AboutRoy Wilhelm Expertise I can help you with questions about typography, style sheets, document setup, image placement, importing text, exporting, and much more.
Experience I use InDesign daily to design magazine pages. I have experience in newspaper and magazine design.
Organizations AIGA
Education/Credentials I have a Bachelor's degree in Communication Design
Expert: Roy Wilhelm Date: 4/29/2008 Subject: Splitting pages
Question I have created a brochure using one of InDesign's templates. This contains two pages, designed to be folded up so that the brochure has three sections on each side.
This means that the first page has the back two sections and the front section on it, and the second page has the three inside sections.
This is fine for printing, but I want to be able to send it by email as a pdf too.
How can I send it as a pdf so that the user sees the front section first, then the three middle ones, then the back section? Is there a special option to do this, or a way I could split each page up into three pages?
Thanks in advance.
Answer I have a great solution for you but first you need to make sure you have guides in the document to delineate each section. Once this is set, you're ready to begin.
Go ahead and save a copy of this file so you don't destroy your original file. Just name it something like: Filename_PDF.indd
First you will need to "unlock" any object that is on the Master pages and put it on each corresponding page. There are two ways to do this: 1. When you are on page 1 or page 2, hold Command+Shift and click the object once. This will unlock the object and allow it to be selectable in the actual page on which you are working. When you first unlock objects like this, InDesign likes to put them on the top layer. If they're meant to be in the background, hold Command+Shift and press the '[' key (left bracket key). Or if you prefer using the menu, go to Object>Arrange>Send to Back. You will also see the key command I described above to help you learn and become more comfortable using them.
Repeat the above until all the locked Master pages objects are unlocked and in place on page 1 and 2.
Now you're ready to begin the process of grouping each individual section.
1. Starting on page one, draw a box that is the exact same size as the dimensions of each section. Make sure that the fill and stroke for this box are set to nothing.
2. Now, align this box so it sits directly on top of the first section. It should 'snap' to the edge of the document if you have 'Snap to Guides' selected in the View>Grids and Guides menu. Make sure the box aligns with the top, left and bottom of the document edge and not with the bleed guides (bleed guides are red). The right edge should align with the right edge of the first section.
****Write down the dimensions of this box: you'll need it later****
3. Drag a copy of this box (holding option, click and drag) to the middle section and let it snap into place on the guides. Repeat this for the third section.
4. Holding Shift, select each of these three boxes and press Command+C for copy.
5. Go to page 2 and press Shift+option+command+V or Edit>Paste in place. This will place a copy of the three boxes you created on page 1 in the exact same location on page 2.
****** you probably have some objects extending past the document into the bleed area. I will explain how to compensate for this later.******
Now you will begin grouping each section using the black arrow selection tool.
1. With the arrow hovering outside the document in the past board area, click and hold and drag across all of the objects in the first section. If you have accidentally selected objects in adjacent sections, hold shift and deselect them.
2. With the objects in the first section selected, press Command+G to group them. Repeat this process until all sections are in their own groups.
Now you are ready to split the document into six separate pages. This will give you the flexibility you are looking for.
1. Hold Option+Command and press P (this will open the Document Setup)
2. Change the number of pages to 6 and change the document width to the same dimension as the width of the box you created earlier. Press OK.
Bring up the Pages palette to quickly see the results of the document setup change. You'll see that there are six individual pages and that the middle section of each panel is centered on page 1 and page two respectfully.
Now you will regroup the pages into spreads in the format you described above.
1. In the pages palette, click the drop down menu and deselect "Allow Document Pages to Shuffle." This will allow you to create spreads in any format you desire. When you are done, you will have a single page followed by a spread of three pages followed by a spread of two pages.
2. Go to page two and select All. Then group all of the sections into one section (Command+G).
3. From the Pages palette, click and hold page 3 and drag it up directly to the left of page 2 and let go. ( you will see a '[' to indicate that you are placing the page against the left side of page 2.)
4. Now take page 4 and drag it to the right side of what is now page 3. If everything was done correctly, you should have your middle section aligned perfectly across the spread of pages 2-4.
5. Double-click page 1 in the pages palette to make that page active. Select your back page (this should be the section that is aligned directly with page 1). Hit Command+X to cut it to the clipboard.
6. Double-click page 6. Now do a Paste in Place to put the back page on page 6.
7. Drag page 6 to the right of page 5 to create a spread of 5-6.
8. go back to page one and cut the far right section to the clipboard.
9. Double click page 5 and paste the section here. Paste in place won't work since the section was not aligned properly. You'll have to manually drag the section to align with page 5.
10. go back to page 1 and drag it to align properly.
Now you're ready to export the pdf. Just make sure "Spreads" is checked and you're good to go.
I explained how to make the document you described above. You may consider creating a 7 page document so that the user sees the cover first, then the inside left section and the folded-over left back section, then the three inside sections followed by the back. It would be broken down like this:
Page 1: cover
Pages 2-3, two-page spread: left inside section on page 2 and far left back section on page 3. (since this is what you'd see if you opened the brochure)
Pages 4-6, three-page spread: inside three sections.
Page 7: back
Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions.
