Changing the Size of the Pasteboard
JB wrote:
Is there a way to adjust the size of the pasteboard (horizontally)?
Before I answer that, I have to throw out one keyboard shortcut tip: Did you know that Command-Option-Shift-0 (zero) or Ctrl-Alt-Shift-0 fits the entire pasteboard in the document window? Isn’t that cool? Okay, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s tackle the problem.
First of all, you know you can change the height of the pasteboard (in case that little tiny amount above and below the page isn’t enough) in the Guides & Pasteboard pane of the Preferences dialog box. Just change the Minimum Vertical Offset.
But that’s not what you want; you want to expand the width. There is a clunky way to do this:
- Choose File > Document Setup
- Change the document width to be larger (like twice as big)
- Click OK
- Place an object on the far left and far right of the pasteboard (using that shortcut we learned above helps!)
- Now change Document Setup back to the original page width.
- When you click OK, you’ll notice that the pasteboard width stays expanded. Now you can delete those dummy objects and the larger pasteboard will remain.
There’s a more elegant, way, but it requires buying a plug-in: The Page Control plug-in from dtptools.com lets you adjust the pasteboard size to whatever you want. [Editor’s note: This plug-in was discontinued years ago.]
Note that for many people, the issue is how to make the pasteboard size smaller, not larger! For example, every now and again, I still hear about people who get really huge pasteboard sizes. Often this is because there is an object hiding way out there somewhere (I don’t know how the object got out there… something went terribly wrong somewhere). Fit the pasteboard in the doc window, then press Command-A/Ctrl-A. If you see an object selected way out there, then delete it or move it. If you don’t, then move to the next spread and try again.
If there are no objects way out there, you can try to reduce the pasteboard size in one of a couple of ways.
- Try changing the page orientation (landscape to portrait, or vice versa) in File > Document Setup. Click OK and then set it back again.
- If that doesn’t work, save the file as INX (File > Export, then choose InDesign Interchange format). Then open that INX file. That often gets rid of weirdness like that.
[Update: Note that in CS4 and later, you should export as IDML instead of INX.]
One of those usually works for me. Anyone else have ways that have worked for them?
 |
hey david, thanks for the shortcut tip – cool indeed!
Throughly answered, I believe.
On a side note: Did you ever notice that your paste board gets bigger when you add size to your slug. If I make the slug 100mm (it only goes to 154.1 mm) on the outside margins of my facing pages document, the pasteboard increases in height! I don’t think it gets wider, but it’s a quick way to increase the height of your pasteboard without going to the preferences. Removing the slug also reduces the height of the pasteboard.
Cool or weird?
thank you so much! this will save me a lot of frustration and whining.
There’s an additional way to change the width of the pasteboard. It’s not as flexible as David’s tip, but it is a bit faster. Create a Master Page with 3 (or more) pages. You don’t actually have to apply this Master Page to any pages in your document.
Wow, thank you Michael! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that one. Excellent.
Great tips from both of you, David and Michael — so thanks!!!
this ” secret ” it really cool …thanks a lot David.
I am having a similar problem using InDesign CS on a Mac G-4.
I have been working in the same InDesign file all week and all of a sudden the pasteboard became very long vertically. I would like to view all the pages in thumbnail size, but the pasteboard is preventing me from doing so. I have tried all the solutions already mentioned and none of these are working for me.
My InDesign CS version is not allowing me to change the verticle in preferences under guidelines and pasteboards.
Anyone else encountered this problem?
Thanking you in advance for a solution.
I’ve been working with 10 files in InDesign (all part of the same book) on my PC. I was able to change the starting page number of each file without problem, except for a file in the middle. When I changed the starting page number in that one file, the vertical pasteboard became HUGE. When I use the undo command, the old starting page number returns, and the pasteboard also returns to normal. I had no other files open at the time. I also tried quitting InDesign and reopening but same thing. I haven’t tried renumbering using the book feature yet since I’m not at that point with updates.
