFs and Data Merging Individual Records to Separate PDFs Part 2: via Scripting. While these methods work, I felt that there had to be a better way to accomplish the task.
Since returning from PEPCON 2015, I have been busy creating a javascript solution to the problem. The script is now at a stage where I am pleased with the results and would like to begin beta testing the script.
- Merges to uniquely named PDF or InDesign files;
- Uses information from csv or txt in the Data Merge to create the filenames;
- Creates web-safe filenames;
- Provides warnings about duplicate filenames, missing images or overset text;
- Can merge one record, a range, or all records in the database
Here are some more screenshots of the script:
