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I am trying to create a kind of book of those that are made with letter size sheets folded in half lengthwise. On my own I tried several things but I only managed to get 2 letter pages joined vertically and that is not what I am looking for. It is important to clarify that the pages will be printed on both sides. In my country we call it booklet ("folleto" in the image). I was working in Publisher but I saw that inDesign offered me better things, and this is the configuration I was using. enter image description here

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  • So you want to make a booklet with the pages being 5.5" W x 8.5" H? But your image doesn't match those dimensions. I guess I am wondering what your question is. Do you need help setting up the file or are you confused about how the setup file would be printed?
    – AndrewH
    Oct 4, 2021 at 16:04
  • @AndrewH Yes, the dimensions don't match, sorry, but inDesign I need to work with letter size. And yes, I need help to set up the project.
    – Jalkhov
    Oct 4, 2021 at 16:08
  • Are you producing this booklet yourself or will it be commercially printed? In other words, are you going to do the printing as well?
    – Scott
    Oct 4, 2021 at 18:59
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    @Scott posted a brief, but concise tutorial of the settings you need to address. If you create and open a pdf of your booklet, you might need to set acrobat to the 2 page display setting. So you can view your booklet in the form you envision it.
    – nocturns2
    Oct 4, 2021 at 21:56

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To create a "booklet" with a final size of 5.5"x8.5" (Letter half) you want the InDesign pages to be 13.97cm x 21.59cm (5.5"x8.5").

When 2 pages are next to each other they will create 1, letter-sized, horizontal, spread.

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Upon output you can choose to output single pages (5.5x8.5") or Page Spreads (11x8.5").

Most often a commercial printer will want single pages so they can properly impose for a booklet. If you are doing this yourself at home, you may need page spreads output so you can manually bind the booklet.

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  • Thanks, it had crossed my mind to handle it like this, set up a half sheet letter, but as I'm just getting to know inDesign, I didn't know how, that's what I'm looking for. This is not commercial, it is for something personal, so it will be printed at home, is there any way to save the project as pdf to print it somewhere else without using inDesign?
    – Jalkhov
    Oct 5, 2021 at 10:28
  • By the way, I guess I have to activate the option "Facing pages", I have inDesign 2019 and it looks a little different.
    – Jalkhov
    Oct 5, 2021 at 10:38
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    @Jalkhov Indesign has a "print booklet" feature. Also, for larger booklets (i.e. more than a few sheets of paper), the paper thickness starts to affect the layout. When folded and stitched, The pages in the middle of the book stick out farther than the covers. This is called, in English, "creep" and the print booklet setting has a creep adjustment field. I think copy paper is around .005 inches thick, so maybe try that as a creep setting. the creep adjustment will help keep the design aligned, and then you can trim the edge after binding.
    – Yorik
    Oct 5, 2021 at 15:03
  • @Yorik There are only about 5 sheets, and one of them is a cardboard, which will be the cover and back cover. No problem, right? And to join them all together, we will use staples (not the prettiest but it will serve the purpose we are looking for).
    – Jalkhov
    Oct 5, 2021 at 15:36
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    @Jalkhov Just set up as 5.5x8.5 pages, then when you print, or export to PDF tick the "page spreads" option in the print/export dialog. That will output 2 pages side by side. Whether or not you use facing pages is up to you. Either way will work. The other option would be to just use 1 letter-sized horizontal page, but you'd need to manually configure guides to know where the middle will fall.
    – Scott
    Oct 5, 2021 at 17:43

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