Create InDesign book – Typefi Support

Applies to the Adobe InDesign plug-in version 29 or later

The Create InDesign book workflow action automatically creates an Adobe InDesign book file (.indb) from a Content XML (.cxml) file.

The Create InDesign book workflow action is divided into four tabs: General, Event scripts, Links, and Advanced.

The General tab is the main tab. Use it to specify the input, output, InDesign template, InDesign Server, and where the page numbering starts.
Use the Event scripts tab to add event scripts.
Use the Links tab to choose whether to preserve original paths or not, search for missing links, and specify how PDFs are cropped.
Use the Advanced tab for fine-tuned control over how the InDesign book is generated and presented. You can add soft styles, specify the binding direction, choose how floats are displayed, specify when cross-references are updated, and set a maximum runtime for a job.

You can also use workflow variables to specify input fields. To insert a workflow variable, click the lightning bolt icon and choose a variable from the pop-up menu.

General

Use this tab to specify the input, output, InDesign template, InDesign Server, and where the page numbering starts.

Create InDesign book, General tab

Field	Description
Input	The file path to the input Content XML file (.cxml). Click the Choose File icon to choose the input Content XML file. Alternatively, enter the file path to the input file. For example, /Input/my-input.cxml
Output	The file path to the output InDesign book (.indb). Enter a name for the generated InDesign book. Alternatively, click the Choose File icon to choose the output. The default output is output-1.indb.
Document naming (v31)	Customise the document naming convention using workflow variables. The default value is ${output}_${section}.indd, which means the document name will be the output and section name, separated by an underscore.
InDesign template	The file path to the InDesign template (.indd). Click the Choose File to choose the InDesign template. Alternatively, enter the file path—for example, /Templates/my-template.indd.
Start page numbering at	Specify the number that the book should start on. The default value is 1.
InDesign Server	Choose the InDesign Server or Blinkenlights queue.

Event scripts

Use this tab to add event scripts.

Create InDesign book, Event scripts tab

To add a script to an event, click the Choose File icon to browse for a script file (.js, .jsx, or .jsxbin) on Typefi Server. Alternatively, click Browse within the Choose File dialogue to browse for a file on your local computer.

Scripts are run in the order in which you see them. To change the order of two or more scripts, drag them around with the mouse. You can also add several scripts at once, and they will display alphabetically by default.

Links

Use this tab to choose whether to preserve original paths or not, search for missing links, and specify how PDFs are cropped.

Create InDesign book, Links tab

Field	Description
Preserve original paths (v31) Preserve original links (v30 and earlier)	Select the Preserve original links checkbox to preserve the original link to image, audio, and video files in the output InDesign book. Deselect to have Typefi Server automatically rewrite links so that InDesign Server can use them. Preserve original links is deselected by default. To avoid broken links, only select Preserve original links if you want to take 100% control of the link paths yourself.
Search for missing links	Enter an alternative relative path to search for any missing links. For example, path/to/folder/links If you do not need to search for missing links, you can leave this field blank.
Crop PDFs to	Choose which portion of the PDF page to place, as defined by six boxes. Options include: Bounding box (Visible layers): InDesign places the PDF page's bounding box—the minimum area that encloses the objects on the page—of the visible layers of the PDF file, including page marks Bounding box (All layers): Places the bounding box of the entire layer area of the PDF file, even if layers are hidden. Art: Places only the area defined by a rectangle that the author created as placeable artwork, which can be designated in Acrobat with the "Set Page Boxes" command. Crop: Places the area that is displayed or printed by Adobe Acrobat. Trim: Identifies the edges where the final produced page will be physically cut in the production process if trim marks are present. Bleed: Places only the area that represents where all page content should be clipped, if a bleed area is present. Media: Places the area that represents the physical paper size of the original PDF document. The default option is Bounding box (Visible layers). For more information, see Understanding InDesign's Place PDF Options.

Advanced

Use this tab for fine-tuned control over how the InDesign document is generated and presented. You can add soft styles, specify the binding direction, choose how floats are displayed, specify when cross-references are updated, and set a maximum runtime for a job.

Create InDesign book, Advanced tab

Field	Description
Soft styles	Select which soft styles—Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript, All-caps, and Small-caps—to pass through to the InDesign book. Bold and italic default to off (white), which means they are not passed through. Underline, Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript, All-caps, and Small caps default to on (blue), which means they are passed through.
Binding direction	Choose the binding direction. Options include: Left to right: Use this option for languages that are written left-to-right. Right to left: Use this option for languages that are written right-to-left (for example, Arabic or Hebrew). Make sure the template is also set up for a right to left book. The default binding direction is Left to right. The binding direction also affects the float placement order, that is, for right-to-left jobs, the float placement will start from the right side.
Cross-references	Choose when to update cross-references. We recommend keeping both checkboxes ticked. InDesign automatically resolves cross-references. However, during the automated page composition process, the cross-references might shift and move to different pages, so the reference might not be accurate. Choosing Update at section end or Update at job end updates the cross-references after pagination, making sure they are correct. However, if you know you want to manually edit the cross-references in the InDesign document (.indd), then you might want to untick both options to make your job run faster.
Update at section end	Select Update at section end to update cross-references at the end of a section. Deselect for minor performance improvements. Update at section end is selected by default. If you deselect this option, the length of the section may change when you update the cross-references, which means you could be left with blank or overset pages.
Update at job end	Select Update at job end to update cross-references at the end of the job. Deselect for minor performance improvements. Update at job end is selected by default.
Use tighter float placement	Select Use tighter float placement to allow floating elements to be placed out of order (when space is available). Deselect to force floats to be placed in order. Use tighter float placement is deselected by default. Blocker frames (areas of the template where floats cannot be placed) don't work with tighter floats.
Use multi-column float placement	Select Use multi-column float placement to use the column height to evaluate the distance between a floating element and its anchor. Deselect to ignore column height. Use multi-column float placement is deselected by default.
Maximum runtime (min)	Enter the maximum runtime in minutes that a job should take. If a job takes longer than the maximum runtime, then the job will fail. The default value is empty, which means the maximum runtime is 480 minutes (8 hours).

General

Event scripts

Links

Advanced

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