Adjust Position of Objects When Pages Reflow
David (not me!) writes:
I have created a 230-page document that has rows of photos and captions, and somewhere along the way without my noticing, the layout of all the content got shifted, such that all all left pages have their content too close to the center spine, and the same with the right page. Is there some global way to restore a larger margin near the spine and take away space from the outer edges of both right and left pages?
You have run into a sad fact of life: If you’re working with a facing pages document (one that has left and right, or verso and recto pages) and you add or remove an odd number of pages at the beginning or in the middle, all the subsequent pages get messed up. Curiously, it doesn’t always happen… it depends on your page layout, what’s touching margin guides, and so on. But when it does happen, it’s ugly!
Fortunately, there’s a script that can help in most cases. And it’s really easy! And it’s free!
Here’s an example of a facing pages layout (notice the objects are placed really near the outside of the spread):
movepictures1
Here’s the same layout after I removed a single page before the spread (notice how the objects all got moved because versos became rectos, and vice versa):
movepictures2
So what’s to be done? InDesign ships with a free script called AdjustLayout. (In CS2, you need to get it from the installation disks.) Open Window > Automation > Scripts, and then open the Samples folder. If you look inside the JavaScript folder, you’ll find AdjustLayout.jsx. Double-click on it and InDesign asks you how much you want to move your objects around:
movepictures3
(Come to think of it, it’s probably a good idea to figure out how far you want those objects to move before you start the script. In fact, I usually like to do a Save on the file before I run a script like this. That way, if I got the number wrong, or something doesn’t look right, I can use Revert to get back to where I was.)
When you click OK, InDesign moves the objects around and…
movepictures4
It’s a good thing. Thanks, Ole!
Is it possible to use “Layout Adjustment” instead of the scipt?
Check this out!!!
http://www.in-tools.com/plugin.php?p=14
Layout Adjustment can work in simple cases — such as a book where the main text frame on each page extends to the sides of the margins. But it’s very hard to make it work with complex pages.
Thanks for that link, Fred. Yes, Gavriel at in-tools is doing some very cool plug-ins, especially for book publishing.
Cool script, but I got a feeling the plug-in Fred posted about would suit my needs better. Question though: does it work as promised? I’m Dutch, so I’d rather not spend $49 if it ends up doing a half-a**ed job (or nothing at all)
I’ve used it for simple issues and it worked great.
There is a free trial so you can give it a shot.
The developer of the plugin does a great job with regards to support, I can attest to that, so if you have any trouble you can contact him.
I gave the demo a whirl and it seems to work fine. But, I found that unless the catalog I’m working on needs certain things done differently, I don’t really need the plug-in.
Support is fine there too. I had some issues figuring things out and sent in a suggestion for the next version, and got a very polite reply within a day.
There isn’t a plug-in that enables some sort of ‘actions’ recording like you can do in Photoshop, is there? I’m not a scripter, and seriously can’t get my head around Adobe’s files on how to script for InDesign.
Thanks for the link, Fred!
As David noted, the movement of objects can be somewhat unpredictable when page sides change. It depends very much on the margin settings. With the wrong (or right) margin settings, objects can even wind up on the opposing page! In such situations, Ole’s (great) script will not help at all.
Reflective Objects helps prevent the objects from getting messed up to start with, as it works dynamically in the background.
I’ve been begging Adobe for what I call “Mirror Spread” capabilities since InDesign was first published. Started three Feature Request threads. Spoke to several Adobe Presenters. Nothing. For me, the lack of Mirror Spreads is a major defect.
And now Harbs solves the problem! I beta tested his plugin for Reflective Objects and it works like a charm. It will also reflect CONTENT. It will add Reflectivity to Object Styles. It is absolutely the hottest thing since sliced bread. I bought a license as soon as they were available.
Any project using a page layout such as the one illustrated above (that is, one in which the pages are asymmetrical, and the spreads are symmetrical across the spine) NEEDS this plugin.
Here’s a little bit more on the whole “mirror spread” technique.