How to Set Up a Main Parent Page Template for a Multi-Chapter Book with Different Background Color

Hello @Corey26246964tdmj,

I hope you are doing well.

We wanted to follow up on the status of your issue. Were you able to resolve it by following our expert's advice? If so, please share the solution that worked for you, as it may help others in the community experiencing a similar issue.

Feel free to update the discussion if you need any further assistance.

Thank you,

Abhishek Rao

I'm not sure I get the full extent of your question, but I'll note this is very basic stuff; you might profit from a few of the help and tutorial pages more than a summary explanation here —

• https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/parent-pages.html
• https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-book-files.html#synchronize_book_documents

— seem relevant.

But to address what seems to be the core of your question, you will probably want to set up one pair of facing Parent pages that are suitable for front material, any leading text, etc. and do not have your color elements, or have smaller ones.

From there, duplicate that set and create your first set with a colored background, accents, whatever for your content pages.

Duplicate that set, and change the colors, in as many iterations as you need.

You can now apply any of these Parent pages to any document pages in your book using the menu in the Pages pane (the three-line or hamburger icon), or by dragging the desired Parent to each doc page icon there.

Once you have one chapter set up exactly as you like it, you will probably want to combine them all in an InDesign Book. From there, you can synchronize changes between them, initially to add that set of Parent pages to all the others. (This is a somewhat fussy and detailed process to avoid copying the wrong updates to other chapters; read the above link carefully.)

You can also do it without a Book structure, by importing Parent pages and styles one by one from your "template" chapter to each of the others.

If that, plus the links, isn't enough of an answer — ask away!