(File) Corruption + Bleeding (into the) Spine

(File) Corruption: After months of working on a booklet project, there's nothing more soothing than coming across a really calm forum post by someone suggesting that there is in fact such a thing as minor file corruption and that repetitive crashing of InDesign is pretty common, for some types of projects/uses. So if you're working in InDesign and suddenly content goes missing, or pages become grey, or each time you touch a particular page the software crashes -- don't worry (or don't worry until you at least try these few simple steps):

• If you've installed any new plugins, delete 'em.
• If that still doesn't work (it didn't for me), try exporting your project as .idml (InDesign Markup) and then opening it up in InDesign again, and then saving it as a new .indd document. (This solved my problem).
• If you still encounter problems, then try resetting your preferences. I didn't do this, but that was going to be my next step. This can be done by going into your User >> Library >> Preferences.

Bleeding (into the) Spine: The other issue I had was that the booklet was initially meant for online viewing and so it was designed with no left or right Mater page. When I converted the document to have facing pages, the right inside margin bled into the left and vice versa. The only way to resolve this, as far as I surmised, is to break off the pages so that they are staggered (as pictured here). This means that you can get the file to the printer with bleeds all around as well as retain the left and right order required for book layout.


The booklet printed out beautifully...