Imposition

[Daniel_Willsey@adobeforums.com]

I just wanted to ask if anyone knows what options we have for Imposition within InDesign. I am operating CS2, and of course InBooklet is there, and it's fine for just that booklets, and maybe a few other things. I honestly don't know if ImposerPro is even available anymore or not, but even if it is, I don't want to invest in it, because obviously updating it, and so forth will never happen. The task that I need to accomplish is this:
I have a postcard that is 4"x6". I need it imposed 4 up on a 9x12 sheet. However I need the pages shuffled so that the cards remain in order after they are cut, so that when the sheets print and are stacked and cut I can put one stack on the other and so forth and the cards are in order.
I can do this using Quite Imposing Plus after exporting to PDF, but I'd really like to be able to do this right from InDesign, but without purchasing Imposer Pro.
If there were software from another developer that will continue to develop the software, I would certainly give that consideration.

Any suggestions?
Daniel

[Heather Bell]

You could set up a master and use the data merge. Search under Data Merge for all kinds of advice in this forum or on the help site.

[Daniel_Willsey@adobeforums.com]

That would have worked perfectly, except for one problem. The cutting stacks aren't correct. The way I need the records to come out is as follows: The page is divided into 4 cards. Say I have a total of 100 cards. The way they line up on the page is Top Left=record 1, Top Right=record 2, Lower Left = record 3, and lower right=record 4. I need it shuffled so that on page 1 Top Left=record 1, Top Right=record 26, Lower Left=record 51, lower right=record 76, and then on the second page Upper left would be record 2, top Right would be record 27, lower left would be record 52, and lower right would be record 77.
I can't find a setting in the merge feature that will shuffle it that way.

[Heather Bell]

It won't, but depending on where the data is coming from you can do it in that program.
For example, I do with raffle tickets on occasion. For four up in decending order for cut; column 1 would decend 1-25, column 2 26-50, column 3 51-75. column 4 76-100, and then in Indesign layout 4-up on 9x12, place link to column in place one, column 2 in place 2 etc then merge. If you are working with data where this will work you're all set. If it's address you may have to set a seperate merge document for each of the four places. Does that make sense, I'm bad at trying to explain this stuff.

[Daniel_Willsey@adobeforums.com]

Heather,
Thanks for your response, but I'm not sure I follow you entirely. I have addresses that have to be in the exact order for the presorted mail. I'm bringing them in from a comma delimited text file created from Accuzip. I can open the list in Excel, but I can't find any way of sorting the data the way I need it in Excel either. I guess for now, until someone decides to develop an imposition plugin other than ALAP (Quark), I'll just have to continue to make PDF's sort and impose in Acrobat with Quite Imposing Plus.

Regards,
Daniel

[Brutus_Maximus@adobeforums.com]

My friend Rick has written some data-sorting routines to do exactly as you describe, Daniel. Instead of doing the file 1-up and then imposing the output separately, however, we lay them out n-up in InDesign, then sort the data to suit the layout before using XMPie uDirect to generate the output file. Then when the job is busted out in the bindery and stacked properly, the resulting stack is in sequential order. It works beautifully, especially for keeping Presorted-rate mailings in correct Zip-code order. Rick's first versions were PHP scripts that we accessed through our intranet, but his latest version (still in development, but working a treat!) is based on an open-source Cocoa text editor called Smultron. It's fast! I can perform a complex data sort on 20,000+ records in a matter of seconds. The same sort would have taken up to 15 minutes using the PHP utilities.

[Darryl_E_White@adobeforums.com]

Daniel, Heather and "Brutus"
We are an outsource billing company using Adobe Output Deisigner and Visual Translation editor to program a data file to print statements and collection letters.

We need to get the address certified through Accuzip to get our postal discounts. Do any of you have a solution in getting the address barcoded and certified in Accuzip and then exporting the barcoded address back to the correct client bill?

Any help or contacts would be appreciated.