Print Booklet won't let me because of multiple page sizes...?

[GeofferyH]

Dialog box:

"The active document uses multiple page sizes Print Booklet works only with documents that use a consistent page size."

OK, but the page sizes are all the same.

Help?

[Peter Spier]

Did you use the page tool?

[GeofferyH]

well, yes.

I was given a document that, instead of it being one ID document that contained multiple pages, it was many ID documents with just few pages per document, so I had to merge all of the individual documents into one continuous file, in the process I found that some of the documents were A4 instead of Letter.

After everything was brought in I did make sure to change any A4 pages to Letter, so all the pages are now the same. Will it not work that way?

CS5, MacPro, Leopard.

[Peter Spier]

Honestly, I'm not quite sure. I've never tried using the Page tool that way (only played with it briefly, at all). I suspect that ID is still seeing the old A4 page size for those pages (it would unless you change the size in Document Setup).

[Peter Spier]

Here's a quick and dirty way to get around it, though, I think. Download Scott Zanelli's multi-page importer script from InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Zanelli Releases MultiPageImporter for Importing both PDF and INDD ..., then create a new lettersize file and palce the page from this one into it using the script. Print Booklet from the new file...

[GeofferyH]

Thanks Peter, that does work.

It is a workaround though, feels a little bit like a bug to me...

[Peter Spier]

Well, the page tool does wierd things, and Print Booklet is from the days when a .indd file could only have one size. The page tool, by itself doesn't affect the size in the Document Setup dialog -- I don't think it could since you would need to be able to have multiple sizes there, too -- so unless you change that  value I don't think you can use Print Booklet. I would say this is more a limitation of how the feature works than a bug.

[Peter Spier]

I have to say, frankly, that I think the page tool is of limited usefulness in a print workflow, and that it is going to be easily misunderstood by users who will try to do things with it that just won't work, or that cause major complications for prepress -- sort of in the same vein as abusing transparency when what you really want is a tint.

[Steve Werner]

Actually, I have to disagree with you, Peter, about the Page tool.

While I agree that it can be confusing to newcomers (as many of InDesign's tools are), it has great utility in printing. Two example are creating gatefolds or book covers. I wrote a blog post about this: http://indesignsecrets.com/introducing-multiple-page-sizes-in-indesign-cs5.php

You can also create a nice presentation of an identity package using multiple page sizes with this feature: http://indesignsecrets.com/creating-multiple-page-sizes-in-cs5—part-2.php

In the print dialog box, there a new widget for selecting all pages of the same size, if you're printing directly from the document. And creating a PDF is easy because PDF files have always supported multiple sizes and orientations.

As usual, your commercial printer will have to get up-to-speed on new techniques, and you should communicate with them ahead of printing time.

[Peter Spier]

Well as I said, it's MY opinion. You've pointed out three scenarios where it MIGHT be useful. Multi-fold brochures are another case, though I've decided it takes longer most of the time to set up separate pages than to drag guides to the right positions.

By all means, you must discuss with the printer how thay want things like gatefolds handled before you begin work.

[claidheamdanns]

We use the page tool both for gate fold and roll fold setup.

[cherelynd]

Has this bug been fixed? To me it is a bug as I have made sure that all the page sizes are A4, the document layout is also set to A4. I've even tried changing them all to A3 then back again. I agree with Steve Werner on this one. I think it's a fantastic tool but I am a prepress person so can imagine the minefield that clients could unwittingly create. It seems like once you've changed the page size in the pages pallet that there is no way to reset it. Even if it is A4 InDesign can only see that there was different page sizes at one point.

[Peter Spier]

As far as I know it's still a problem.

There are a couple of threads going now, I think. I'm not sure if anyone has tried export to .idml, but I suspect I probably did on a file I was testing for someone else. You can give it a whirl, though. My recollection was the only way to reset was to copy/paste in place form the bad file to a new one.

[cherelynd]

Funny you should mention idml. This job was done by a student in cs6 and I had to export to idml for cs5. So I can confidently say that the idml workaround doesn't. Hopefully it will be fixed at some point. I ended up exporting to PDF with bleed, no trims. Used place multiple page PDF script and print booklet from the new A4 doc

[minfb]

I'm dealing with the same issue. Grr.

[hakkadesignteam1]

Hello everyone,

I reduced the page size in the document settings, which should make a unified change to all pages (master page incl.) and still, when I want to print a booklet, I get the notice I have multiple page sizes. I read all the existing comments here, but can find asolution for me. I think Adobe should work on this for the next update. For now I will creat a new documents and paste the text boxes over. But ... just more work.

[Peter Spier]

This is much more likely to get some attention if you folks will file bug reports: Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[pete006]

Has anything been done to fix this yet?

Hello? Adobe?!

Don't make me go back to the devil that is Quark!!

[MrTIFF]

Oh, no, that would be a fate worse than death! 😉 

A much better alternative, (even AFTER Adobe fixes that bug, IF they fix that bug,) is to just use IDImposer. I have been getting a tremendous number of kudos from users on it. (I'm the ex-Adobe developer.)

For now at least, it's free.  A license key is posted on the download site, http://IDImposer.com .

Best regards,

Stephen

[Eugene Tyson]

Hasn't been fixed - go to the Master Pages and make sure they are set to the size you need.

Click the pages tool and select and the pages in the document - set them to the same size as the masters.

Apply the Master Pages to the pages of the document.

That should do it.

[Peter Spier]

Have you actually had success with that, Eugene? I haven't found a thing that worked previously.

[Eugene Tyson]

I think that worked for me before. I very rarely run across the problem.

[mark_servidio]

I'm running into this same issue as well. Tried all the suggestions on this thread too.

[Guest]

I am having the same problem, and no matter what I do, I get the same error message.  All 4 pages are the same size, the masters are the same size as the pages...there are no other options.  This is a bug and forces you to re-do your entire document on 11x17 so you can proof it!  Ugh.

[Peter Spier]

There are some other options, too, like scripts to impose, or the IDImposer plugin: Overview | IDImposer