Breaking Pages Apart to Bleed Off a Spine
I need to split up facing page spreads so I can bleed into the gutter (the spine) without affecting the opposite page.
This is tricky, but can absolutely be done. The key is the Allow Pages to Shuffle option in the Pages palette flyout menu. There’s no way to split up a spread (or add pages to a spread) when this feature is turned on. However, if you turn it off, then you can have all kinds of fun. (“It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how!”)
When Allow Pages to Shuffle is turned off, you can grab a page in the pages palette and drag it to the side until you see a dark vertical line. It’s tricky because you have to drag just far enough, but not too far (there’s only a tolerance of one or two screen pixels). Move the cursor around until you see that dark vertical line off to the side of the spread. When you let go, the page moves over and the spread becomes to “single pages.”
Here’s a trick you can use instead of dragging the pages around: While Allow Pages to Shuffle is turned off, you can use the Move Page feature (from Layout > Pages submenu or the Pages palette menu). If you want to split the page 2 & 3 spread, then tell Move Pages to “move page 2 to before page 2” (or page 3 after page 3). It sounds weird, but it seems to work.
Note that the appearance of the “broken spread” is (of course) different depending on the state of your Pages Palette Options dialog box. If you’re showing pages vertically it will look like the pages are “staggered.” If you’re showing pages horizontally, they’ll just be free floating as though they were individual spreads.
I just want to say thanks. This entry has saved me hours of work!
I orginally submitted this question and eventually figured it out. Even so, it’s great to know there is a place like this to come for answers. You people are excellent!
Great tip. That’s one of the many ressons why I tell everyone to visit InDesignSecrets.com on a regular basis.
Is there a way of spliting all of the spreads in a file with a large page count with a batch action or a script using the Layout > Pages submenu, or the Pages Palett menu? If so, is there a way to put them all back together again? In other words, can we go back and forth at will?
I can’t think of any good way to do this to all the spreads at once. Sorry!
Back in 2.0 days, Shane Stanley had an AppleScript that would do this (rip them apart, that is; I’m not sure about putting them back together). I’ve toyed with trying to sort it out in JavaScript, but I’m not sure even how to go about it.
Dave
Well perhaps someone will come up with a way of scripting at least pulling them apart for use in IDCS and IDCS2.
But what is really needed for IDCS3 is for the complete implementation of the inside bleed feature which is currently a half baked idea.
My idea for it would be that when an inside bleed value is specified in Document Setup for a Facing Pages document, that ID would display the page spreads pulled apart by the amount of the inside bleed. This would give designers the convenience of working in spreads view, while automatically providing the area for extending elements that need to bleed into the spine, in perfect bound and spiral bound documents. The implementation would also impede elements from crossing the boundary between pages, and would anchor elements to the page on which they occur, and not on the spread. So that crossover elements would have to be placed appropriately on each page.
In the current half baked implementation of the inside bleeds feature, crossovers work only when service providers duplicate the crossover element in place and crop the respective left and right hand side of each copy so that they occur only on the appropriate page. Then, after separating the pages as David outlines, each copy of the crossover element is extended into the bleed area. A related problem is the case of non cross over elements that but up against the spine in such documents.
As it is now, not only does the designer remain blissfully ignorant of what makes the design work in print, but often do not provide the required amount of image to accomplish the design. Seeing the bleed area between the pages in the spreads view would serve as a reminder of what needs to be done for the design to work.
Correction: make that “would display the page spreads pulled apart by twice the amount of the inside bleed.”
I have a similar problem. I need to display a table with 8 columns across a spread but show the frame outlines of the individual pages as is. I DID this by creating an additional column at the place of the spline and merged the cells of that column and applied nothing to fill or outline. Though this did work, I am not sure if this is the way or there is a beter and formal way to achieve this.
This is such a great tip, I use it all the time. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks man, really needed this!
