Hidden spreads, table of contents, and page numbers

[smashkirk]

I have a document with a couple of hidden spreads. The page numbering seems to respect the hidden spreads in that it skips those pages in the numbering. This makes sense. But when I create a table of contents, it seems to insert the page numbers as if the hidden spreads were not hidden. 

You will see in my attached images that the page numbers on the bottom left shows page 16 on spread 20-21. This makes sense given that spreads 16-19 are hidden. When I create the TOC it does not do this. It treats page 16 as 20. Is this normal functionality? I sent this to a client and it was wrong. I should have double checked, but still, not good.

Is this a bug or a feature?

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @smashkirk, 

Thanks for reaching out. We have a UserVoice logged for it as: Hide spread not reflected in Table of Contents – Adobe InDesign. In the meantime, allow me some time to get this checked with the product team. I will keep you posted with the updates from the team. 

^

Abhishek 

[Abhishek Rao · Accepted solution]

Hello @smashkirk,

Thanks for your patience.
I have received an update from the product team, who confirmed that this functionality is not yet implemented in InDesign.
Please rest assured that this request is on their radar, and I recommend keeping an eye on updates for future releases.
Moreover, please go through the suggestion dropped by @Eugene Tyson and other experts. Let me know if it helps.

If you need any further assistance, feel free to reach out.

^
Abhishek

[smashkirk]

Instead of saying "the functionality of hidden spreads is not yet complete", you say "that functionality is not yet implemented in InDesign." It's ok, I get it. It's all about optics.
Thank you for getting back to me.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Toe-may-toe or toe-ma-toe...

Is the phrasing really that different? Should we call it a bug or an oversite?

At least they are aware of the problem.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

How about "don't eat raw software"? 😛

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

The Hide Spreads feature was (IMHO) released in badly undercooked form and has only slowly had its faults patched. I simply would not use it for any project or layout where you really, really want certain pages to disappear/reappear with consistent results in page numbering, TOCs, indexes etc.

Probably fine for looser layouts without hard content organization or numbering. At least so far.

[Eugene Tyson]

Prior to this method when the feature wasn't in the program.

For 'hiding pages/spreads' I would drag them into the Parent Page Sections then delete the pages, so they are only in the Parent Page section.

If needed again I could drag them back to the layout and sort it out. 

It was a good way of handling it for me.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Or 2nd document. 

And it gave me an idea for the extra functionality for my IDT 😉 more "dynamic layout" 😉 even sets of layouts easily manageable...