Oh my goodness, I’ve tried and tried for ages to enlarge the pasteboard, not reduce it, as I have a lot of bits lying on the side I need for reference etc. The tips I got from here are absolutely awesome!!!! Thanks so much – you absolutely made my day! Yeeha!
Genius. It works.
A fix I would not have guessed in a hundred years. Thanks.
Thanks! After searching for hours (well, OK, minutes) this is the fix that actually helped!
Brilliantly simple.
Cheers David/Michael.
I don’t recommend changing the orientation to or from landscape and back because items off page will keep their distance to the edge of the page rather than going back onto the page when you switch back. So headers and page numbers on a 8.5×11″ sheet will be off the sheet afterwards.
When printing the booklet, the front and back of the pages do not match up. They are off by about 3/4 of an inch. I have tried everything to correct this, but haven?t had any success.
@Donna, I’m not sure what this has to do with the blog post above; you might find more answers on one of the blog posts involving the print booklet feature, like this one. However, in general, when people have problems like that, it’s usually the fault of the printer driver.
David – Thank you. You were right on. I truly appreciate your time in answering.
Thanks for the pasteboard tip, this is very helpful!
I had exactly the same problem but Ctrl-A didn’t select anything outside the proper page area. It turned out to be a Horizontal Guide that was increasing the size of the pasteboard. In the end I had to save with a temporary name, delete all the pages, flip the document orientation around and back (which fixed the pasteboard), then cut and paste all the objects from the original document onto new pages. Luckily it was only six pages.
I inherited someone else’s file and had the same problem, but none of the suggestions worked. I did notice there were bleeds, and one number was missing (inside bleeds). I deleted the bleeds and the pasteboard got smaller vertically ? hooray! I then added bleeds to all sides and it worked, the pasteboard stayed the same, with the smaller vertical size. Hope this helps.
If the document is already set up, you can add blank pages to the end of the doc (instead of new Master Pages) and set them as a spread. For example, a 3-page spread makes a wider pasteboard than 2-page spread. When you delete the extra pages the pasteboard will remain wide.
Thanks for the great tips!
I had to resort to the INX export option to get rid of the massive pasteboard size a previous designer had introduced.
Just another thanks… great, simple and useful tip.
Thank you Michael, for the master page trick. That one works great and is also the quickest method.
I also had a look at the Page Control plugin, but it reminded me of PasteBoardXT from the QuarkXpress days. That damn thing was viral, as you couldn’t open documents without installing the extension. I think Page Control has similar issues.
Page Control literally lets you change the size of each page in a document (so you can have an A4 page next to a business card page). Of course, it’s going to require some kind of “Reader” to open and retain those pages size! There is a free freader at the dtptools.com. But the plug-in is not like PasteboardXT; like most plug-ins, you can ignore the warnings and open the file. But if you keep getting the warning, then do an INX export and open the INX to strip out all weirdness.
instead of changing the page orientation i changed it from facing pages & back and it worked! no more over sized pasteboard
How do I reduce the pasteboard in InDesign CS 4? It all of sudden got very large between spreads. I never had this problem in CS
I’ve tried these fixes mentioned above but the only one that “works” is the export. However, then I get a new problem. I have shadows around my lines on a flow chart and other effects.
I can’t tell you how glad I am to have people like you to post this stuff. It has saved me a lot of time and frustration. Thank You!!
Struggled with this problem since changing over to CS4. The problem occurred for me when opening up older CS3 documents. Like a previous reply I only found horizontal guides at various distances below the actual image areas. And found the best solution was the INX one. As some master page items were out of place after reverting back to portrait from landscape. THANKS A MILLION !
Hmmmm…now that I’m using InDesign CS5 NONE of the tips written above work for making the pasteboard larger. When shrinking back to the original document size (A4) it ‘crops’ whatever it decides isn’t worthy to fit on the pasteboard.
Multiple pages within a master page don’t help either.
Any ideas? Very annoying.
– Alex
I’ve found a fix for maintaining the larger size pasteboard.
