Morbus Iff

Fair enough. Thanks for your help and patience!

Due to margins or something? I would want heavier left and right margins on these single-sheet deliverables (heavier left margin on the front of the page, heavier right margin on the back of the page), as there is an expectation that people would be hole-punching them. ... ... If, in a "Start on: Left" world, my page 1 is "the front of the first page, which is not a cover" then, when moving to a "Start on Right" world (in this far future theoretical) and adding a single blank page to the front of the document (the new blank page 1, pushing my original page 1 to page 2), then wouldn't I want to add a SECOND single blank page (blank page 1 and 2, my original page 1 is now page 3), so that my original content is now "on the right" ("the beginning of the content in the book")? Heh, heh. Given my ignorance, this might be the best approach I just wish I could view something 2-up regardless of what page was on the left, to maximize monitor space.

Thanks! The only "compelling reason" I have is that I'm designing single front-and-back pages that are then mailed out as one sheet in an envelope. There is no "book" or "gatefold center spread of a magazine" that would justify seeing my spreads as 2,3 (visually together on my screen, either in my workspace or as a thumbnail) when 3 (in Publisher) has very little to do with 2. Page 1 and 2? Certainly; seeing them together "makes sense" as that is the "entirety" of the "one sheet in an envelope" deliverable. But page 2 and 3? Never. Page 3 and 4 (front/back single sheet) would be sent out in a second envelope. Page 5 and 6 (front/back single sheet) in a third envelope. And so on. My concern with "Start on" "Left" was shooting myself in the foot for those "established workflows". Like if one day far in the future I wanted to take all these dozens of "single sheet deliverables" and package them up into a book, where there WOULD be a "gatefold center spread of a magazine". If that were ever the case, would I "just" be able to toggle "Start on:" "Right" in my existing document and everything would be a-OK? Is "Start on: Left" and "Start on: Right" purely a visual metaphor for the designer, or does it mean something more, something that would get codified in an external file intended for the printers?

If that were the case, then I already answered it in the OP (I can do this in Affinity Publisher with File > Document Setup > "Facing pages" ticked and "Start on" "Left" which is the "existing document" version of your "new document" answer), so why would I have posted the OP in the first place? To restate: "Is this actually an issue or am I overthinking this?" where "this" applies to "the Affinity Publisher documentation suggests that the "Left" page is still considered the back page" which makes me worried about "some crazy workflow issue in the future where a printer or exporter will assume that page 1 (of the document) is really a "back page".

Thanks. As indicated in my OP, though, I already knew that much That's not the question I'm asking.

I am working with single pages that have a front and a back. I'd like multiple single pages in a single Publisher document. These single pages will nearly never have any design elements that spill over into the next page - there's not really a concept here of "facing page" or a "gatefold center spread of a magazine". Each single page (front and back) will standalone by itself. As such, I'd like to view these pages in Affinity Designer in a word processor-like "two up" display: the front page (pages ODD, 1) is on the left, and the back of that same page (pages EVEN, 2) is on the right. I can do this in Affinity Publisher with File > Document Setup > "Facing pages" ticked and "Start on" "Left". However, the Affinity Publisher documentation suggests that the "Left" page is still considered the back page (i.e., pages EVEN, 2): "To start with a verso (back) page on two-page spreads without an initial single page ... choose Left." That causes me to pause in fear of some crazy workflow issue in the future where a printer or exporter will assume that page 1 (of the document) is really a "back page" (since I've chosen my spreads "to start with a verso (back) page") instead of literally, like a word processor, being the front of page 1. Is this actually an issue, or am I overthinking this?

I need footnotes/endnotes too. But, just so I'm clear (as a newb Publisher user), we can still manually recreate footnotes and endnotes in Publisher, right? Like, if I say to myself "man, I have to weigh a $60/lifetime purchase vs. a $30/month rental", then I could decide that recreating footnotes manually (i.e., numbering myself, superscripting myself, manually placing the footnotes in the right location, etc.) is worth the price point difference, right?