[Judi Crouse]

I had a similar problem with cs5. (In cs4 the anchored objects output as intended.) The randomness has to do with where the anchor appears in relation to the object on the spread. If the anchor is on an opposing page of the spread, the object will not be output (print, distilled, or pdf). If the anchor and object are on the same page then output will not be be affected. I was never able to get the anchor / object / spread problem resolved. My workaround was to to wait until the book was finalized and then remove anchor and manually keep the object in the correct positions. A HUGE pain, but it worked. Anchored objects worked great until cs5.