pages shuffle, changes layout? why? how to stop?!

[supineNY]

Hi

I've got a document, and my inside margins are narrower than outside ones. all well -- UNTIL. If for some reason I temporarily add one page to the document, causing the pages to re-shuffle (lefts become rights etc) for a minute before I fix it by adding another page, InDesign changes the position of all the text boxes. They're all out of alignment. Whatever it was that was moving the text boxes out of position when the pages shuffled didn't move them back to the right place when the lefts have gone back to being lefts etc. 

Any idea why this is happening? I feel like an idiot having to manually fix every page by dragging the main text box back into position. 

Screenshot attached showing some unhappily dragged out of alignment text boxes. 

thanks for any clues!

best

Kurt Hoffman

InDesign 18.1
Mac Os 12.6.2

[Susan Culligan]

I'm not sure why this is happening, but it might help to insert two pages at once at the insert site. Right click on the page before you want to insert the new pages and select "insert," then add two pages following the one you clicked on. I'm guessing that it will insert the pages with the correct placement. Try it, and if it doesn't work I apologize.

[supineNY]

Well, i was trying not to make my question too complicated, but in fact I'm running another problem where I try adding a spread and for reasons I can't fathom, it will add  a single right hand page with no left hand page. There's no section start defined that might account for adding a right hand page with no left hand, i don't know why it's doing this. And it seems like the only way i can get things right again is to add yet another spread...and then delete my unwanted singleton rh page...then all is well.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi @supineNY:

Long documents like this benefit from using primary frames on the parent pages and by adding pages by pasting/placing content on a page and allowing the text after to just reflow. This eliminates the left/right shuffle that you are fighting. 

~Barb

[supineNY]

aha! thanks, I didn't know about 'primary frames'. I'll see if that helps. Still don't understand why the layout would change if the pages shuffle.