change page size cutting on one end, shortening bottom up … ?

[Lavitas Macutis]

Dear Community, 

in Photoshop, you can change the canvas size cutting on one or two sides rather than all four (or opposing two) equally (by setting the Anchor in the Canvas Size panel (Image > Canvas Size or opt-cmd-C). Anything like that in InDesign? 

Thanks!

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Not that I know of. I assume you mean shortening a page and having the top and bottom margins remain proportional, or some variation of that. InDesign is fixed with its origin point at the upper left of each page, and page contents are positioned relative to that origin. So changing the page size will not move any content relative to that point — meaning that all changes in page size are effectively to the bottom and right side.

As with so many things, it's possible a script could be developed to adjust all content proportionally to a page size change, but I think that would either be trivially easy (if there's a universal 'hook' to be used) or quite messy.

There are also layout alternatives that allow resizing — 'Liquid Layout' — but in general their action is more complex than just moving items proportionally when a page size changes. You might look into that feature to see if it serves your needs.

[rob day · Accepted solution]

on one or two sides rather than all four (or opposing two) 

The Pages tool responds to the Transform panel’s reference Point:

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Wallaby d*mned. 😛

[rob day]

I use it rather than Document Setup for resizing pages—doc setup always uses the center reference point.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I seem to recall the same effect as the OP, that changing page size trims the bottom and left (or outside) edges... if Doc Setup defaults to the center anchor, the page change would be symmetrical, leaving content more or less centered... right?

But the flexibility of the Page Tool is superior for the job. It's just one I hardly ever use, so never noticed the details. 😛

[Willi Adelberger]

The page tool has one huge disadvantage: when you change the page size in document with many pages, the file size increases immensely, even if you cange a single master and all pages have the same size at the end. 
I use it only for small documents like a book cover to regulate the width of the spine or for trifolds to reduce the width of the shorter fold. 

[rob day]

Hi Willi, Not sure I’m seeing that here on CC2021. I created a 200page doc and it saved as 19MB. Changed all the page widths, saved, and the file size was 28MB. Did a Save As and the file size dropped back to 17MB.

[Lavitas Macutis]

firstly, a great thanks to all! So very helpful. What little I can contribute: After resizing a two-Master 34 pages document, file size appears to remain unaltered. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I've always distrusted the Page tool as a bit contrary to good practice... sort of a page-level spot override that seems to cause avoidable problems and (like other override formatting) makes the document that much harder to manage.

I am starting to realize there are two major camps in In-designing: the "one and done" designers who will use all the convenience tools because it expedites the job and they'll never have to cross those bridges again, and the "archival" group that keeps docs structurally clean and solid so that rework doesn't make them break or require extra patch-up work. Maybe you can be too much in one or the other, but as a charter member of the latter, I can only shake my head at posts from users who are in deep weeds, with a deadline looming, because they're trying to revamp a 'modded' doc that's crumbling in front of them.

[rob day]

If I use the Pages tool for a size change, I’ll also set the Document Setup to the new size, so the pages are no longer custom—if I handed you the file I don’t think you would know I had changed the page sizes.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Then what's gained with the tool? Simply change Doc Setup and continue with the globally resized pages.

I'm sure I'm missing something here but I don't see what (yet).

[rob day]

I think it‘s what @Lavitas Macutis  is looking for, the ability to change the page size from a Reference Point other than centered, which is what Document Setup does. If I wanted to trim a 1/2" off the bottom of all the pages, (rather than .25" from the top and .25" from the bottom):