Change View from a Spread to Single Pages

[#1]

Is it possible for me to view spreads as single pages without actually changing the layout?  Thanks!

[#2]

Is it possible for me to view spreads as single pages without actually changing the layout?  Thanks!

[#3]

Yes. See InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Breaking Pages Apart to Bleed Off a Spine and scroll through the comments to find a script by Harbs to automate the task.

[#4]

Not easily in InDesign. It would be very quick to export as PDF and DON'T turn on Spreads. View in Reader or Acrobat.

[#5]

I too would go with Steve's answer here. Harbs' script is good but I have had instances where the artwork does strange things as a result.

[#6]

I saw the word "view" as being the key word in poster's question. You can view very quickly by making a PDF file.

[#7]

Splitting spreads carries all the same risks as moving pages as far as artwork that crosses the spine. Those objects are on either one page or the other in a spread. Have you seen something other than would be explained by an object staying with a page and disappeating from another?

[#8]

@Peter

Had a diary job with art supplied by the client as indesign files which needed bleed in the spines. used Harbs' script which i'd used dozens of times before but strange things happened with the text that I just could not explain such as reflow.

Yes his script does what it "says on the jar", but because of a one-off strange instance I tend to err on the side of caution.

[#9]

Interesting. I've not needed to split spreads often, and I'm not sure I've ever used the script. I bow to your real worl experience, but I wonder if the problem was really the script, or maybe a case of text reflow from changing versions (not necessarily by you) that the script somehow triggered.

[#10]

I think to have "view spreads as single pages" would be very useful as a view option, for when you just want to scroll through a document and make edits. When the spread view is too wide you have to scroll from side to side as well as down, or keep zooming in and out. And if you want to get a sense of how it's working visuallly then story editor won't do. And obviously we don't want to change the layout settings in order to do this.

[#11]

@dv8kiwi – you can also use two different layout windows of the same document side by side with different zoom values.

To move synchronously from page to page spread to spread in both layout windows, you could use a set of scripts and apply them to keyboard shortcuts.

See the following blog post (in German) by Gerald Singelmann at:

http://www.indesign-faq.de/en/node/53

and here a link for downloading the scripts:

http://www.indesign-faq.de/files/2009/01/split.zip

The scripts are from 2009, but should work in InDesign CS5, CS5.5 and CS6.

Uwe

Message was edited by: Laubender

[#12]

Or you could use a set of scripts by Martin Fischer at www.hilfdirselbst.ch where you can move from page to page:

http://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=463219#463219

Uwe

[#13]

Go to Document Setup, uncheck "facing pages" and OK. You'll see the pages as a single pages in your pages PANEL Now.

[#14]

That is changing the layout, so it is not the answer to the question. What is required is to keep the facing pages layout, but to be able to view and work on the document as a vertical column of single pages. This would be particularly useful for landscape layouts.

[#15]

My PageZoom plugin makes moving to and fro among many pages easier.

http://jetsetcom.net/extension-panels-ebooks/view_document/2-adobe-indesign-cs6-pagezoom-extension-p...

[#16]

Looks like it's for CS6, not CC?

[#17]

Thank you Jenny-ct.  That was exactly what I needed

[#18]

jenny-ct Another thanks!

dv8kiwi Yes, if I'm wanting a booklet, that would be changing the layout. I just want pages to flow like a normal PDF.

Chris

[#19]

Moving from facing to non-facing pages will be a disaster for any document that actually uses the master pages because the right side of the master is no longer used.

But it sounds to me like your problem has more to do with how you are exporting to PDF than with how the file is set up. When you install InDesign the default PDF export is for PDF (Interactive) and by default that exports spreads. You can change the export type to PDF (Print) if that's more appropriate, as it would be for a document intended for print, or you can switch interactive PDF export to do single pages instead of spreads, and there is no need to change the document setup at all.

[#20]

mark this as the answer.

[#21]

Ding ding ding! All this talk about scripts and what not, this was the answer I needed. Thank you!

[#22]

Under Document Set-up. Uncheck Facing pages?

[#23 · Accepted solution]

NOOOOOOO!

It will change formats and layout, but it is easy:

[#24]

You are now my hero, Willi!  Thank you for this answer! 🙂

[#25]

Thanks for actually answering the question! Simple an quick.

[#26]

I believe Thusla answered this question above and that it is simply a window view issue. I have run into myself when creating simple pdf docs that do not need spread format and can be visually aggravating to see them left / right in spread. First you need to make sure the master pages are not in spread format and then as thusla mentioned go to FILE > DOCUMENT SETUP... > UNCHECK FACING PAGES

that should do the trick!!

[#27]

Hi Michael,

The OP never answered ( or commented the suggestions ) in this rather old thread.
It dates back to 2012.

And, as Peter Spier already pointed out in answer #17, when master pages are used in a double sided document, it would be a desaster to switch from Facing Pages to None-Facing Pages.

Another warning:

Text alignment could change, if the alignment is defined as "Away from Spine" or "Towards the Spine".
Some positioning with anchored objects can change as well, because you can use the spine as reference point.

Uwe

[#28]

As I pointed out above. If a document is double sided print, it must be a document with facing pages.

Many styles – object and paragraph – have the spine as reference and break options reference to even and odd page numbers. Some styles change their properties when a document is switched from facing pages to non facing pages. It can be very dangerous to make these changes. You should not do so and please don't recommend wrong advises, even if correct are given before.