Does Publisher have a native feature to split a single page into two pages?

[MilkJunk]

Title is self-explanatory. I am writing a book. I'm done with the book and NOW realized that I did it wrong. All of my 'pages' are created as an 8.5 x 11 spread, and this entire spread counts as one page. I have mulled over every single option in the application, and there doesn't seem to be any way to just split that page into two pages. It seems like the absolute bare minimum of functionality, but it doesn't exist. Do I have to redo my entire book? And to be clear, I'm not talking about exporting. I've googled and seen all the other replies about "just select 'all pages' when exporting", etc. This isn't my problem. All I need to do is have an 8.5 x 11 page split into two 8.5 x 5.5 pages. That's it. I don't understand why I can't just right click and click "split." I'd really like to not have to copy and paste my entire novel into a new document page by page to fix this issue.

Edited November 22, 2024 by MilkJunk
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[Hangman]

Hi @MilkJunk and welcome to the forums,

There isn't a simple Split option in Publisher but if your book pages are based on a Master Page or Pages, adjusting the Document Setup and changing your Master Page(s) layout from an 8.5 x 11 non-facing page Landscape Spread to an 8.5 x 5.5 facing page Portrait Spread and then adjusting the position of the Master Page elements such as text frames, page numbers etc., and reapplying the Master(s) to the appropriate Publication pages should be relatively straightforward. There will undoubtedly still be a certain amount of tweaking, but it should mean not having to start from scratch...

If the book isn't based on Master Pages, then you're looking at a much more manual process, which would involve setting up a new 8.5 x 5.5 facing-page Portrait document. But again, if you set the new document up using Master Pages, you can hopefully copy the text from your current version, if using Linked text frames, paste it, and then auto-flow it into your new document. However, you'll still need to adjust graphic elements to suit the revised layout.

[MikeTO]

As long as your frames are linked from page to page, I don't think this will be a lot of effort. The major steps are:

1. Using Document Setup, select Facing Pages if you haven't done so already
2. Create a new master page of the correct size
3. Draw text frames on the new master and link the left frame to the right frame
4. Create a new spread based on the new master page, before chapter 1
5. Click in the first frame of chapter 1, select all, cut, and then click in the new spread's frame and paste - the text will be overset but you can use AutoFlow (Shift+click the Text Flow Out control to create all the required spreads
6. If each chapter is a separate story, repeat this for each chapter

There's more to it than this - starting chapters on the right side of a spread, footers, and so on, but these are the basics.