: Why use a Book? For several years, I have managed a five-chapter book in InDesign as 12 separate files organized into a Book (five 20- to 30-page chapters, plus all the front and end matter).

For several years, I have managed a five-chapter book in InDesign as 12 separate files organized into a Book (five 20- to 30-page chapters, plus all the front and end matter). It just seemed to make sense at the time.

However, after years of the mistake-ridden process of syncing, and syncing, and syncing, I'm beginning to wonder if I wouldn't be better off just combining everything into one big, happy document. (I suppose I wouldn't be thinking this if InDesign used the concept of a centralized stylesheet for styles, masters, settings, lists, formats, variables, presets, and swatches).

The only downside that I see to combining all the documents into one is the risk of file corruption causing a catastrophic loss of everything (as opposed to a catastrophic loss of just one chapter). I believe I can mitigate this by good use of version control software and by taking routine backups of my work.

What are the downsides to combining everything into one large document? What are the upsides to organizing a 130-page book into an InDesign Book?

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@Angie364

I work in a print shop that does layout for books and then prints them. Some of them have been up to 400 pages long, and the whole book (minus cover) is all in one Indesign file. As far as I know we have not had any problems with corruption or the files just not opening.

I think you would be perfectly fine to put this 130-page book into one Indesign document. Our 400-page books do not take very long to open up, so you shouldn't lose time with opening your document.

Honestly I have never heard of people separating the books into different files until I watched a Lynda.com video about ePUBS. Kudos to you for waiting for all the syncing! :)

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: Why use a Book? For several years, I have managed a five-chapter book in InDesign as 12 separate files organized into a Book (five 20- to 30-page chapters, plus all the front and end matter).

More posts by @Bryan765

: How do I combine PNGs into a PDF without losing quality? I have a few hundred high-res PNGs I'd like to combine into a 200+ page PDF using only lossless compression on the images that are

: My first time designing for printing, but printers won't give me any advice or specs Edit: I am an amateur and it is my first time designing for printing! The printers are very unhelpful unfortunately

: Is there a way in Indesign to link parts of a frame between documents? Say, I have a CV. There're multiple versions of it - from the longest and the most complete down to the shorter ones,

: Mirror symmetry Is there a way to draw mirror/symmetric shapes in Inkscape? To clarify, I am asking about mirroring the shape while I'm drawing it, not to draw it and then mirror in. I saw

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