inDesign Tip #10 Get rid of the first page when working with spreads

What we are accomplishing: Making the first page of a spread sheet document not start with a cover page.

First I would like to thank those of you who have been patient in waiting for this post.  I have been really busy lately and have not had a chance to do a post this last week.  From here on out I will be trying to do a post at least every Thursday.

Alright, on to the tip!  Today’s tip is a bit tricky.  The thing that we are trying to correct here is fixing that first page in a spread document so that you can start with a spread at the left, instead of a single page set to the right.  The easiest way to fix this is to actually renumber the pages.  The reason why inDesign puts that first page to the right is because it is an odd number.  All odd numbers are to the right, and all even numbers are to the left.  So, if you open your pages panel and right click on the first page of the document, your contextual menu will have an item called “Numbering and Sectioning Options”.  Clicking this will take you a screen that will let you change the page number.  There will be a field that starts with “Start Page Numbering at:    “.  You will want to put an even number in this field.  Voila!  You’re first page is now set to start from the left.  Now then, the second way to approach this problem is to turn off automatic page shuffling.  Follow these steps, which are taken from the official Adobe Help Resource Center, to fix the problem.

1. Make sure page 1 of the document is blank.
2. Choose File > Document Setup. Be sure the document contains at least three pages and that the Facing Pages option is selected. Click OK.
3. In the Pages panel, select all the pages except page 1. (The easiest way to do this is to select page 2 and then Shift-select the last page of the document.)
4. In the Pages panel menu, deselect Allow Selected Spread To Shuffle.
5. Select page 1. In the Pages panel menu, choose Delete Spread.

That’s all there is to it!