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m5heath
Inspiring
August 22, 2024
Answered

Trouble Deleting Pages and Orphaned Page in InDesign Document

  • August 22, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1743 views

I am editing a 200 page book using ID 19.5 and I'm on Windows 11.

I really thought I had mastered deleting pages but now I find it's not working as I expect. I have 'Allow Shuffling' turned off for both document and selected spread. I then try to delete Page 7 but it leaves Page 6 as an orphan whereas I'm expecting the previous Page 8, now Page 7, to come up and join Page 6 as a double page spread, with the other pages changing to conform. I've tried checking 'Allow spreads' severally and together but that only makes things worse so I hastily pressed Ctrl-Z. I've tried deleting the page using the Delete Selected Pages icon and with the dropdown menu Delete Page option but I get the same result.

I suspect it may be because  my Page 6 is the last page of the 'front matter' (the old deleted Page 7 was blank which is why I wanted to delete it.) and not threaded like the rest of the book which starts immediately afterwards.

I have searched Google and these pages and found nothing that matches my situation. 

I attach a sreenshot showing the pages panel and the orphaned Page 6.

I would be most grateful for some advice

<Title renamed by MOD>

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Robert at ID-Tasker

Just tried saving as idml and re-opened. Everything is exactly the same with pages 16 and 19 orphaned. Sigh!


quote

Just tried saving as idml and re-opened. Everything is exactly the same with pages 16 and 19 orphaned. Sigh!


By @m5heath

 

Then, as long as same Story continues on those pages - TextFrames are linked together - you can delete those 16-19 pages. 

 

Then add those pages again - and reflow your text - create new TextFrames. 

 

Just in case - do it on a copy of your file. 

 

2 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 23, 2024

Hi @m5heath:

 

Remember, always work on a copy of the original when you are unsure about the process...

 

So on a copy, click the first page thumbnail in the Page panel  (it turns blue) and Shift+click the last page thumbnail (and now all thumbnails are blue) and make sure both of these are checked in the Pages panel menu:

 

 

And when you get this message, say no:

 

 

This will restore the document to the normal facing pages flow.

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    M
    m5heathAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 23, 2024

    Thanks Barb - I've made a careful note of your advice!

    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Legend
    August 22, 2024

    I hope this will help - square brackets around page numbers: 

     

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/anyone-know-how-to-reset-page-numbering/td-p/14325125#:~:text=The%20brackets%20surrounding%20the%20page,is%20unchecked%20for%20that%20spread. 

     

    M
    m5heathAuthor
    Inspiring
    August 23, 2024

    Well I now understand what the square brackets mean. I have selected all pages and tried 3 options: allow no shuffling, allow document shuffling and allow spread shuffling. The square brackets appear or disappear on cue. However, none of those options changes my orphan pages to a double spread so I don't imagine shuffling is the answer. In fact I can't see what shuffling does. Maybe it doesn't matter and it all corrects on export. My whole document is one section by the way. Pages 1-21 have no parent and pages 16 and 19 are the orphans. I hoped there was a setting that just set all spreads to double pages no matter what.

    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Robert at ID-Tasker
    Legend
    August 23, 2024

    Do you have any NOT Anchored graphics? 

     

    If it's just a text - in one long Story - you could delete most of the pages and reflow it again. 

     

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