Skip to main content
Participant
February 26, 2025
Question

InDesign Page Numbering - page spreads

  • February 26, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 297 views

Hi, I have a problem with the online version of my pdf. I am exporting the page spreads and would like the numbering to be as these spreads are i.e. 1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 etc. The whole thing is 500 sts and in the pdf it shows 250. And the table of contents loses its meaning here at this point, because it is not easy to find the pages with this layout. I would be grateful for your help.

3 replies

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 26, 2025

Don't output as spreads--it makes it difficult to read on small screens and the end user can't print it out as a booklet. The easiest thing to do would be to change the view settings in the PDF using Document Properties. That gives the end user the option to change it.

If you want page 1 to be a right-hand page, use one of the Cover Page optons.

 

As far as the TOC is concerned, in my option, they are generally only good for printed documents. For online PDFs, be sure to create bookmarks when creating your TOC. Then set the bookmark panel to open automatically.

 

If you add security to your PDF (to edit, not to open), the settings will stay the same when opening but the user can change per viewing. 

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
Barb Binder
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 26, 2025

Hi @Roman22840239vayf:

 

Are you exporting a spread because you want people to see the left and right facing pages?

 

If yes, you can export as Pages and then set the view in Adobe Acrobat. 

 

If that works, you can set this as the initial view settings on export so that the file always open the way that that you want people to see it. 

 

Then the page numbers behave as expected.

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 26, 2025

@Barb Binder You post wasn't there when I started. Took me longer to type it out! 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
Barb Binder
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 26, 2025

Happens to me all the time!!! LOL

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
Participant
February 26, 2025

I found an example of what I would like to achieve in my PDF with page spreads.