Unveiling InDesign's Latest Gem: "Hide Spread" Feature

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Introducing Hide Spread in InDesign, available for version 19.0 and later.

Hello Everyone,

We are thrilled to announce a new feature that many users eagerly awaited – the "Hide Spread" option. InDesign is all about giving you the flexibility and control you need over your projects; this addition is no exception. Whether you want to keep your work in progress under wraps, focus on specific sections of your design, or tidy up your workspace, the "Hide Spread" feature is here to make your life easier.

Hide Spread is only available for InDesign version 19.0 or later. Update the app now.

Update InDesign

Entry Points for Hiding Spreads

We've made it incredibly simple for you to hide spreads with three intuitive entry points:

• Right-click on Spread: Right-click on any spread, & you'll see the option to hide it.
• Right-Click on Page: If you prefer to work on a page-level basis, right-clicking on a page also gives you the option to hide the spread.
• Pages Panel (hamburger menu): You can also access it from the Pages Panel.
  
  
  

State of the Options

When you hover over the "Hide Spread" option, it will be highlighted. A simple click on it will instantly hide the selected spread. Once hidden, the spread will be overlaid with a white, slightly transparent layer, and a hidden icon will appear in the bottom right corner.

Selected State of Hidden Spread

If you select a page within a hidden spread, it will be indicated by a blue overlay on top of the white, signifying its hidden state. The icon shared below indicates that the spread is hidden. 

Unhide Spread

Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about those hidden spreads. Right-clicking on a hidden page will allow you to unhide the spread.

Select Hidden and Non-Hidden Spreads

Selecting multiple spreads, including hidden and non-hidden spreads, will prompt options to hide all pages. We've ensured a consistent experience across different themes and for our users in the MENA locale.

Export and Preview Options

Hidden spreads won't be included in exported or printed documents. We've added a note in the export panels to remind you of this. Also, hidden spreads will be excluded in the preview (Presentation mode). However, there's a unique exception – if you enter presentation mode from a hidden spread to preview it, the next hidden spread won't appear unless it's visible.

Exporting or deleting Hidden Pages

If you need to export or delete hidden pages, you'll encounter an OS dialogue message for guidance. This ensures that you're aware of the hidden content. 

Adding/Deleting Pages from Hidden Spreads

If you add or delete a page within a hidden spread, the spread's hidden status remains intact, and the new page inherits the same properties.

Onboarding

For those using the "Hide Spread" feature for the first time, we've included an onboarding process to help you get started quickly.

We hope this new feature empowers you to work more efficiently and creatively in InDesign. For more details please check this article. Your feedback is invaluable, so please share your thoughts and experiences with us. Happy designing!

Thanks,

Rishabh

[JHK-Brand Design]

When you hide the spread or pages and there are auto-generated page numbers, what would be the best way to skip numbering the pages which are hidden?
I've tried adding a master page with no numbers to the hidden pages, and it still counts the hidden pages in the exported PDF, causing numbering to be off. Am I missing a hidden checkbox somewhere?

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi @JHK-Brand Design ,

Thank you for reaching out. I am afraid, as of now, it is a designed limitation right now. We have already shared this scenario with the product team, and they will research it further. If feasible, they will bring this capability in one of the future updates.

Thanks

Rishabh

[JHK-Brand Design]

@Rishabh_Tiwari - well... here we are 9 months (!) later, and your dev team still hasn't fixed the page numbering issue?! Really? Did you forget to tell them? Are there difficulties? Do you need me to upload all of our books and manuals so you can use them first for AI Training?

OK... a slight apology for the sarcasm, but seriously, this problem should've been fixed long ago... OR... be honest to your decades-long users and remove the feature because it's USELESS right now as is.

[NBLLTD]

@JHK-Brand Design My thoughts jumped straight to the auto page numbering too. I thought it would be a given that it would be a necessary feature, otherwise, what is the point at all? 

A feasible option that I'm considering is to set up my scamp pages as the beginning pages of the document, as many as I need, and then set the first proper page to start numbering at 1 from that page onwards.

This way, I can create scamps to my heart's delight, while the actual document is never affected.

I hope this inspires some people who are wondering the same thing.

P.S. all the ideas given for improvement sound spot on. 👍🏻

[KIS33205914rq6k]

I also get stuck with page number and try to move all the hidden spreads to the end of the book in order not to effect to the ToC page. Meanwhile, any tricks to solve with this problem while waitng new update?

[IlaMos]

I think it could possibly be a dangerous feature.

Since it happens sometimes to forget about these choices, when exporting in pdf it should be much more evident the fact that there are some hidden spreads (like a disclaimer: Attention! You are exporting a pdf with hidden spreads).

And yes, the page numbers should reflow (but what about the TOC at that point? Don't know. It's tricky).

Hope this can help.

[JHK-Brand Design]

"Dangerous" is a rather strong term for a "complete feature" that is integrated throughout the process.
Consider for example, a none-printing page of embedded icons and other graphics, that obviously you don't want included in the PDF. Or for our usage, multiple versions of a single spread, that obviously, we only need 1 version per PDF.
The disclaimer you suggested – and a checkbox, "Reflow Page Numbers" – could easily be added to the PDF print dialog under the Page Range, where you currently can add non-continuous ranges of pages.  I can't imagine that this is something that the Adobe devs can't easily accomplish. There's far more difficult behind-the-scenes settings and scripts, than this one.

[JHK-Brand Design]

Because we're waiting for a solution to complete this feature, I thought I would add the rather primitive workaround that we currently use.  We create all of our version spreads in a separate InDesign document, without their page numbers, and  import each spread into the main document and create a PDF; or add the static page numbers to each version's spread, export the PDF, and swap spreads in Acrobat Pro.
This "Hide Pages and Reflow Page Numbering" feature when finished, would definately save some time.

[dirkb96078594]

Nice function, works perfect when exporting to files, I expected however this would also work for the "Share for review" option. Unfortunately, all pages remain visible in the online review environment.

[Dimitri_]

I love this feature. Normally I made a big cross en placed the pages at the end. Now I don't have to do that anymore.

But... I have got a TOC and it's includes the hidden spread.

My work-around for now is that I disconnect the paragraph style and update the TOC. Then it is gone. But is it possible to exclude the hidden spreads in the TOC? Next update?

[defaultwvk26oukqwps]

To my surprise, my hidden spreads appeared when I published the document online!  Is this an oversight by the development team?  I can't think of any situation where this could be perceived as an advantage...

[theecosmicfoxx]

Couldn't agree more! What is the point?!

[PKMPFT]

Posting from the future: great idea, terrible implementation. All the original bugs remain unfixed:

- page numbers are wrong

- hidden spreads are not hidden when using Share for Review

- hidden spreads are included in the ToC

😞

[ddjanni]

As it is right now this feature is useless to me as it doesn't reflow the page numbers. So I have to delete the page anyway and save a copy of the file in case the client decides they want the page they wanted removed, back again. This feature has potential if you can make the auto page numbering work like it should for something like this.

[Myrabell]

I`m using this feature a lot, but I`d love to have some indication of hidden spread in the main workspace also, not just in the pages panel

[Nick23000208xujz]

When are the page number and export issues getting fixed? Keynote has had this issue solved for literally decades. This feature is currently useless.