Monday, September 17, 2007

Breaking facing-pages into single pages

A question I get asked frequently is how to take a document that has been created as a facing pages document in InDesign, and change it to a single-page, non-facing pages document without messing up master page items. This is needed in some prepress workflows where objects bleed into the gutter (the left side of right-hand pages or the right side of left-hand pages).

Here is one way to do this:

1. Open a document that has been created as a facing pages document.

2. In the pages panel menu, choose Allow Document Pages to Shuffle (CS3) or Allow Pages to Shuffle (CS2) (this should uncheck, or deselect this option).

3. Grab the right-hand page of each spread, and pull the page to the right of the spread until you see a vertical black bar appear and then release the mouse. This will separate the page from the spread, but the page will remain a right-hand page.


69 comments:

ohillary said...

Great trick, thanks. Now if only there were a script to save a multi-page document as single, *.indd pages in Windows. Any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

This tip just saved me a TON of time and frustration....on the evening the project had to be sent out. I've passed on your blog address to all my coworkers. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for this awesome tip! I had no idea this was possible until coming across your blog.

MPA Media said...

How do you do this in InCopy CS3?

Keith Gilbert said...

There's no way to do this in InCopy.

Anonymous said...

Adding one more bow for this great tip. Thanks!!

shawn girsberger said...

Much easier way to do this. DON'T uncheck "Allow Document Pages to Shuffle." Go to Document Setup and uncheck Facing Pages. This automatically separates all of the pages into singles, without having to drag each page individually out of the flow.

Keith Gilbert said...

Shawn, your method works, BUT the difference is that with your method all the pages are converted to using the right-hand page of the master spread. If you are doing a layout that has different masters for left and right pages, the method I outlined is the only way to preserve this.

Bec said...

Brilliant tip thanks so much! This has saved me tuckloads of time fiddling with master pages on a large document for print. Thanks you!!!

Sova said...

Thank you. Exactly what I've been looking for.

abe said...

So, now the question is how to do this to a 250 page dcument? Do I have to go in and pull off a page from each spread. Or I can word the question differntly, Is there anyway to apply a master page to all odd or even pages in a document?

Keith Gilbert said...

@abe: I don't know of any way to automatically apply a master to all even or all odd pages of a long document. Sounds like a good idea for a script!

Unknown said...

thanks for your tip! it saved my life today :)

Anonymous said...

This tip was extremely helpful. Thanks very much!!

Beattie said...

Super! thank you thank you thank you!!! I now have more time to spend with my kids :0)

Unknown said...

This tip was great, but I have a quick question. What if the printer needs to have art bleed off into the gutter area? I have border art on the master pages that bleeds off of the page behind the text on every page. Would I have to go in and unlock all of the art, page by page in order to get that to bleed off into the center of the book area? For my 500 page book, that may be time consuming, so I thought it was a good question. As it looks now the art stops right at the trim on that side by the gutter.

Thanks for your help!

Keith Gilbert said...

@Melissa, yes, unfortunately you'd have to do the bleeds by hand.

Anonymous said...

Wow -- this just saved me a ton of time. Thank you *so* much!

Tello said...

Thank you very very much! As all the above, you saved my life today. You are my hero like for a month!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know how to break up a master spread after it’s been applied to multiple pages?

Anonymous said...

Also if you keeps Spreads checked in documnet settings, when exporting uncheck the Spreads box in the PDF and or Print window that pops up. It brings all spreads into single pages and nothing gets deleted. hope that helps. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised they haven't come out with an option to separate pages like this, without them displaying as physically separated. I am doing a 200+ page catalog and sections might change in the middle of the spread. This helps out a lot. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Almost ready to pull my hair out! Glad I found this tip! Thanks so much for sharing! :)

Suzanne Cordier said...

I am forever in your debt, Sir.

Anonymous said...

You are a hero.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so very much. I've been tearing my hair for the past few hours;-)

ILWT said...

it doesn't work for me. Is it CS5?
I can pull the page to the right of the spread and the black bar appears, but the pages stay collated.
And yes, the "shuffle pages" are checked!

Keith Gilbert said...

@ILWT: This works fine in CS5. But "Allow Document Pages to Shuffle" should NOT be checked. It sounds like you have it checked.

Anonymous said...

Thanx, very helpfull!

Anonymous said...

This post just saved me hours of frustrations! I cant believe Indesign doesnt have a workflow for this, or a script. Thank you for these instructions!!

Francis said...

Great tip, on CS4, the document setup does nothing with multiple master page, this worked! Thanks!

Sandy Ploy said...

