Word two page view needs reversing

Admittedly, editing in Print Preview is just for small touch-ups. For general page layout, you just have to be able to mentally transpose the display.

I'd definitely recommend posting a suggestion on the Microsoft Feedback re a toggle for "Spread view". However, the ability to have an object spanning the spread view would be more of a stretch I expect!

If I had that as a requirement, I'd probably "fake" the spread in a separate section set up to print the 2 pages as a single tabloid-sized page (or a suitable landscape dimension). The challenge would be to know how to deal with the gutter though: maybe not a big problem in a thin booklet, but certainly a factor in a larger book.

As for managing bad page breaks with footnotes...

• If it is caused by a footnote that occurs in the last few lines of a page such that Word will not be able to fit the note on the same page as the reference number, it will have to break the page short. In that situation, tightening up content on the page may make up a line or two to make it fit; if not, you may need to tighten things up for one or more pages prior to the bad break.
• If there appears to be sufficient room to fit the full footnote at the bottom of the page, check for "space after" in the footnote style & remove it. Otherwise, as above, tighten up content on the page (and page(s) prior to it if necessary).

If this is something you do frequently, consider customizing your Word ribbon to give you access to tools you need to use. I've been preparing fairly specialized multilingual books for print and PDF publication for many years, and the final pagination has always been the "last minute" task. The screenshot below shows my custom "Pagination Tools" ribbon set up with commands and buttons to assist with doing the otherwise tedious layout tweaks for paginating documents.

Some items are commands available in other ribbons: for example, my "Page & table layout" group includes Page Setup, Table Properties, Split Table, Borders and Shading, and Text Direction buttons.

Other groups provide access to built-in commands that are unavailable in any ribbons (such as the very useful but-hidden Frames feature), or run custom macro code. Buttons in my "Squeeze & expand" group will run custom macros to increment or decrement Leading (line spacing) in 5% steps (+ a "Leading Reset" button to reset back to the style's default setting), and similar macros to alter the font spacing. These are very useful for tightening up content: I just select a suitable chunk of content above an awkward break and click the buttons.

Affected paragraphs will show the tightening strategy as "Direct formatting" in the Reveal Formatting pane when "Distinguish style source" is turned on, but I have other custom macros to remove any such tightening if the document needs to be repaginated for a later edition after editing.

You can see accurate page spreads in Print Preview. If you want to edit in this view, choose Print Preview Edit Mode in the Customize the Quick Access Toolbar dialog; this opens the classic Print Preview (full-screen) view, and, if you disable the Magnifier, you can edit in that view.

That works fine for basic edits, but prevents access most of Word's UI for many tools necessary for managing pagination. For example, you cannot edit headers & footers; and access to Styles is unavailable unless one or more characters are selected. The "Shrink One Page" button does attempt to reduce the page count, but the mechanisms being used are not readily apparent.

You can see accurate page spreads in Print Preview. If you want to edit in this view, choose Print Preview Edit Mode in the Customize the Quick Access Toolbar dialog; this opens the classic Print Preview (full-screen) view, and, if you disable the Magnifier, you can edit in that view.

... When viewing my pages with two pages showing side by side, the page on the left is odd numbered and the page on the right is even numbered. This would be far more sensible if reversed, thus mimicking the fall of the pages in an opened book. I could then clearly see what a two page spread in the book would look like. As it stands I have the facing page on the left and the reverse of that page on the right. ...

Yes. This can be annoying when you want to paginate a book, because the reader spreads don't appear opposite one another. Breaks at ends of pages on facing spreads can be more flexible than when content flows over a page turn when I need to tweak the layout to pick up a few lines to avoid a very short end of chapter page.

One strategy is to view 3 pages at a time so you have a spread. In Print Layout view, use the mouse to Ctrl-Roll out to fit 3 pages (or use View > Multiple Pages).

For a large document, consider adding a Next Page section break at the beginning. To get the correct page numbers, you'd need to use Insert > Page Number > Format Page Numbers to set page numbering in the now-second section to "Start at" 1. Remember to delete the "placeholder" first section when you have completed the pagination.

Many (most?) PDF readers have the option to view pages as spreads — but I do know that some people find it confusing that the document starts with page 1 is on its own on the right. If Microsoft was to implement this, it would probably be best to have it as an option.

You can submit a suggestion to Microsoft: In the Help ribbon, click the Feedback button. The first two options (like & don't like) let you include a screen shot with your feedback. The 3rd lets you share an idea via Microsoft's "Feedback Portal". Other users can vote on your suggestion, and if it is popular, you may get a response. Be succinct in the suggestion.