I created some dummy objects that went out even further than the items I want to keep on the paste board (directions to other designers on how to use the template). Resizing back to A4 works, although those images are now almost completely cropped. Something that’s really interesting, if I then drag those dummy objects inwards, closer to the art board, the paste board shrinks before your eyes!
Happy now :-)
I tried to read through the comments to make sure this wasn’t listed – I didn’t see it so wanted to say something: I’ve had problems with inheriting files that have enormous pasteboards before and it’s incredibly frustrating. The fastest solution to this problem is to go to-
InDesign Menu
Preferences
Guides & Pasteboard
and change the Minimum Vertical Offset under “Pasteboard Options” – I had to do this when I ended up with a working file that had a gigantic 30 inch pasteboard – changed this to 5 inches and now it’s perfectly manageable!
This answer is the correct response for extreme wide pasteboards that are not a problem but just a nuisance. Thanks.
re: reducing pasteboard width – I don’t know how the pasteboard on a document got so wide – could that be the cause of the pages ramdomly shifting sideways just from my entering items on a page. Annoying. I thought I’d damaged the software or the system.
By chance, I changed Preferences/Guides & Pasteboard/Pasteboard options to Minimum Vertical Offset of .5 instead of the default 1 in.
Presto. the pasteboard changed from 21″ wide on each side to 14″ – and the pages have stopped shifting around at their own whim. Not width control, but some relief.
I hadn’t thought changing the vertical width could change the horizontal too.
CS4 on OSX leopard.
Hello,
I have read multiple forums on this common problem of oversized pasteboards, but none of the solutions seem to do anything except mess up my layout of objects. There are no objects or guides outside of the document itself. Tried exporting as INX and opening that up. Tried changing page orientation. Alex and Brians comments only were able to make it bigger but not smaller. I know exactly when the problem started; The pasteboard is perfectly normal sized until I start creating guides. (I am using CS3)
Hi!
I also had a small pasteboard problem in CS4… and went through all of the tips above – none of which worked… until I realised that under View- Screen Mode – Preview was on – instead of Normal…
Now my pasteboard is back to normal…
Thanks for the tips though!
Hi All,
I had the same pasteboard problem in CS4 like most of you. While copy and pasting spreads for a magazine which needed to be in one document (same size), my pasteboard suddenly expanded in height. Really annoying cause I use the spacebar (hand) a lot to find my way through the pages. I tried all of the above solutions, but none worked. The only thing I could come up with was to live with it, or start over again. This sounds radical, but isn’t that much of a work. I already had 60 spreads done ;-) Create a new file with all the right settings. Make sure the ‘corrupted’ file is still opened. Then make the windows float separately using window-arrange-float all in windows. Select all the pages/spreads in the pages-panel using shift. Drag the selected pages to the canvas of the new file. Everything will be copied, including paragraph-styles, layers, masterpages, etc. In my case; problem solved…
Good luck!
Making the viewing area LARGER, easy, just done it, click and hold on the menu stacked on the right hand side, and drag off to the right. Then the sizing square bottom right will let you expand the width of the page/pasteboard.
What a life this blog has had 2 years old and still helping people.
Thank you David, it is very handy now to be able to change the width of a pasteboard. Its excellent when trying to reproduce someone elses work and need a copy of there work sitting on the pasteboard.
It’s everything here exactly what I was looking for :) I’m so happy that I step in right here.lol
Deleting all guides returned the pasteboard to its original size! Thanks!
Great!! After export in INX, the pasteboard finally comes back in normal size. Thanks ^^
If you are having trouble shrinking the pasteboard back to normal and none of the above work – you might find that it is a stray guide hidden (or locked) somewhere, to fix:
1. Make sure you on the spread/page with the large pasteboard
2. Right click on the page ruler on the far left hand side
3. Click “Delete all guides on spread”
Hope this helps
To make the pasteboard larger in InDesign CS5, go to Edit Preferences Guides & Pasteboards and choose whatever horizontal and vertical margins you need.
niceee, i solve my problem thankssss
You can easily change the size of the pasteboard (larger or smaller) by gong to “edit” “preferences” “guides and pasteboard” and look at the bottom of that window
Go to Edit, Preferences, Guides & Pasteboard, and then on the bottom you can change the horizontal margin and vertical margins without messing with the size of the document itself, adding in pictures to make the pasteboard larger, etc.
