Trying to save a book

[Grundoon Groundhog]

I have seven files that will become a single printed book. I've tried to save them AS a book in InDesign. My first attempt was going beautifully. To establish the styles, I began with the first interior section, then placed the others. I added the front matter, and tried to drag it in front of the first text section. The attached error message then appeared. Now the error occurs whenever I try to place the first section and the program stops responding. Why would this happen? There are no errors in the file. It is very long; over two hundred pages. Should I split it up? Is there another way to combine files? I've considered adding two hundred blank pages and copying and pasting in place but that is ridiculous. Presumably I could make separate PDFs and combine them into one, but that would also be extremely tedious. Why would this happen? How do I prevent it from happening? 

The strokes around the many images are .25. It's possible some are duplicated but why would that be a problem?

Chatting with Adobe's support was worse than useless. The slow responses suggested what I had already done; deleting and reinstalling the program and the computer. Evidently this problem is not solved in their potted responses.

[Grundoon Groundhog]

No, it only happened in the PDF; they don't appear in the InDesign document, and the chapters begin left or right.. Three blanks were added. I took them out of the PDF.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

No, it only happened in the PDF; they don't appear in the InDesign document, and the chapters begin left or right.. Three blanks were added. I took them out of the PDF.

By @Grundoon Groundhog

InDesign is not adding pages in the INDD files - blank pages are only added when PDF is generated. 

[Grundoon Groundhog]

But why? There is no requirement for sections to start on a right page. Doesn't really matter since I was able to remove them.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

When there are no other guidelines, InDesign follows traditional publishing practice. In formal — or at least common — publishing esthetics, chapters, sections or whatevers don't begin on left-hand pages. If you are splitting up a "chapter" into segments for management, or if you want to ignore traditional rules, you can set your chapter/section/files to follow whatever Book rules you like.

Very much a case of needing to know what the rules are, whether you follow them or (perhaps especially) ignore them.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

But why? There is no requirement for sections to start on a right page. Doesn't really matter since I was able to remove them.

By @Grundoon Groundhog

Yes, you can remove them - in the PDF - as you are editing PDF - not INDD file.

If InDesign won't "top up" pages - you'll end up with pages on the wrong side of the spread.

Let's say you have 3 pages in the 1st document:

_1

23

then your 2nd document:

_A

BC

D

So your PDF would look like this - without extra blank page(s):

_1

23

AB

CD

instead of:

_1

23

[]A

BC

D

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

And if for any reason you want a chapter to start on a left-hand page, as in continuing with [Part 2] of a chapter you've split up, you can set that as well. But the system default and general "model" of how things are handled is that each chapter is indeed a chapter, and you will want each to start on a right-hand pages. Hence the blank pages inserted (by InDesign or pretty much any printing process) if one chapter ends on a right hand page.

Some time masterinug not just the menu items in the Book menus, but an overall grasp of how the Book feature/mode/pane/menu handles the process, would probably answer many questions present and to come.From the Adobe help page referenced above:

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Grundoon Groundhog:

It sounds like you already have the PDF taken care of, but if you have to re-export it because of edits that come in down the road, it might be nice to be able to figure this out.

Would you mind sharing your book page numbering options dialog box? (The same screen shot that @Scott Falkner included, I'd just like to see your settings.) And I'm assuming you have Facing Pages enabled?

~Barb

[Grundoon Groundhog]

Here it is.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

That setting will continue pagination/numbering from chapter [file] to chapter. If Chapter One ends on page 47, an odd/right-hand page, Chapter Two will then begin on page 48. an even/left-hand page. If that's what you want — and this would be correct if you split up a book chapter into multiple consecutive files — all good. If you want the more standard format of each chapter beginning on an odd/right-hand page, you'd set the choice to that. In the above case, Chapter One would end on p47, have a blank p48 following (inserted by the Book/export process) and then Chapter Two would begin on p49.

If you are using sectional numbering (1-1, 1-20, 1-100 etc.) you almost certainly don't want your chapter/section to start on a left hand page. The continual mode should only be used to "stitch together" components of a single chapter/section.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the screen shot, @Grundoon Groundhog. 

When I have chapters 2-infinity set up for Automatic Page Numbering as shown below for the last chapter:

–and–

The same book page numbering options that you do, it starts the next chapter on the next page (in the case of chapter 3, on page 10) and doesn't add extra pages in InDesign or in the PDF.

I normally follow printing conventions, so "in real life" I would enable auto page numbering for chapters 2-infinity, but I would change the book page numbering as follows:

This adds a blank page (page 10) to the end of chapter 2 in InDesign (and in the PDF) to allow chapter three to begin on a right page (page 11), because in print, chapters typically begin on a right page. 

Is your experience different?

~Barb

[Grundoon Groundhog]

Why are there yellow warning triangles next to these sections? The links appear to be OK.

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

If you hover your mouse pointer on them, as is pretty standard in modern apps interfaces, the pop-up message will tell you.

In this case, it's usually because the file has been modified outside the book, meaning update or sync is probably needed. As noted above, once you create a Book, it's best by far to only access the component files through the Book pane, so that updates are automatic and the Book file can keep everything in sync.

(FWIW, I can't find any Adobe help page that addresses this — either an explanation of the warning, or to avoid it by not opening component files outside the Book pane. But that is what popup UI messages are for.)

[Grundoon Groundhog]

Thanks, James. I've started making corrections in the book itself. The Community is so much more helpful than the Adobe help.

[Grundoon Groundhog]

Thanks,  Barb and James. I have bookmarked these answers in my browser so I can come back to them.

I am not sure how I'd set up the page numbering. I did have to go back and reset the chapters' section numbers to begin on succeeding pages, so I must not have had it set correctly. The numbering was not automatically consecutive. For its next trick ID started duplicating part of the last section when I made a PDF, so there were two copies of some of the pages.

As a book designer for over forty years and a constant reader I'm a little surprised at the idea that new chapters always start on right/recto pages. Some of the books I designed did so, but it was always when there was a special treatment required. New parts usually began on a right, but sometimes they had their own spread.

[Eugene Tyson]

I've marked @barbarber and @James Gifford—NitroPress  answered correct - if there are other helpful replies then please mark as correct too as it helps others identify the problem and fix them.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Eugene Tyson

I think it should be @Barb Binder?