How master pages work within book feature?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
January 6, 2023
3 replies
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Does anyone know how master pages work within the Book Feature?

How to

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Correct answer Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Depending on how similar the different books are, you could look into using conditional text (which can work with graphics and tables too).

Off the top of my head, you could use a few methods.

Create a "master" book that contains all chapters (that need syncing). Be sure to turn off the numbering and pagination settings in the book. Use this book to sync everything you need.
Update and sync one book. Open a chapter from one of the other books and manually sync the styles, parent pages, etc. Open up the other book file and sync the modified chapter to the other chapters. Repeat for the third book.
Another option is to create a "master" style sheet document. Sync any changes into it; use the style sheet to update the other documents. I add this file to the end of the book and remove it when updating the TOC and exporting to PDF.

Steve Werner

Community Expert

A few other rules regarding synchonizing:

* A parent page that is defined in the "master document" [the highlighted one that is controlling the synchonizing] but not in another document gets added to that other document.

* If a setting is named both in the "master document" and another document, the definition of that setting in the "master document" overrides the one in the "non-master document"

* If a setting is not defined in the "master document" but exists in the some other document it's left alone.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

You update the master pages in one document and synchronize them across the other documents through the book. Is that what you are looking for?

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

W

Whimsical_Radiance6C15Author

Known Participant

Hi David,

Thanks for your response. Your answer is clear. Maybe if I explain what I'm trying to achieve my question won't be as vague..

So I'm looking to use the panel as a organization system for 3 documents that are almost identical (same styles, master pages) the only thing different is the TOC and illustrations.

Since they share almost all the same attributes, if I make changes to any styles/master pages ideally it should reflect in all 3 documents. I figured the book panel might be a way to do this...

Keep in mind I don't intend to use the book panel to combine all three documents into a single pdf. I will create a PDF from each individual document.

With the book feature I understand you gotta choose a source that all changes are made in. Since all 3 of my documents share the same styles/masters how would this work? How do I know which one to choose as the source?