Create book files

A book file is a collection of documents that can share styles, swatches, master pages, and other items. You can sequentially number pages in booked documents, print selected documents in a book, or export them to PDF. One document can belong to multiple book files.

One of the documents added to a book file is the style source. By default, the style source is the first document in the book, but you can select a new style source at any time. When you synchronize documents in a book, the specified styles and swatches from the style source replace those in other booked documents.

Michael Murphy provides a video tutorial about creating books at Book Basics.

When you create a book file, it opens in the Book panel. The Book panel is the working area of a book file, where you add, remove, or rearrange documents.

To open a document in a book file, double-click the document name in the Book panel.

Each open book file appears on its own tab in the Book panel. If multiple books are open at the same time, click a tab to bring that book to the front and access its panel menu.

Icons in the Book panel indicate a document’s current status, such as open , missing  (the document was moved, renamed, or deleted), modified  (the document was edited or its page or section numbers changed while the book was closed), or in use  (if someone else has the document open in a managed workflow). No icon appears next to closed documents.

Book files are separate from document files. For example, when you choose the Save Book command, InDesign saves the changes to the book, not the documents in the book.

• To close a single book, choose Close Book in the book’s panel menu.
• To close all open books docked together in the same panel, click the close button on the Book panel’s title bar.

Removing the document from the book file doesn’t delete the file on disk; the document is removed only from the book file.

A browser window opens that displays the selected file.

When you synchronize documents in a book, the items you specify—styles, variables, master pages, trap presets, cross-reference formats, conditional text settings, numbered lists, and swatches—are copied from the style source to the specified documents in the book, replacing any items that have identical names.

If items in the style source are not found in the documents being synchronized, they are added. Items that are not included in the style source are left as is in the documents being synchronized.

You can synchronize the book while documents in the book are closed. InDesign opens the closed documents, makes any changes, and then saves and closes the documents. Documents that are open when you synchronize are changed but not saved.

Master pages are synchronized in the same way as other items—master pages with the same name (such as A-Master) as those in the style source are replaced. Synchronizing masters is useful for documents that use the same design elements, such as running headers and footers. However, if you want to preserve page items on a master page in documents other than the style source, either don’t synchronize master pages or create master pages with different names.

Any master page items that are overridden on document pages after you synchronize masters for the first time are detached from the master. Therefore, if you plan on synchronizing master pages in your book, it’s a good idea to synchronize all the documents in your book at the start of the design process. That way, overridden master page items will maintain their connection to the master page and will continue to be updated from modified master page items in the style source.

It’s also a good idea to synchronize master pages using only one style source. If you synchronize from a different style source, overridden master page items may become detached from the master page. If you need to synchronize using a different style source, deselect the Master Pages option in the Synchronize Options dialog box before doing so.

You can convert a book file created in a previous version of InDesign by opening and saving it in InDesign CS5. When you synchronize, update numbering, print, package, or export a converted book, the documents it contains are also converted to InDesign CS5 format. You can decide whether you want to overwrite or keep the original document files.

You can determine how pages, chapters, and paragraphs are numbered in a book. In a book file, the numbering styles and starting numbers for pages and chapters are determined by each document’s settings in the Numbering & Section Options dialog box or the Document Numbering Options dialog box. You can open one of these dialog boxes by choosing Layout > Numbering & Section Options in the document or by choosing Document Numbering Options in the Book panel menu.

For information on adding page numbering to a document, see Add basic page numbering.

For numbered paragraphs (such as lists of figures), numbering is determined by the numbered list style definition contained by the paragraph style.

The page range appears beside each document name in the Book panel. By default, InDesign updates page and section numbering in the Book panel when you add or remove pages in booked documents, or when you make changes to the book file, such as reordering, adding, or removing documents. If you turn off the setting to automatically update page and section numbers, you can update numbering in a book manually.

If the book is updated and the numbering seems incorrect, the problem may be that absolute numbers are displayed instead of section numbers in General preferences. See Display absolute or section numbering in the Pages panel.

If a document is missing or cannot be opened, the page range is shown as “?” from the place where the missing document should be to the end of the book, indicating that the true page range is unknown. Remove or replace the missing document before you update numbering. If the In Use icon  appears, someone using a different computer has opened the document in a managed workflow; the person must close the document before you can update numbering.

You can start document numbering on odd- or even-numbered pages in booked documents.

To use sequential paragraph numbering for lists of figures, tables, or other items, you first define a numbered list that is used in a paragraph style. The numbered list you define determines whether paragraph numbering maintains sequential numbering across documents in a book.

One advantage of using a book file is that you can use a single command to output—for print, preflight, package, or export to EPUB or PDF—selected booked documents or the entire book.