How to start making a booklet in InDesign 5.5 | General InDesign Topics | Forum

How to start making a booklet in InDesign 5.5

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9:28 pm
January 6, 2012

Stevekir

Shropshire

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I haveused InDesign (and previously Pagemaker) for years to make ordinary page layouts. No problem. But I have searched everywhere until I am blue in the face, including InDesign help, but cannot find any info at all on how to start making a booklet. There is lots on PRINTING a booklet, but first I obviously need to CREATE a booklet. All I want to do is to start from the very beginning, after launching InDesign, and create a 16 page booklet which is 120 mm wide and 175 mm high. Then fill it with text that I will be typing. Then printing it, imposed. Everything that I have tried within InDesign leads nowhere. Can it be so difficult? This is very frustrating. So, my questions:

1. How do I start? (Step-by-step please);

2. How do I enter my text?;

3. My paper size is A4. Will the printout print the various imposed pages ready for me to cut to the booklet size?;

4. Where do I tell InDesign to print the booklet? Is it File > Print Booklet (permanently greyed out in all my efforts)?

Any help greatly appreciated. (I am surprised that this elementary operation is not listed in Adobe's InDesign help. If it is, answering all my questions, please give me the address or topic.

iMac 2011 model, OS 10.7.2 ("Lion"), InDesign CS5.5

1:51 am
January 7, 2012

collywolly

Adelaide, Australia

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What is the OP's experience in using InDesign? To me this doesn't seem so complicated UNTIL the print booklet bit, so I'll give the run-down until then.

first, i'd set up a 16pp document 120mm high x 175mm high with facing pages AND master text frame turned on and set appropriate margins (this is up to the OP).

from here, either type or go to the file menu and go place to get a dialog box to place the text (from a word document) into the indesign file.

once the booklet has been made, it is using the "print booklet" bit that is a bit tougher. indesign CS5.5 has a print booklet feature and it involves some trial and error using the dialog boxes to get it right, but there is a preview which gives some idea if things are going in the right direction. BUT this will print direct to a printer – it isn't possible using Lion to use the print booklet feature to make a PDF (AFAIK).

one question for the OP though, is the OP printing the art on their own equipment, or sending it to a third party to be printed? if the latter is the case, it is not normally necessary to prepare imposed artwork for commercial printers – imposition is THEIR job as only they will know how they will want the artwork imposed. I say this having been a prepress operator for the last 15 years.

Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out – Richard Dawkins

10:32 am
January 9, 2012

Stevekir

Shropshire

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Thanks to your help, I now have my booklet finished.

The reason why I was stuck was that I started creating a booklet by doing File > New > Book. Seems sensible. I wanted to make a boklet and here was a menu item that seemed to offer that. That got me nowhere. What your help did was to make it clear that it is first necessary to create a Document, and with the master page box checked (not intuitively obvious) and only then turn it into a booklet for printing. Logical, but only after the event! I searched the Internet, Adobe's helps, everywhere, but nowhere was that made clear, nor even a reference to it in the Print Booklet help.

As you said, I needed to tweak the settings for the booklet because I was confined to using A4 paper and the margins had to be closely adjusted to allow the imposed pages both to both keep within the paper width but not extend over the edge of the paper. However, worked fine.

Many thanks.

6:36 pm
January 9, 2012

collywolly

Adelaide, Australia

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there is a difference between an indesign file type of BOOK and the dialog PRINT BOOKLET. the PRINT BOOKLET feature is used to print (to a desktop printer usually) artwork which will be bound in a saddle-stitched manner.

However, indesign's BOOK feature is a way of combining many indesign files together without putting them into the same file. can be used to make books, but the binding of the book is not necessarily saddle stitched, could be burst bound, wiro, case bound etc.

so i understand the OP's confusion.

Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out – Richard Dawkins

2:20 am
January 10, 2012

Jongware

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posts 763

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File > New > Book. Seems sensible.

And then you tried the Place command to put it into a certain place?

12:48 pm
January 10, 2012

Stevekir

Shropshire

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Actuallyn no! I knew that the Place command is used to place text into an InDesign doc.

2:37 pm
January 10, 2012

Jongware

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Heh heh — sorry, 'twas the evil imp on my shoulder that prompted me.

You can use "Open" to open a Book in InDesign but you won't see its pages until you open the document as well. (But "Book" wasn't what you were looking for anyway so I'll let it rest.)

It's still a bit unclear what you managed to accomplish though. Are you using InDesign's (extremely basic) Print Booklet feature to 'impose' an existing InDesign document?

4:56 am
January 17, 2012

Stevekir

Shropshire

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"It's still a bit unclear what you managed to accomplish though. Are you using InDesign's (extremely basic) Print Booklet feature to 'impose' an existing InDesign document?"

Yes, exactly, and I have now made my booklet successfully, thanks to this thread.

However, I would like to make an improvement. I am using A4 paper (because that's the size of my printer). InDesign's Print Booklet feature seems to insist that the pair of imposed pages (2-up, saddle) must be printed in portrait mode. This obviously means that the width of each printed page (containing a pair of imposed pages side-by-side) cannot exceed the width of an A4 page which is 210 mm. This makes for a tall and narrow booklet (I can't post an image from my desktop so here are some setups (the width, height and margin settings by experiment):

Document Setup:

Pages: 32; Facing Pages and Master Text Frame: checked; Width: 105 mm; Height 175 mm; Orientation: Portrait; Bleed and Slug: 0.

Margins and Columns:

Margins: Top, Bottom, Inside; Outside: 14 mm; Columns: 1; Gutter: 4.233 mm (default); Enable Layout Adjustment: unchecked (default).

Printing:

Printing is set to Portrait and Duplex printing (that is, each 2-up imposed page is automatically run through the printer twice, being printed on both sides.

This results in the imposed pair of pages (I mean InDesign Document pages) being located correctly on the A4 Page, the gutter being central suitable for the fold for the stapling.

However, if I could instruct the impositioning and/or the printer to print in Landscape, therefore with the above pair of imposed pages being turned tound 90 degrees, I could have a wider booklet, which is what I would like. (The corresponding restriction on the height would be OK). I have tried combinations of switching the Width and Height and Orientation settings but there is no change (or at least no change that gives me the result that I want).

Any ideas please?

Thanks

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