Export multiple artboards as PDF - page order?

[XenPhi]

Hi there,

when I export a file with multiple artboards as PDF (I select "Area: Whole document" in the exports dialogue), I get a PDF with one artboard per page. This is great, but the order of pages does not match the order of artboards in the layers view. In fact, it's reversed. How can I export a PDF with the correct order?

Best, Markus

[XenPhi]

1 minute ago, BofG said:

Maybe too simple, but have you tried reversing the order of your artboards in the layers panel?

Yes, that would work. But the order of my artboards has a purpose and reordering them would destroy that purpose. Doing that before each export is as tedious as reordering the pages in the PDF after the export.

In my opinion, the canonical page order should be the same as the order in the layers view. I would not even need a separate option to reorder the pages. But somehow, this reverse order is irritating. Or am I missing something here?

[thomaso]

2 minutes ago, BofG said:

I think the issue is the layers work logically "bottom to top", so that's the way the export follows.

... so the issue is that AD treats its Artboards as layers, too – not as pages, like for export from AD (and like in APub).

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, XenPhi said:

In my opinion, the canonical page order should be the same as the order in the layers view. I would not even need a separate option to reorder the pages. But somehow, this reverse order is irritating. Or am I missing something here?

Unless you make changes, the Layers panel represents the order in which the Artboards were created. Your first Artboard (Artboard1) is on the bottom. If you create Artboard2 it is above Artboard1 in the Layers panel, and Artboard3 is above Artboard2, etc.

Thus, the natural order within the Layers panel is the order in which the Artboards were created, so it is the order in which they are printed.

[XenPhi]

On 11/3/2020 at 2:39 PM, walt.farrell said:

Unless you make changes, the Layers panel represents the order in which the Artboards were created. Your first Artboard (Artboard1) is on the bottom. If you create Artboard2 it is above Artboard1 in the Layers panel, and Artboard3 is above Artboard2, etc.

Thus, the natural order within the Layers panel is the order in which the Artboards were created, so it is the order in which they are printed.

Yes, I was also wondering about this. Why does a new artboard show up ABOVE the existing ones? The canonical order would be putting it at the bottom.

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, XenPhi said:

Yes, I was also wondering about this. Why does a new artboard show up ABOVE the existing ones? The canonical order would be putting it at the bottom.

The Layers panel is based on a painting model, I think.

Take a canvas, and paint a brush stroke. Take a different color, and paint another stroke over the first one. Now look at a cross-section of the canvas. You have the canvas at the bottom, the first stroke you painted above that, the second stroke above the first stroke, etc. Each successive new stroke is above the earlier ones, and the Layers panel works the same way.

[thomaso]

On 11/3/2020 at 2:39 PM, walt.farrell said:

Unless you make changes, the Layers panel represents the order in which the Artboards were created. Your first Artboard (Artboard1) is on the bottom. If you create Artboard2 it is above Artboard1 in the Layers panel, and Artboard3 is above Artboard2, etc.

Thus, the natural order within the Layers panel is the order in which the Artboards were created, so it is the order in which they are printed.

Good point, thanks, I understand this artboard/page order difference between AD and APub.

Now, just in case I haven't noticed an option yet: Is there a way in AD to arrange the artboards in a certain order (like pages in APub) and get them printed in this specific workspace order – without the need to additionally rearrange the artboards a second time in their stacking order in the layers panel?

Example:

1.)  I create various layouts, starting with a logo in some versions, then business card layouts, letterheads, greeting card, ... etc.
2.)  I sort the artboards in the documents area, to move all relevant artboards (e.g. client's choice) to the top of the entire workspace in a certain order (e.g. left to right, top to bottom), and having all other, less relevant artboards below and at the end.
3.) Then I want to export (or print) only those artboards which I just sorted to be relevant.

Is there a way to get only these "relevant" artboards output AND to get them output in their visual order in the workspace (top to bottom, left to right)?

[walt.farrell]

55 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Good point, thanks, I understand this artboard/page order difference between AD and APub.

Artboards are not Pages, there is little difference between Designer and Publisher. It's the kind of document that matters (Page-oriented or Artboard-oriented) and both applications support working with both kinds of documents. However, only Publisher lets you create a document with Pages.

 

55 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Now, just in case I haven't noticed an option yet: Is there a way in AD to arrange the artboards in a certain order (like pages in APub) and get them printed in this specific workspace order – without the need to additionally rearrange the artboards a second time in their stacking order in the layers panel?

Only the Layers panel matters for output order when you have an Artboard-oriented document.

If you want to be thinking about pages perhaps you should do that work in Publisher