Create book files

A book file is a collection of documents that can share styles, swatches, parent 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.

Add documents to a book file

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.

Manage book files

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.

Save a book file

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.

Close a book file

• 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.

Remove book documents

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

Replace book documents

Open a book file in Explorer or Finder

A browser window opens that displays the selected file.

Synchronize book documents

When you synchronize documents in a book, the items you specify—styles, variables, parent 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.

Select items to synchronize

Synchronize documents in a book file

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.

Synchronize parent pages

Parent pages are synchronized in the same way as other items—parent pages with the same name (such as A-Parent) as those in the style source are replaced. Synchronizing parents 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 parent page in documents other than the style source, either don’t synchronize parent pages or create parent pages with different names.

Any parent page items that are overridden on document pages after you synchronize parents for the first time are detached from the parent. Therefore, if you plan on synchronizing parent 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 parent page items will maintain their connection to the parent page and will continue to be updated from modified parent page items in the style source.

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

Convert book files from previous InDesign versions

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.

Convert a book file for use with InDesign CS5

Convert documents in a book file

Number pages, chapters, and paragraphs in a book

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.

Change page and chapter numbering options for each document

Start numbering on an odd or even page

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

Turn off automatic page numbering in a book

Use sequential paragraph numbering in books

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.

Print or output a book file

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.