5 Replies Latest reply: Apr 17, 2009 2:28 PM by Buko. RSS

    How to change document margins in IDCS3

    Michael Brown12 Community Member

      I have a 30 page document in IDCS3 with the document margins set at .5 inches top, right and bottom and .75 inches on the left. There is one master page. I want to do something very simple, namely change the document margins to be .5 inches on all four sides. There does not seem to be a straight forward way to do this. That setting is suddenly missing from the document set-up under the File menu. What is the reasoning behind that? It is so simple I'm sure I'm missing something obvious. I've looked at the master page options and have enabled layout adjustment. I'm on a Mac if it matters. Thanks in advance for any help.

       

      MGuilfoile

        • 1. Re: How to change document margins in IDCS3
          P Spier CommunityMVP

          Do this on the master page so all your pages will be affected.

           

          Layout menu > Layout Adjustment... and turn on layout adjustment BEFORE you make any changes if you want things to adjust to the new margins (and how well it will work depends on whether the frames are touching the margin guides).

           

          Then Layout > Margins and Columns... and you'll find the margin adjustment fields.

           

          Peter

          • 2. Re: How to change document margins in IDCS3
            Michael Witherell CommunityMVP

            Michael,

             

            Be on the Master Page. Click up to Layout > Margins and Columns.

             

            Good for you to have Layout Adjustment enabled. That will reflow your text frames to become resized to the new margins, assuming they touched the margins from before.

             

            Just be sure to turn off Layout Adjustment when you are done with this procedure, since InDesign slows waay down with it on all the time.

             

            Mike Witherell in Maryland

            • 3. Re: How to change document margins in IDCS3
              Michael Brown12 Community Member

              Thank you all; that was great information. It is very easy, but I don't understand why it was moved from the File menu. Suddenly, at some point, global changes are a bad idea?

               

              Thanks again!

              MGuilfoile

              • 4. Re: How to change document margins in IDCS3
                Community Member

                Michael Brown12 wrote:

                 

                Thank you all; that was great information. It is very easy, but I don't understand why it was moved from the File menu. Suddenly, at some point, global changes are a bad idea?

                 

                Thanks again!

                MGuilfoile

                Well if you think about it Layout is a much more logical place to put Columns and Margins and I'm pretty sure its been this way from the begining of the Creative Suites. And you can't get more global than a master Page.

                • 5. Re: How to change document margins in IDCS3
                  P Spier CommunityMVP

                  When you first set up the document you have only one master and your settings are global, but after the document is created you have total control on a page-by-page basis over margins and columns, so you don't want the global setting anymore.

                   

                  Peter