Jumping up and down spreads with alt-up and alt-down, centering issues

[andersn17630676]

When I design books I enjoy being able to jump up and down through the spreads using the alt-up and alt-down keys. In some documents doing so always centers the spread you land on. In most documents though, no centering occurs, so if I am seeing 50% of the current spread and press alt-up I will jump to seeing 50% of the previous spread. It jumps to exactly the same position in the previous spread that I was at.

I would like to know where the setting for this is, because I haven't figured out how to change this. I really want it to always center the spread that I am jumping to and if I only knew how to set this ...

Anybody knows anything about this?

[Mike Witherell · Accepted solution]

Opt/Alt+PageUp and/or Opt/Alt+PageDown are the keyboard shortcuts.

Try pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+0 before you start walking the pages.

[andersn17630676]

So by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+0 once before I start moving around, it will from there on always go to a centered view of the next/previous spread, even if I at some point scroll down a bit, so I just see 30% of one spread.
How long will this be in effect? 

[Barb Binder]

Hi @andersn17630676:

It will be in effect as long as Fit Spread in Window is checked in the View menu. If you zoom in or zoom out, that will change it, but if you're scrolling, it does not.

~Barb 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

As Mike notes, these are (just) standard shortcut key assignments, and can be changed. \

I loathe the standard InDesign PgUp/PgDn behavior, and remap those keys to Next/Prev Spread, (Alt+PgUp and PgDn in the default set). Takeaway here is that you can remap the easy to use keys to work the way you want, and still have useless options like "jump sort of half a screen up, leaving me in the middle of a layout" if you really like.

Next/Prev Spread are in the Layout tab of the Key Assignment menu.

[Barb Binder]

Hi @andersn17630676:

The key controlling this is in Mike's answer: it's the difference between setting InDesign to in Fit Page in Window view vs Fit Spread in Window view before you start paging through the document. His "Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+0" recommendation is the shortcut for Fit Spread in Window. You can also double click the Hand tool.

~Barb 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Yes, Alt-0 and Ctrl-Alt-0 are essential keys; most of us probably hit them a dozen times a session to recenter the work. But they're a bit adjunct to the OP's question. Whether the display is full-page and centered or not, the default PgUp and PgDn actions are a wonky jump of "one screen's worth of the layout" — which can land the display almost anywhere on a previous or following page. I find it disorienting, and hate having to stop and figure out what I'm looking at before I can take any next action.

The "next/prev spread" function I  have mapped to PgUp/PgDn for.... a very long time at least jumps the display to the same portion of the new page. If it's not the full, centered page, it's the same quadrant of it, and I find that a lot more intuitive and less randomly disorienting.

Maybe a really ideal action would be something scripted and attached to sensible keys that both jumps to the next/prev spread AND centers/fullscreens that destination. 🙂

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

It would be a very simple script - invoking two menu items - next/prev spread + fit spread. 

Next Spread + Fit Spread

app.menuActions.itemByID(118818).invoke(); 
app.menuActions.itemByID(118787).invoke(); 

Previous Spread + Fit Spread

app.menuActions.itemByID(118817).invoke(); 
app.menuActions.itemByID(118787).invoke(); 

[Barb Binder]

Yes, Alt-0 and Ctrl-Alt-0 are essential keys; most of us probably hit them a dozen times a session to recenter the work. But they're a bit adjunct to the OP's question.

Hmmm. Not to me—maybe because Mike and I worked together for so long—that's exactly how I approach this issue. 

Alt+PgUp/PgDn at a random zoom level and then after Fit Spread in Window.

~Barb

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Okay. I'm reading the OP slightly differently; although he's referring to this function I gave an answer I feel addresses the solution better. But that's why ID has a thousand key assignments available for remapping — different strokes and all that. 🙂