Expert: Candice Anderson - 6/19/2006

Question
I have typeset a friend's book in Word (as advised) and regret it now! The first print came back fromt he publisher for proofs and the facing pages option did not take; now every verso page is shifted into the spine sot hat the text is too far to the middle. AH!
I have decided to bite the bullet and take a crash course in Indesign to remedy this problem and send a new .pdf to the printer for a more professional outcome. Still, I am having a hard time figuring out the basic details of a page setup/layout for a 6x9 book with reasonable margins to allow for a graceful printing. Can you help me with these details?!
Thanks,
Caroline

Answer
lol, ah word.

Ok, what I usually set my margins at is at .75 away from the middle and .5 (or the pink line) away from the other side.  What you should do first off is go to your master pages (look at the bar on the bottom where your pages are at and hit M, or R, or Master I can't remember, its something like that)  and set your margins there.  I would also set a middle margin.  one line in the middle for vertical and one for the horizontal. This will make it easier to place when you are setting your book pages in.

Email me back if you have more questions. What also might be good for you, if you are able to go to the printer, I would take the indesign file and its contents and have them look at it for you. They are usually really nice about looking at it, it saves them time. (dont forget to package your files if you do this - file, package)

GOOD LUCK!!!!  And don't feel bad, printing never gets easier :)