Solved my loooong pasteboard problem. Thanks a million, David!
Marty S.
I have been working in CS4 for several years and so far have not had the urge to upgrade. But I do get that terrible, time-wasting dialogue every now and then and want to scream.
This time it’s in a new document I just created with a very normal size pasteboard, no odd settings anywhere that I can see. I did bring over a set of frames from a previous document, and was attempting to adjust one text frame to sit more appropriately in the area. Bingo, can’t move. This is on the inside column of the left-hand page of a double page spread. I need it to move, like 3/16ths over.
This should not take hours and hours.
I did try all of the the suggestions above, and (admittedly) I started with the ones that looked easy first. NONE of them worked, including JB’s original tip. I finally gave up and tried something simple.
I deleted that one little text frame that would not behave. Then I copied and pasted it again, but this time way over on the other page. Moved it over teense by teensy bit. It eased over through the offending area which it would not risk before, and slid into the place I needed it to go.
So that’s what worked for me — I hope it helps someone else!
Best,
Pamela H
I found this article because I had a massive horizontal scroll bar issue; my Pasteboard was so wide, that I could easily and accidentally scroll the document all the way to the left or right extremes – causing it to disappear from sight!
If you use the iMac’s Magic Mouse, you will know how sensitive it is. Just hovering your finger over the mouse’s surface can cause erratic and uncommanded scrolling! Imagine how annoying this is when you go to click on a text area and look up to find your text area and the whole document MISSING!
I am working on an Indesign document that somebody else setup and for some reason the Pasteboard Horizontal Margins were set to 297mm each side! In my case, all I had to do was set them up correctly in Preferences.
Great article though, being new to Indesign, it gave me the pointers I needed to get the job done and thanks for the shortcut tip!
Now you can adjust the size of the pasteboard to whatever you like with CS4 and above. Go to preferences/Guide & Pasteboard. Adjust the settings at the bottom of the window. Fantastic!
Oh my gosh!! Thank you so much! I knew I changed something somewhere by accident but wasn’t able to undo it. This worked!!!
Thank you. Just what I needed.
BEST ^^^^^
Thanks for the tip, worked very well.
In single page, can we increase pasteboard area in indesign cs6? if it’s possible pls reply
thank you! that bugs me soooo much.
In case you have just one oversized pasteboard, this might help:
1. create a new spread before or after the one with the oversized pasteboard;
2. select all the content of the oversized pasteboard;
3. note the x, y coordinates of the selection;
4. copy the selection to the new pasteboard;
5. adjust the new x, y coordinates based on the ones just noted;
6. delete the oversized pasteboard.
Thanks so much for this info!
I just had the same problem – I selected everything in the pasteboard and saw that something was waaaaaay off the screen – so far that I couldn’t even select it. So I delected everything I could by holding down shift and clicking on on what I could see to isolate it and then used the align panel to align vertical centers (with align to: set to page). The object showed up, I deleted it and the page went back to normal.
Thank you SOOOO MUCH!! Changing to horizontal orientation and then back did the trick!
Should this blog post be updated? Since it has changed?
I know the document always lines up at 0x0, thus the document understandably goes to the right. But i usually have all my command windows on the right side which goes on top of the document. How do I move the document more to the left without having to zoom in? The issue happens when I am in full document view. I’m wondering if there is a way to move the ruler 0x0 more to the left?
This doesn’t work with CS6, David. Just tried and it crashed my PC :/
Not sure which part of this post did not work for you. It would not surprise me if the plug-in did not work—that’s from a long time ago.