Reply To: One file OR several files?

I usually create my first file (for a chapter) with just two or three empty pages. I make sure it has the margins, columns etc., that I want and then the paragraph and character styles that I want. All of these can be modified down the track but, by trying to get as many as possible of these features set up in the initial file, I save myself a lot of work later.

Often I don’t even put text blocks on the actual pages, though if I am going to have a regular feature to text layout (like the text block for the first page of each chapter beginning further down the page than usual) I may put in a text block, perhaps filled with placeholder text and, in that case, I may thread the text onto subsequent pages. But no real content at tis stage.

If the finished job is to have more than one master page, I set these up in that initial file as well, complete with page footers and headers and page numbers, plus, of course, any text variables that will be on master pages, insofar as I know them at this early stage.

Then I copy that file (still with no real content) as many times as I will have chapters in the final book, giving each one an appropriate name (probably not chapter numbers, as someone’s good advice above — forgotten who, sorry! — suggested). I may even make one extra that I can use a template for any additional chapters that may need to be created as the design progresses.

I open a new ID book and load all of the individual files (except that possible extra one) in as chapters. The book will only have a limited number of pages at this stage (number of chapters multiplied by number of pages in initial file) but, as each chapter is filled with content and pages added as necessary, InDesign looks after the page numbering in each file and, of course, the chapters can be shuffled as needed.

Naturally there will be a need from time to time to add or modify paragraph and character styles but, provided this is done on the file that is used as a style reference by the rest of the book, that is no great hassle.

I have been using the book feature of InDesign for a few years (though not nearly as frequently as some of you) and am still discovering all its capabilities.