I was attached to InDesign CS3 for a long time but had to install CS5 to test a content management system. The second thing that made me crazy (the first thing being the application frame) was the absence of a progress bar when exporting a PDF.

Okay, might be a feature for most people because you can continue the work on that or any other document while the PDF export is in progress.
But most of time I want to open the PDF in Acrobat or pass the PDF to another application after it’s created. Now you have a zero kB PDF file until InDesign is finished with the export.

The following hint works in CS5, CS5.5, and CS6 as well:

Create a new blank text file with the file name DisableAsyncExports.txt and place that file in the InDesign application package itself (right-click on the application icon and select Show package content). Then go to the sub-directory Contents/MacOS and place the new file there.

After a restart of InDesign t …

Source: Mac OSX Hints