Book Formatting: Facing Page Layout "Broken"

[Joe-New-to-ID]

I'm formatting a book in InDesign and am on my fourth chapter. I imported the manuscript's Chapter 4 from MS-Word to InDesign as was done for the previous chapters. I've fixed most import-related discrepancies (fonts, tables, text boxes, etc.). However, I just ran into a new problem.

The book is formatted with facing pages. There's an A-Parent and a B-Parent. The A-Parent covers the first two pages of a chapter, and the B-Parent the remaining chapter pages. Everything was going smoothly until I noticed a break on Page 11. Here's the layout now:

   1-2 [A-Parent applied to each]

   3-4 [B-Parent applied to each]

   5-6 [B-Parent applied to each]

   7-8 [B-Parent applied to each]

   9-10 [B-Parent applied to each]

      11 [B; right side only; nothing on the left side]

   12-13 [B]

etc.

The text transition over the break is correct. I tried dragging to-from the parents to no avail. I also looked for improper carriage returns and the like where the break occurs and found nothing. Any insight?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'm not quite clear on the problem. Are you saying that on document page 12, there is nothing? That it should be book page 12, but page 12 is pushed to the next document page?

Also, your example may simply be loose, but a book should always start on a right-hand (recto) page. That is, the first page, Page 1, of your document should be a solo, recto page, and the 2-page spreads should not start until pages 2-3. Right pages should always be odd numbers, and left pages always even. That might be part of the issue here.

If it's a text flow problem turn on hidden characters and look for extra returns and section breaks. Make sure the first text following the break does not have Page Break Before or Keep With Next set so that it cannot flow from page 11 to 12.

[Joe-New-to-ID]

James:

I attached a PDF since a picture is worth 1,000 words. Pages 1-10 are OK, as are Pages 12 and beyond. I just can't seem to make the proper/smooth sequence from Page 11.

(BTW, I agree that a book should start on the right page. Page 1, which starts on the left, is an illustration only. Page 2, which starts on the right, is the beginning of the text.)

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

Not sure this is the problem, but in the Pages pane, under the 'hamburger' menu, make sure "Pages allowed to shuffle" item is checked/active.

Then try dragging p12 to the empty space and if necessary, continuing the rearrangement or add a new page in an empty slot, then fix the text flow.

[Joe-New-to-ID]

James:

It worked! I had to do each subsequent page manually, but I didn't have many to do after Page 11. Thank you very much!!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Thought so. You uncheck that box when you need pages to stay in an odd order for special layouts and such. Normally, you want it checked so that ID manages the document page flow.

[Robert Tkaczyk]

You don't have to do it one by one - you can select pages on the list - click on 1st then keeping Shift on the last - and then check/uncheck *shuffle options.

[Peter Spier]

Another part of your problem may be your numbering scheme. Convention dictates that in languages that read from left-to-right the right-hand pages should be odd number, and InDesign works pretty hard to enforce this by default.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

This. If you want a page facing "Page 1," it should be the last page of a prior section, not the first page of a section with the second page trying to be "Page 1."

[Joe-New-to-ID]

James: Got it. Thanks again.