CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • January 29, 2013 at 11:56 am #64022
    lwlbar

    Member

    Hi,

    Today has been one frustrating day for indesign. I am operating on cs5 and have always known the following spread setup, not being overly familiar with indesign and also operating en français I will keep my explanation as simple as possible.

    Happy me used to open a new document to find that every page was on one solid white background – this morning I discovered that this solid white background is called a spread. Happy me could add a page at ease and indesign would ask me (quite poitely) where I wanted it to go (say at the end of the document or between page 17 and 18 for example) and then the big white spread thing would get bigger vertically and allow a bit'o'room for Mr New Page.

    The seemingly wonderful thing about all of this was the oxygen like quality of being able to select everything in the entire document becausee, I assume, it was on one nice lovely flexible little spread. This was ace of course for a whole buch of reasons such as when making a pdf. It didn't seem to give a toot about the spread. It seemed of no value even. Indesign just did what I thought was a nice little process and chopped a document up into a pdf of the actual number of pages. Neato!

    Unhappy Me didn't really start the day well anyway. Then we will also assume that Unhappy me combined several keys and this spelt Cluster-F to my day. During the development of a nice little document, said key combination resulted in every two pages being set to their own special little mutha spreads. If I add a new page it adds a mutha spread . I can no longer take pleasure in the efficiency gained by selecting eveything in my amazing little document and getting it to do as I COMMAND! I can only wield a small amount of power on a per spread basis. This does not suffice and has indeed made me unhappy. If I try to whip up a little pdf of this new “i'm so special I have thousands of spreads” doc I get a pdf whereby pages are the equiv of spreads.

    So you might ask, why not insert pages on to a spread? Why yes! I went down that rabbit hole and discovered that fifteen pages was easy to do if you wanted the layout to go all west and horizontal – and of course a pdf of this shennanigan gives me one very wide load pdf and a photocopy boys nightmare.

    So. Does anyone know how to return my happiness? I need to be able to revert to one magical vertically extending spread. That is spread enough for me.

    Thanks for any advice,

    claire

  • January 29, 2013 at 12:15 pm #64023
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    InDesign has never let you add lots of pages to the same spread… all in the same pasteboard… I wonder if you had been using Adobe Illustrator? That's the way Artboards work there.

    But maybe this article will help you get what you want in InDesign:

    https://creativepro.com/cre…..part-2.php

  • January 29, 2013 at 12:26 pm #64024
    lwlbar

    Member

    thanks for your quick aide David. I have only briefly looked at the article but it doesn't quite seem to have the desired endpoint –> multiple pages on one spread yes, but it was vertically orientated. All my old docs are now opening with extra spreads…. And it definately is in Indesign not Illustrator. Much more comfortable over there. Definately indesign.

    Is there a way I could post a couple of images – they might shed some light on the issue.

  • January 29, 2013 at 12:32 pm #64025
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Unfortunately, we can't upload images here, but you can post them on various places like image shack, etc., and then include a link to them here.

    You're not just seeing the difference between a Facing Pages document and a single sided document?

  • January 29, 2013 at 12:46 pm #64026
    lwlbar

    Member

    Possibly! I will freely acknowledge an only vague idea of what I am doing – but I had been doing this iregularly for 12 mths+.

    here are some links :

    this is where happy me once was…..

    https://imageshack.us/a/img839/…..uldbes.jpg

    I would prefer not to put up with this:

    https://imageshack.us/a/img38/6…..dnotbe.jpg

    https://imageshack.us/a/img707/…..either.jpg

    any ideas?

  • January 29, 2013 at 5:42 pm #64029
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Wow that is really odd. There's no break between spreads! What version of InDesign was that first image from? Are you saying that if you had an object on the 2nd page and another object on the 4th page (next spread down) you could select both at the same time?

  • January 30, 2013 at 1:28 am #64030
    lwlbar

    Member

    Exactly. I could select the entire document, or specific elements on various pages. there was only one spread so to speak. It is CS5 7.04 2010 (in french).

    Whatever has occurred, I have to assume that it is a global setting. All my old documents that were set up (by default – I really have never known any other way with Id) on “one spread” are now opening up with this multi spread idea.

    Whereas before I was able to save as a pdf or print and it would print in terms of pages. Now it seems to do so in terms of spreads. I can no longer print just say page 2 and 19 but instead the spreads that those two pages fall on (which includes two other pages…..)

    Whilst working on individual spreads I can selct within the spread, before hand I was able to select say an element on page 1 and using shift select, select a second on page 27 and a third on 92 and align them as a “group” (or other command)

  • January 30, 2013 at 6:28 am #64032
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Well, I've been using InDesign for 13 years, since before 1.0 came out, and:

    • I've never seen it do this
    • I (and many other InDesign users) have wished we could do that!

    Either you had a magic plug-in that allowed this, or you were having a most wonderful dream! ;) No, no, I believe you… I just can't think of how you managed it. Unless I'm missing something. I'm going to ask some other folks to look at this.

  • January 30, 2013 at 7:44 am #64034
    lwlbar

    Member

    Really appreciated! I have scoured the web searching for an answer and am starting to think it is I the insane. Indeed it was not a dream and thus I am having a great deal of difficulty adapting to a now seemingly inflexible machine!

    I must emphasize that this occured mid document. ie: I had launched a new doc yesterday and all was going just dandy. I unfortunately can't recall what occured. It was like it suddenly updated/changed randomly. maybe accidental keystroke combination…I am really not sure. I wish I could be more specific.

    kind regards,

    Claire

  • January 30, 2013 at 10:45 am #64036
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Claire, do you have any of these old files around from the archives — ones that used to open the way you want and that you haven't saved over with newer versions? If so, can you send me one or two? (david at indesignsecrets.com).

  • January 30, 2013 at 10:45 am #64037
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Oh, and I meant to ask: How did you get that screen shot of the way it used to be?

  • January 31, 2013 at 10:03 am #64041
    lwlbar

    Member

    Hi David, Yes and no. I did but I have tested several and each time I open they automatically open in this new world order.

    Unfortunately it is not a valid screen shot, rather a montage of what it was like done on ps….

    I can't get over this. Its like a whole new world, moves that were just logical are now impossible. I can't believe that “normal” indesign doesn't function like I knew it too. And yet apparently I am unique in haveing worked like this. Surely not……

    way too weird.

• Author
  Posts