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Anonymous
August 8, 2020
Answered

Designing Books With Multiple Master Pages

  • August 8, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 937 views

Dear all,

 

I am a book designer. Like any typical book with chapters, the first page of each chapter is different from the subsequent pages. My InDesign template has two different master pages.  My A-Master is designed for the non-first pages and my B-Master, based on A, sets up the layout correctly for the first page. And the template file contains one page with the B-Master correctly assigned to it. The problem is that when I paste or import text into that first page, the automatically generated subsequent pages are automatically assigned as B-Master. Then I have to manually change all the pages after the first page the A-Master. Once I manually change them, everything is in order. Is there not a setting or technique whereby this could be less manual. I also worry that I might forget to manually reassign subsequent pages. Any ideas or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

Warmly,

Jonathan

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Dave Creamer of IDEAS

There are some plugins that can apply a master page bases on style usage:

https://indesignsecrets.com/topic/applying-a-master-based-on-paragraph-style

(Adobe FrameMaker can do this on it's own; InDesign really needs some long document feature updates.)

 

If I didn't want to spend any money, I would build my template with your standard left/right master and just change the first page after flowing the text. I guess it would depend on how many single-page documents vs. multi-page documents.

2 replies

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
August 9, 2020

There are some plugins that can apply a master page bases on style usage:

https://indesignsecrets.com/topic/applying-a-master-based-on-paragraph-style

(Adobe FrameMaker can do this on it's own; InDesign really needs some long document feature updates.)

 

If I didn't want to spend any money, I would build my template with your standard left/right master and just change the first page after flowing the text. I guess it would depend on how many single-page documents vs. multi-page documents.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
Jongware
Community Expert
JongwareCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 8, 2020

I have the same set-up for standard books: a template with all styles, and a master page A for 'regular' pages and B for the title page (yep, eventhe same names).

The trick is that you can have as many pages in your template as you want. Add an A page after your first B page, and add a linked text frame to each. When you import text into this frame on the first page, it will fill automatically and then run overo to the second page, which will then repeat.

    A
    Anonymous
    August 9, 2020

    Hi "Jongware,"

     

    Yes, it seems like we have (almost) the identical template. The only difference is that I failed to link the main text frame in the second page. This makes perfect sense how the link would force text to the second page and then duplicating that one versus the first-page B-Master. I guess the one and only drawback to this method is the occasional "chapter" which is not more than one page—because then the second page which comes with the template would have to be manually deleted. Our books have a lot of short quotes and excerpts, so this won't be too infrequent. That said, do you agree that this method is still the best possible solution, even if the second page must be deleted when not needed?

     

    Warmly,

    Jonathan

    Jongware
    Community Expert
    JongwareCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 9, 2020

    Sure, if deleting that second page occurs much less than having to change all next pages to the correct master.

     

    I have a shortcut key assigned to  Set Master Page (very convenient on Windows because you can use Tab to navigate and select another master; much less so on a Mac where you can't). I didn't try but it should be possible to set a shortcut key combo to Delete Page as well. 

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