CreativePro Forum

Join our community of graphic designers, publishers, and production artists from around the world. Our members-only forum is a great place to discuss challenges and find solutions!

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.Login

Is there a quick way to generate pages without manually adding or editing them?

Nayan Patel · 2018-09-11T08:23:18-07:00

We are a systems manufacturer and produce instruction manuals using Adobe InDesign CC 2018. Within each instruction manual, there are pages unique to the individual system and pages that are universal across all our systems. We export each instruction manual to PDF format for printing and digital copy. Is there a way to automatically generate pages specific to the system without the need to edit or remove the pages? Currently, we manually edit or remove pages irreverent to the system. We can use the same instruction manual for a system that has already been manufactured. But when a new system is built with different dimensions, it requires specific pages. We would like to automate the process, even if it means updating our software or changing our current method of producing instruction manuals. Any kind of help will be much appreciated.

Tagged: automate, book, InDesign, pages

This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by Kelly Vaughn.

Return to Forums

Author

Posts
- September 11, 2018 at 8:23 am #110365
  
  Nayan Patel
  Member
  
  We are a systems manufacturer and produce instruction manuals using Adobe InDesign CC 2018.
  
  Within each instruction manual, there are pages unique to the individual system and pages that are universal across all our systems. We export each instruction manual to PDF format for printing and digital copy. Is there a way to automatically generate pages specific to the system without the need to edit or remove the pages?
  
  Currently, we manually edit or remove pages irreverent to the system. We can use the same instruction manual for a system that has already been manufactured. But when a new system is built with different dimensions, it requires specific pages.
  
  We would like to automate the process, even if it means updating our software or changing our current method of producing instruction manuals.
  
  Any kind of help will be much appreciated.
- September 11, 2018 at 11:11 am #110366
  
  gamouning
  Member
  
  Hi Nayan,
  
  Have you looked at any of the InDesign Data Merge and Book features? Below I lists several resources which should help you get started:
  
  https://creativepro.com/data-merging-part-3.php
  
  The InDesigner – Episode 33: Long Documents, Part 1 – Book Basics
  
  https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/data-merge.html
  
  https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-book-files.html
  
  https://www.lynda.com/InDesign-tutorials/Understanding-Book-feature/114894/135947-4.html
  
  Hopes these links were helpful!
  
  -Greg
- September 11, 2018 at 2:23 pm #110369
  
  gamouning
  Member
  
  FYI, just discovered this “tip of the day” related to Indesign Book files:
  
  The InDesigner – Episode 33: Long Documents, Part 1 – Book Basics
- September 11, 2018 at 2:24 pm #110370
  
  gamouning
  Member
  
  Just discovered a “Tip of the Day” related to Indesign Book files:
  
  The InDesigner – Episode 33: Long Documents, Part 1 – Book Basics
- September 19, 2018 at 1:14 pm #110478
  
  Kelly Vaughn
  Participant
  
  I create technical manuals for a living. It sounds like what you need is conditional text. You can assign “Unconditional” to the text that goes invert manual, and apply a condition to text that needs to get included in certain manuals. You can toggle on and off the conditions., so you’ll only show the text that is pertinent to what you need. I would be happy to help you automate your process.
  
  Thanks,
  Kelly Vaughn
  https://documentgeek.blogspot.com
  https://verityyachtpubs.com
Author

Posts