You can use InDesign to design anything, from a one-sided business card to a book thousands of pages long. But as soon as you go beyond that business card, you're going to need to learn how to manage your pages, adding pages, moving them around, deleting them, and so on. That's what we're going to cover here. All of InDesign's page features show up in two places, the Pages submenu underneath the Layout menu and also the Pages panel. But the Pages panel has everything from the menu, plus a lot more. So let's focus on the panel. The very first thing I'm going to change in my Pages panel is the Layout, the configuration.
Because currently it shows each spread one on top of the other. It's not a very good use of screen real estate. I would rather go to the Pages panel flyout menu, choose View Pages and choose Horizontally. Horizontally is a much better use of space. So I like it more. But you can do it either way you want. I'm going to pan up to the top of this page, the first spread by using Option+Spacebar or Alt+Spacebar, just so I can see what I'm doing here a little bit better. And I'm going to add a new page. There's a new page button, Create new page down here at the bottom of the Pages panel, and if you click that it'll add a single new page after whatever is selected in the Pages panel.
Right now, both pages 20 and 21 are selected. So if I add a new page, it'll add a new page after that spread. All the other pages in the document shuffle, so that they stay in two-page spreads. Now page 22 is selected. That's the new page that I just added, and I can click again to add a second page on that spread. However, if I knew that I wanted two pages to start with, I probably should've used the Insert Pages feature. I can get that from the Pages panel flyout menu, Insert Pages, or little shortcut Option+Click or Alt+Click on the New Pages button.
Option+Click or Alt+Click on Pages button then up comes the Insert Pages dialog box and I can say exactly how many pages I want to add, and where I want to put them. Perhaps I want to put one page right after page 20. No problem, click OK and it adds a new page after page 20. Another way to get a new page in InDesign is to duplicate one of the pages you already have. I find this very useful when I'm laying out pages quickly, because often, I have a page that looks approximately like what I want, but I need to make a few changes. So I'll just duplicate the one that I have.
I'll hold down the Option Key or Alt Key on Windows and drag. In this case, I want a duplicate of both of these pages, pages 22 and 23. So I'll click on the page numbers at the bottom, that selects both the pages, and then I'll hold down Option or Alt and drag, until I see a black line appear. That means put it here after the spread, and when I let go, I get a duplicate of that spread right where I wanted it. Of course the pages in this Pages panel act kind of like a slide tray, if you've a bunch of images or slides in a tray, you can move them around anywhere you want.
So if I want this spread to be someplace else, I simply click it and drag it and move it to where I want it to be, and all the pages reflow. There's another way to move pages too, and that is to select Move Pages from the Pages panel flyout menu. I'll choose Move Pages and now I can specify exactly which pages I want to move and where I want to move them to. For example, I might want to move pages 23 and 24 to later, after page 25. I can choose After a specific Page, Before the Page or at the beginning or end of the document.
Click OK, and you can see that those pages got moved, and again all the pages reflowed to take their place. Finally, sometimes you find you need to delete pages, and you can do that in the Pages panel too. I'll select this second page of the document, and I want to grab these other blank pages I have. So I'm going to hold down the Command Key or the Ctrl Key and click on them. The Command+Click or Ctrl+Click, means select discontinuous pages. That means pages that are not next to each other. If you hold down the Shift Key, you can actually select continuous pages, a range of pages.
For example, I'll select page 20, and then I'll Shift+Click on page 29 and I'll get all of the pages in between. But in this case, I don't want that, so let me click out here where there's no pages and then once again click on the first one, and then Command+Click or Ctrl+Click on these other blank pages, and then to delete them I click on the trashcan. It warns me, Are you sure you want to delete those? Yes, I do. Click OK and now they're all gone. Now remember, that even though these are called pages, and this is the Pages panel, it doesn't necessarily mean Print Pages.
A page in InDesign could also be what you see on a screen, like a slide presentation or a magazine on a tablet. A page, is a page, is a page.
Author
Released
5/7/2012- Getting started in just 30 minutes: the quick start guide to InDesign
- Understanding your workspace
- Creating and setting up new documents
- Creating and applying master pages
- Entering and editing text
- Placing graphics
- Working with color and gradients
- Editing frame and path shapes
- Working with layers, objects, and groups
- Rotating and scaling objects
- Applying character and paragraph formatting
- Using styles
- Creating and formatting tables
- Exporting to EPUB and interactive PDF
- Packaging, printing, and exporting your final document
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
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Q: Where can I learn more about graphic design?
A: Discover more on this topic by visiting graphic design on lynda.com.
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What is InDesign?1m 23s
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Introduction
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Welcome57s
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Using the exercise files1m 38s
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1. Learn InDesign in Thirty Minutes
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Getting started3m 33s
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Adding or editing text3m 23s
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Adding or replacing graphics4m 31s
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Moving objects around4m 55s
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Printing and creating a PDF4m 57s
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2. Understanding Your Workspace
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Working with panels3m 58s
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3. Creating a Document
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Creating new documents7m 39s
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4. Managing Pages
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Changing page size4m 38s
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Overriding master page items2m 43s
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Adding page numbering2m 22s
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5. Text
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Understanding text frames3m 38s
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Typing and editing text4m 48s
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Importing text3m 47s
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Threading text frames3m 12s
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Setting text frame columns4m 31s
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Putting text on a path5m 50s
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Using the Story Editor5m 10s
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Checking spelling5m 12s
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Using Find/Change4m 45s
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6. Graphics
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Importing graphics8m 20s
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Using the Links panel7m 17s
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7. Formatting Objects
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Selecting objects5m 2s
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Colorizing images1m 59s
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Adjusting transparency4m 4s
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Adding drop shadows3m 33s
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8. Color
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Creating color swatches4m 33s
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Creating gradient swatches3m 53s
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Applying gradients4m 22s
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9. Frames and Paths
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Creating text outlines4m 12s
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10. Managing Objects
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Stacking objects2m 5s
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Grouping and locking objects3m 10s
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Nesting objects3m 23s
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Understanding text wrap5m 51s
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Using anchored objects6m 13s
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11. Transforming Objects
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Duplicating objects5m 37s
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Rotating objects2m 22s
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Scaling objects4m 21s
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Skewing objects1m 8s
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Mirroring objects3m 50s
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12. Character Formatting
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Changing case3m 23s
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Using Find Font3m 54s
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13. Paragraph Formatting
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Using drop caps3m 26s
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Setting tabs7m 36s
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Adding automatic bullets4m 10s
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Numbering paragraphs6m 10s
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14. Styles
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Using character styles4m 45s
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Using object styles2m 47s
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15. Tables
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Creating a table4m 29s
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Adjusting rows and columns4m 36s
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Formatting a table4m 32s
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Formatting cells6m 2s
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Applying table styles5m 33s
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16. Long Documents
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17. Interactive Documents
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Exporting EPUBs6m 12s
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Creating an interactive PDF12m 49s
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Building a Flash SWF4m 7s
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18. Packaging, Printing, and Exporting
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Packaging for output3m 34s
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Using the Print dialog box4m 52s
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Printing a small booklet2m 46s
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Exporting a PDF7m 56s
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Exporting text3m 27s
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Conclusion
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Next steps1m 25s
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Video: Inserting, deleting, and moving pages