YOU. ARE. A. LIFESAVER.

ANNA said...

Big thanks Keith and also Shawn - I nneded to know both these methods for different situations - you rock. I love that a post in 2007 is a gift that keeps giving in CS2 and CS5.

Thanks,
A

Anonymous said...

THANKS :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this! Couldn't find a way to solve my problems and here you go.

Thanks :)

Anonymous said...

That saved me HOURS of work - I can't tell you how happy I am that your time-saving tip worked. THANK YOU!!!

Anonymous said...

This worked for exactly what I needed, thank you!

gleaningandgiving said...

You deserve a prize for this post, you just saved me hours. THANK YOU!

Anonymous said...

thank you!

Anonymous said...

You could just use the superior programme QuarkXpress. You just grab the pages in the layout palette and drag them however you like, spreads, singles, anything. So basic. InDesign is like using a beta programme by comparison.

Marty Yawnick said...

Almost 7 years later, this blog post is still helping InDesign users. I stumbled across this one on Google. Many thanks for sharing this. You just saved me hours of work, cussing, and tears!

=M=

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh. I consider myself a power user of InDesign (been using it for nearly 10 years) but I did not know this trick. I thought I was going to have to build all new master pages for many chapters and reapply them, one by one (and then check the document page by page, to make sure I accurately applied everything). I used this technique and my file was ready to go in minutes. You saved me SO MANY hours of work! Thank you so much!

Unknown said...

thank you so much!!!

Imre Szabó said...

Thanks Mate, it was a great trick.

Anonymous said...

Ahh! You just saved me. Thank you, thank you. I struggled with this for an hour last night ...

Leonard Leonardsson said...

Whoop! Thanks for this :-)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so so so much for this trick!

Anonymous said...

A life saver - thank you!

Anonymous said...

here's how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlZU3_PTg8g

Anonymous said...

this really helped me out, thank you!

Alina Turner said...

Oh em gee. Thank you so much - this was doing my head in!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you. top notch!

Raeppasidi said...

Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! There is nothing else that explains this question, so glad I finally found your tip!

Anonymous said...

Thank you!!! This is exactly what I needed! You're awesome! :)

Maria said...

Using the CS6 latest vesrsion, I followed Keith's instructions to convert from facing pages into single pages. However, when I grabbed the first right page and pulled it to the right, no vertical black bar appeared.

Using Shawn Girsberger suggestion, I got the single page lineup, but as pointed out by Keith, all the pages are of the right type, which defeats the permanence of central margins.

What to do, then?

Anonymous said...

My document was set up as facing pages so client could see it in spreads as a booklet.
Now they want to spiral bind the book instead. I have an image at the bottom of the page that needs to bleed off both sides.
Is there a way to separate master pages and still keep the page numbering intact so I can pull out bleeds?

Anonymous said...

It worked for me in CC. I cannot thank you enough!!

Anonymous said...

Using CC 2017 and this worked perfect! I am able to save face to a high profile customer and my boss.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much!! I swear, before finding this blog I was about to rip my hair out! Thank you so much for the tip! :)

Anonymous said...

Thank You!

RandiMeredith said...

This is spectacular! Thanks!

When I'm pulling the pages to the right the separation shows in two different ways:
1. Vertical black bar with an arrow pointing right.
2. Vertical black bar with an arrow pointing right and a gray bracket on the right side of the page.

What's this difference? Something must be happening but I can't figure out what it is.

Working in CC.

Keith Gilbert said...

@RandiMeredith, the "Vertical black bar with an arrow pointing right and a gray bracket on the right side of the page" is for when you want to stick the page that you're dragging onto another page. If you want to just pull the spreads apart, you need to move the mouse around until you get the other cursor.

RandiMeredith said...

Ah I see! Thank you, Keith!

Unknown said...

Keith, this method is exactly what I need; however, whenever I grab the right page and drag it to the right, I am not seeing a vertical black bar. I do have the "Allow Document Pages to Shuffle" deselected. Please help.

Keith Gilbert said...

If you have the page icons in your Pages panel set to display small thumbnails, it can be really tricky to get the vertical bar to appear. Try enlarging your page thumbnails. Go to "Panel Options" in the Pages panel menu to do this.

Anonymous said...

Man, you saved me at least one month of work. Thumbs up, big thanks!

Anonymous said...

OMG thank you for this! I wasted so much time trying to figure this out.

goldbin said...

Thanks so much for the tip! Viewing the Pages panel, how do I remove the brackets surrounding the page numbers of pages that got separated from the spread? I no longer need to keep track of right or left pages from the spread. They're all the same with centered folios.