Move text content automatically to correct place when changing page order in InDesign

Question

I designed a multi-page booklet with three columns per page. In the master pages I defined one text box with a width of one column, and one text box with a width of two columns. The single-column text box is placed on the outside, i.e. the general layout looks like

I II II I

in a two-page view. When adding text afterwards, I use those pre-defined boxes by unlocking them and filling them with text. Now, when adding a new page before that, the pages are shifted, but the text stays at the same side, resulting in a layout like

I II I II
II I

while I would like to keep the layout to

I II II I
I II

Putting the boxes back to where they belong takes a lot of work, especially if multiple pages are added later during processing.
Thus, is there a way to tell InDesign to keep the layout, and flip positions, i.e. moving the single-column box to the outside again?

Answer 1

It's a good question. Indesign doesn't deal with "relative to spine" objects.

However it deals with relative to spine when it comes to: - paragraph styles - anchored objects (custom position)

So, you can use a workaround by anchoring your text frames inside another text frame.
Use object style > anchored object options in order to make your text frame relative to spine.

Here's an example of a Master-page where I created a text frame in which I anchored the two text frames:

Then I create an object style for narrow frame - that must stick to the outside and another one for the larger one.
In the Anchored object options, I set it as "custom", then checked "relative to spine". I also chose to align the frames on page margins. See settings below:

Finally, copy the whole layout to the other Master page. You'll see straight away how the layout is now "kinda responsive"...

Bonus tips:
- Reduce the size of the "wrapper" frame in order to avoid as much as possible the risk of typing into it.
- Important : due to a long-standing bug (which might have been resolved now, I don't know, I use CS6), allow a small gap between the wrapper and the page edge. Otherwise, it might disappear when adding/removing pages.
- In the example below, I also set up the side text paragraph style as "relative to spine"

Hope that helps. Have fun :-)