Single page document layout vs. multiple page layout

[Andi Schwartz]

Hi all,

I work for a weekly community newspaper (circulation 28,000) where I am now the only graphic designer. I have two sister papers in our company that layout their newspapers by separating each page into it's own document. To facilitate them being coverage for me if I'm sick or want to take vacation, I now have to layout my paper that way. I have been doing entire sections as one document in InDesign. This allows me to jump stories and move them around as I see fit to best fit the layout. I can certainly understand separating out a calendar page, or a one page topic. But, for instance, this week I have a 7 page Senior Living section that I'd be willing to save as one document. But I'm told to separate out each page... C1 has two stories that jump to C2, so I have to cut them apart.

I'm hoping to gain some insight as to what others in the industry do... 

Thank you!

[Renato Dalcin]

Hi Andi,

I think the main reason for not layouting a newspaper as a multi-page indesing document is that if anything goes wrong (a corrupted file, for instance) you don't lose the entire edition.

You may want to structure your paper/section files as one page documents grouped as chapters of an InDesign book. That way you may sync formatting styles and edition dates using variables fields.

To avoid the hassle of having to cut and paste jumping stories, and, if you have a some budget, you may want to look into InCopy, sold by Adobe, which works as a word processor for indesign articles and stories. Jumping stories are just a matter of linking articles which can be referenced to one or more indesign files.

Hope this info helps you.

[Andi Schwartz]

Thank you so much for your input! Our news staff used to use InCopy. But again, the management decided using Google Docs was better, so I have to copy and paste from Google Docs.

What I'm proposing is what we have done in the past when we've had multiple designers working on the newspaper. I would most certainly advocate doing this in an InDesign book. Here's what this week's C and D Sections would look like:

C1-C3 Health & Beauty

C4 - Opinion

C5 - Home & Family

C6 - Calendar

C7 - Happenings

C8 - Youth Focus

D1-D7 Christmas Joy & Gift Guide

D8-D9 U-Cut Christmas Tree Gide

D10-D12 Shop Uptown Vancouver & Shop Downtown Vancouver

So you have 9 documents instead of 20 and are able to flow the stories freely in in the Health and Beauty pages and the other multiple-page headings. 

[Lisa Burns]

I work on a universal desk and we only keep pages together that are jumps or extremely closely related -- individual pages are the best way to go to keep computer issues/crashes to a minimum. I don't understand why the other designers couldn't just deal with the way you do it and vice versa. Seems like an inconsequential thing to most designers.