Maybe what Eugene suggested worked, so my suggestion may be outdated. But if not, here is how I would do it:
1. You can use any previous ID file as a master for other projects.
2. All you have to do is to open the older file, delete all pages except page 1. Delete everything on page 1 by deleting the frame(s) that contain the elements of this page.
3. In this way you have a blank file that can become your new master because what you did in 1. and 2. will not erase the master pages and will keep all settings and paragraph/character styles.
4. Save this file with a new name.
5. Now load the text of your new project (Ctrl D).
6. When you see the icon with text on the cursor, place the cursor on the beginning of page 1 and press the Shift key. Now click and the text will flow to all the pages it needs. In other words all pages needed will be opened automatically.
That’s all.
BTW, there is a way to import style tags from a MS-Word file, but that’s another story. ;-)

Hello Dave,
My experience with ID’s Book handling is bad. I just finished DTP-ing two very large books (500 pages each – large format 8.5″ x 11.5″)
While using the Book panel my computer kept crushing during the indexing stage.
So I simply merged all chapters in one large file and indexed it all using the auto numbering. This worked fine.
But then I had to add some new chapters and it was at this stage that I conceived this trick. It allowed me to first index each individual chapter (using this trick) and then merge the new chapters with the big file. On the side I just updated the index pages merging the new chapters’ individual index files and the numbering of pages ended correct.
Since Sarah seems to have some similar problem I offered her a quick and dirty solution.
Take care
Tom

BTW, ID CS6 works poorly on a 64 bits platform. It used to work flawlessly on a XP, on Win 7 it is slow and crushes. Sometimes the inserting of an image can take minutes. True, I only have 4 gigs of RAM, but that shouldn’t be an obstacle. But it is. At least in my experience.

Kris, I experienced similar problems. I was using ID on Windows XP and CS5. All was beautiful.
Then I switched to Windows 7 and ID CS6. It became a nightmare.
ID CS6 is 32 bits and works very poorly on Windows 7. Of course there is no 64 bits version for CS6 because when it launched this version Adobe already knew that CC was coming.
So now, if you want productivity, speed and flawless ID you MUST switch to CC. Or buy a Mac
Shame on you Adobe!

Pailin,
I cannot explain why this is happening, but I experienced the same problem with one of my jobs.
It seems that this is a flaw in ID.
As far as I could diagnose it, it results from the following: If the NEW master page was created based on an EXISTING one and not from the blank master-master then both load when inserting a new page.

I am not good at GREP either, but to me the simple solution is a search and replace like this one
1. search for 4\r
2. replace ALL with \r

Actually the answer depends on how the booklet will be printed. You have to ask your print-shop how they wish you to format the ID PDF document that they will use for printing.
My guess would be two spreads 11″ x 17″ – double page like this
===========
[ | ]
[ | ] 11″ high
[ | ]
===========
2 x 8.5″ wide

Nicole, as I wrote you before you are addressing wrongly my email. You MUST add the suffix .br for Brazil.

You are sending your messages to tom.vene@livrospraja.com.

You have to send them to tom.vene@livrospraja.com.br

This is why your messages are bouncing

Tom

Dear Nicole, I am not giving up :-)
Please examine my address, it has a suffix (.br) after .com
<tom.vene@livrospraja.com.br>
This is why your message returned. Please try again.
Best
Tom