Error icons in Book panel

[LuAnnL]

I "inherited" an "indb" (book) file that was created by someone else. Things are very disorganized. Unfortunately, the person who set all of this up left, and the secretaries who had to finish the project had little or no training in InDesign. Sometimes they opened the individual files and made edits. Other times they opened the files through the book panel. Furthermore, someone decided to move and/or rename a bunch of linked files.

It's a nightmare file that has had too many hands on it. I'm trying to clean up the mess.

I've re-linked a bunch of documents that had been moved, but I still have a couple of problems:

1. I assume that a ? following the file name in the book panel is a reference to missing page numbers, but I don't know how to fix the file so that the numbers flow correctly. Page numbers ARE present in each section, applied as variables....but they aren't showing up in the book panel as they do when I create a new book file from scratch.

2. I know that the little triangle with an exclamation point means that someone edited the section without opening it through the book dialog box.... but how do I FIX that? I have tried deleting the 'sub-document' and adding it back up again... but this the BEST method? (The book has 32 sections and each one has this error icon.)

This is my first posting to this forum. Sorry that it is so long. I hope to someday have the skills to help someone else....but right now I'm at the newbie level!

--L

 

[eugenetyson]

Wow... hands full there.

Ok are you in CS2 or CS3?

 

[eugenetyson]

Ok you said panel in the topic, I'm assuming CS3

Remember to make copies of all the files before you make any changes, there's nothing worse than losing a lot of work.


First of all, delete that book file and create a new one

Add in the files individually into the book in the order that you want.

Open the first document and fix the page numbers on the master pages, not variables, you can carry them through documents but it's not necessary for page numbers.

You can replace the variable with an Auto Page number.

Once you have the master page set up the way you want you can Sychronise just the Master Pages. Make sure the icon in the book panel (to the left of the book, is on the current document). On the fly arrow, click SYCHRONISE OPTIONS, select only master pages. Then click Sychronise.

I persume it's not going to change through out the book, I mean the general layout is the same, if different things get coloured differently but remain in the same place don't worry about it. You can edit each individual master page at a later stage to reinstate the colours. But don't synchronise your master pages again, as you'll lose the formatting.

You can do this with all the Paragarph and Character Styles too. Just make sure you aren't losing anything.

When the book is all layed out. Double click the page numbers show. Make sure the first document states that it's Page 1. And all the other documents follow on from the last.

This should get you through a lot.

Remember to make copies of all the files before you make any changes, there's nothing worse than losing a lot of work.

Let me know how you get on or if you need any further help with anything I've sugggested.

 

[eugenetyson]

Oops, you have to have all the documents you want to synchronise selected before you can synchronise them all, if you have one or two selected it will do them, but not the others. Either select them all bar the first one, or don't select any.

 

[LuAnnL]

So far, so good.

I'm assuming that it's okay to skip the synchronizing? (Isn't the purpose of synchronization consistent styles throughout the book?) This book has so many sections and styles that I'm a little bit afraid to mess with styles at this point. The original folder contained one big book file and several smaller redundant book files, so I'm a little wary of the style situation. Since it was printed one section at a time, right out of InDesign, I think the styles are ok at this point.

Now that they want a PDF version on the web, so that's why I needed to re-join everything.

Fortunately, it's an in-house project that I'll be able to redesign later, once I have more experience.

But for now, I think the PDF is going to be ok. (I have not yet had time to spot check the 500+ page PDF against the printed version. !)

MANY THANKS!

Once I remember my Paypal settings, I'll add my contribution to the site. I DO believe in supporting the forums that I use as resources. Someday, maybe I'll even be able to contribute some knowledge....

-L

 

[eugenetyson]

Hey give me your paypal money, ha ha

Well the synchronism options allow you to sychronise everything or just specific things. One thing that is useful is that you can just select master pages, then all the master pages are the same, same size, width, measure, placement of objects etc.

That's why I say, go to Sychronise Options. Then select just the master pages.

You can then later on choose, if you wish, or are confident to synchronise other things, like paragraph and/or character styles. Colour, object styles et al things.