The best way to design large catalogs in InDesign
One of the most powerful tools in the InDesign program is simply called the Book Feature. It was designed to make creating large books easier and it’s a great way to make large catalogs easier to manage as well. If you want to learn to design a catalog in InDesign, the Book Feature is a life saver once you go over 24 pages.
Better workflow for design teams and copywriters
The Book feature is a great way to make larger catalog design files available to multiple users. This feature allows designers to make sections into individual files and then link them together into a single “Book”. So copywriters can be working in, say the women’s shirts and accessories sections, while designers and art directors are working in shoes and outerwear.
Repaginate on the fly
Because the sections can be reordered on the fly it makes catalog pagination easier. This is very useful when you are creating versions and if you want to repaginate for prospects or seasonality.
And there’s more!
While all that would be enough to make the Book Feature a winner, it can also updates embedded cross references and has a very useful preflight function.
This online catalog design class will walk you through creating a catalog in InDesign using the book feature. This class assumes a basic working knowledge of InDesign.