Print a document with three pages per spread

Question

I am trying to configure a fairly complex document in InDesign. A document would need to have 3 pages per spread, should start from a first single page, and spine should be attached to its left edge.

Then, it should have following three pages 2, 3, and 4 in one spread. The spine should be between 2nd and 3rd page, whereas pages 3 and 4 should be folded. It is like one side from a spine should have two pages folded.

This is what I am thinking about:

      ║ 1
    2 ║ 3 | 4
5 | 6 ║ 7
    8 ║ 9 | 10

The character ║ means a spine between pages whereas | means two pages are folded.

I have managed to set three pages per spread:

but whenever I export the document or print it, I always get a standard 2 face structure. The pages are printed in a normal configuration:

   ║ 1
 2 ║ 3
 4 ║ 5
 6 ║ 8
 8 ║ 9
10 ║ 11

How to achieve it?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can create multiple page spreads by deselecting "Allow Document Pages to Shuffle" inthe Pages panel menu and rearranging your pages in the Pages panel.

From InDesign Help / Create a multiple-page spread:

To allow the creation of spreads of more than two pages in the entire document and to preserve those spreads when you add, remove, or arrange preceding pages, deselect Allow Document Pages To Shuffle on the Pages panel menu

Answer 2

I could not find an answer to my solution so I have fiddled a little bit with scripting in the InDesign. I have created a JavaScript function that does the job, exactly what I needed. If someone is interested in the solution, this is my script:

// Shuffle pages to make a complex structure: 2 pages bound, 2 pages folded, 2 pages bound, 2 pages folded, and so on.

main();

function main() {
    var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
    var myPages = myDoc.pages;

    var extrapages = myPages.length % 6;

    if (extrapages > 0) {
        for(var c = 0; c < extrapages; c++) {
            myPages.add();
        }
    }

    var offset = 1;
    for(var c = 0; c < myPages.length/6; c++) {
        myPages.item(offset+4).move(LocationOptions.AFTER, myPages.item(offset+1));
        offset = offset + 6;
    }
}

Note: The script adds a few pages so that their number is a multiple of six to avoid errors if I refer to a page number that does not exist. That's the drawback. I don't know how to handle errors :)