Hi Peter,
Both. I neither spotted your reference to 'paste in place' nor would I have understood its significance if I had!

In order for Paste in Place to work you have to get the required image on the Windows clipboard, so I used Photoshop to open and then copy the Tiff file I had previously exported from Illustrator. When I then used Paste in Place in InDesign the image was placed exactly where it was required on both the front and back pages. Magic!

Thanks again for providing an excellent solution to my problem.

David 

Actually, I may have stumbled across a slightly more efficient solution than you are suggesting. My cover artwork was designed to fit in a landscape A4 format. My exported Tiff file appears to have preserved the relevant X/Y co-ordinates so that when I did Paste in Place in Indesign it went exactly where it was required. Page 1 was focused on the left half of the Tiff image and Page 24 was focused on the right half of the image. 

Yes, I confused my left with my right. I am indeed sticking with a conventional booklet reading direction!

On reflection, our processes are slightly different but both may have advantages in different situations. Unless there is some clever trick for placing an image in a specific place, your process would always require careful repositioning of the cover artwork on Page 1 before copying and Pasting in Place on Page 24. My method used Paste in Place on both Page 1 and Page 24 and no position adjustment was necessary. The disadvantage of my process (which I forgot when I claimed it was more efficient) is the necessity of the prior step required to copy the cover artwork image into the Windows clipboard.

I suspect you are now going to tell me an easy way to Place the image on Page 1 so that it preserves the same X/Y co-ordinates as it had in Illustrator ...

David

Hmmm. When I try placing a Tiff with Show Import Options selected, the only so-called 'option' I get is 'Apply Photoshop Clipping Path' - which is shown both selected and greyed out (i.e. unchangeable). If I then proceed to place the Tiff in the upper left corner of Page 24 it's nowhere near where I want it to be.

I didn't quite understand the point you were making in your last paragraph. Do I have an option to link to my cover art Illustrator file instead of copying and pasting?

I did mention earlier that I had exported my cover art from Illustrator as a Tiff. This cover design includes one or two bitmap images as well as some vector elements.

There are no sizing issues when placing this Tiff in my InDesign document. The positioning difficulties appear to be caused by the fact that the export process in Illustrator generates a Tiff with a large white margin on the left, bottom and right of the artwork - but a zero margin on the top edge.

Earlier today, I read some references to a Place and Link option in CS6, though I have not yet had the time to check it out in detail. Does this offer me the option to link to my Illustrator file from InDesign?

Placing the .ai file worked fine, though I had to position it manually (no big deal, in practice). I then copied the frame within InDesign and did a Paste in Place on the other page, as per your previous advice. The Links panel in InDesign then made it easy for me to apply a test update made in Illustrator to both instances of the .ai file within InDesign.

I'm not quite sure why I never tried placing the .ai file in the first place. With hindsight, it's a pretty obvious thing to do! Anyway, thanks yet again for putting me straight 

David