How to: get ride of extra pages; change margin; start numbering later

[StrangeAmerican]

I’ve placed a Word document in InDesign, and I am exporting it as PDF eBook, and I have three questions:

1. There are extra blank pages after I place the Word doc, and how do I get rid of them?
2. I used the master to auto number pages, but I don’t want the first few pages numbered? What about graphics, how would I keep them from showing up in the first couple pages, or at least the title page?
3. How do I alter margins so that the existing text is moved as well?
4. What font, font size, line spacing, etc. would you recommend for an eBook?

 

[jmgalvin]

I - Window menu/Pages. In the pages window click on the pages you want to discard and click the little trash can at the bottom right of the pages window.

2 - In Pages window click the little triangle for the Pages menu at the top and go to Numbering & Section options and select where you want to start numbering. To detach from a master click on the page you do not want to carry master items and then go to Overide Master or Detach - depending on what you want.

3 - One of the easiest ways to do that is from the very beginning - when you import the multipage Word doc. In the document setup window for a new doc, you check Master Text Frame which gives you a frame on every page equivalent to the page margins. If you import into that it makes changing margins easier later on. But remember, you have to have extra pages so any text that has to flow to later pages if you decrease the size of the master text frame. You might not want to trash those extra pages yet.

On the Layout menu go to Layout adjustment and click Enable and select what's necessary.

4 - Have no idea since difference size monitors and different resolutions change the size so much and then there's the actual display size of the font. When I've had to make thing for screen display I usually settled on 11 point for Times New Roman. I know nothing about ebooks though.

 

[StrangeAmerican]

Thanks so much. This forum is amazingly helpful. On point 3, as I understood, once you've setup the master, then you double click the A-master in the Pages fan, then Place the Word doc there, using shift to place the whole document. If this is correct, when I did this, I was only able to get page 1 of the document to show up in the body.

 

[jmgalvin]

Theres' a big difference here.

A master text frame as set i document setup when you create a new document, allows all the imported stuff - like a multi[page Word doc to flow through your new ID doc for 2, 5, 10, 20 or how many pages you've mede it.

Start a new doc and, in the document setup box check Master text frame and make the thing as many pages as necessary. Then just place the text cursor in the upper left of the first page and ckick, Go to File.Menu/Place and select the Word doc. The entire Word doc will flow throughout the new ID document. If importing Word, ID also allows you to preserve Word formatting if desired.

A Master Page is used to set up a bunch of attributes that you want to share across several or all pages of an ID doc. An example would be if you had all text in a 20 page ID doc in Times New Roman and you wanted to change it to Arial. You can either go through every page in teh doc individually and change the font on each page or you cna create a Master with all text in Arial. Then you set the pages to inherit that - automatically changing the text in all pages to arial.You ca do much fancier stuff with Master pages, but i've tried to just give you the basic idea behind them

 

[StrangeAmerican]

OK, thanks. So, I created a new document, checked "Master Text Frame", "Facing Pages", set number of pages, and margins, then placed the text cursor on the first page and imported the document and it wrapped as you said it would. However, when I go back and try to modify the margins, only the box changes, the text does not move. What did I do wrong.

And on the numbering issue, when I went "Pages", then clicked "Numbering and Section Options", then clicked "Start Page Numbering At" and selected page 2, it began the number on the title page (which was what I didn't want it to do) at numeral 2. What I wanted it to do, was to not show the page numbers on the first few pages or so, then show numbers starting on the third page or so, with numeral 3.

I also had some trouble using the "Detach All Object From Master", which was what you said to do to change the first few pages of the book, correct?