How is any of this different from turning Facing Pages off? I’ve had to do this at the end of a job for a printer that required the inside bleeds, and it’s a real pain, so I’m trying to figure out if this method provides some benefit that turning off Facing Pages does not?
Thanks!
On a very simple layout in which both left and right pages have the same left and right margins and have identical master pages, it may not be any different. But if different left and right master pages are used, then clearing the facing pages check box assigns the right hand master page to all pages. Probably not what you want.
Is there a way to have facing pages that still appear side by side on the pasteboard with the inside bleed in place?
No, I don’t think so.
Check out this nifty alternate method:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.3bc3a034/1
I have been testing this new method, and it has problems. Those interested can follow it in that same thread in the Mac ID forum.
I have been able to modify this novel method so that it works without the previous problems. See the threat in the mac IDCS forum:
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.3bc3a034/18
I wrote a script to do this automatically. You can get it here:
http://www.printisrael.com/indesign/scripts/freeware/SeparatePages.jsx
HAve been testing the script. Works perfect with CS3
Thanks! Very helpful.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned in this discussion is the parent-child master page bug that still exists through ID CS3 version 5.02.
Essentially, anything object you try and create with an inner bleed on a parent master gets cropped to 0p inner bleed on all children masters. Ideally, it would be clamped to the inner *bleed* instead. I discovered this while trying to make spiral bound book masters…
It’s almost comical to see the strangeness that has gone on Adobe’s master pages over the years. I very much wonder if there has ever been a single textbook production user in their beta test pool from CS1 all the way through CS3. :-/
Brilliant! Thank you so much!
This is what I need, but how do I install the javascript shown above?
Alun, this link shows where you can put javascripts. Here’s the easiest way to find the right folder: Open Window > Automation > Scripts, right-click on the User or Application folders, and choose Open in Finder from the Context menu. That opens the proper folder for you.
wonderful advice, thank you very much indeed.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This method is cool!
However when I try to print spreads, I only get one side per page. Can I get around this?
Thanks
This has helped me out tremendously. My coil bound booklet contains some spreads with a single image spanning both pages, and some with separate images or graphics on each page. So the bleed requirements are different for the 2 scenarios, and I was trying to find a way to resolve this without adding a lot of extra work. This tip has worked perfectly. Thank you so much!
[...] Blatner writes about this in detail on InDesignSecrects.com. Check it [...]
Great tip! One additional point: make sure you have only one page highlighted in the spread, not both. If you try this with both pages highlighted, they will both move to the right of the center line.
Thank you! thank you! thank you! You just saved me HOURS of work. Especially the person who wrote the script.
I too have to thank you ! I’ve been struggling with this for quite a time, and it’s now working perfectly.
Great tip !
I have a hundred page document set-up as spreads. This is fine, however, in order to do a client proof I have to send the document to the printers as single pages with bleed and crop marks. Sounds simple, but since the spreads have two page spreads and screens going across two pages I can’t seem to easily create the single page document without and image or screen going to only one page.(I’m hoping Indesign has a way to auto set this for conversion from spread to single and knowing to duplicate images or other items that may go across two pages etc.)
Does anyone know how to split the spread into single pages while maintaining the full page spreads on both pages but in single page form – with bleed on what would be the inside of the spread.
Please let me know, otherwise I’ll have to go through the laborious task of duplicating images and other items all manually. There must be a way to do this?
Please assist….someone..
This was unbelievably helpful. Thank You!
I love you! This is exactly the information I needed. Whew!
Does this script work with CS4? Or, does CS4 now have a way to do this?
genius! thanks!
Does anyone know if you can link an Excel spread sheet to an InDesign file so that the figures to their “summing” in InDesign and it’s not just a holding place for numbers?
Thanks,
Peggie
@Peggie: this has hardly anything to do with “Breaking pages apart (etc.)” … Random questions are better asked in the Secrets forum.
Anyway: InDesign cannot do any calculations on its own. If you want the sums imported from Excel, it’s best to add them in there before importing the entire sheet into ID.