Free Text Book, about 50 Pages: How to Format Page Master

[Jack]

Using iMac Pages, I have nearly completed a writing project which I would like to import into inDesign prior to sending to my printer as a PDF.

I am aware of the text-flow box-icon in individual pages, to allow text to flow from one page to the next. What I would like your help and advice on, or a pointer to instructions for installing this behavior in the _page master_, so that all pages _created_ from this master will have the desired, text flow behavior _by default_.

Still in midst of final edits of the iMac Pages document, I have been (and still am) away from inDesign for at least 12 mo., so please excuse me in advance if inDesign has been improved/updated to provide this capability by default.

With many thanks in advance,

jwc

[Derek Cross]

So you’re using Pages as a word processor and want to bring your MS into InDesign for final pagination and styling before exporting your document as a PDF for printing. Is that the position?

It’s not clear if you have installed InDesign for Mac, if you do, which version and OS?

[Jongware]

When placing an imported text, you can always hold down shift and have InDesign add as many pages as needed.

InDesign cannot import text from Pages, so export it as RTF and save, or, if that works for you, select all text and paste it into your ID document. The first frame on the page will be overset, but again if you add a new page, select the overset-out maker on the previous page, and then shift-click on the new page, you will get as much pages as needed.

This is not a recently added feature – it has been this way as long ago as InDesign CS (v.3), and probably before that.

[Derek Cross]

Wouldn‘t the OP be better off producing his MS in MSWord (rather than Pages) and then using the InDesign Word Import facility to map Paragraph and Character Styles?

[jane-e]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Derek+Cross  wrote

Wouldn‘t the OP be better off producing his MS in MSWord ...

Some people refuse to install anything created by Microsoft on their computers and therefore Word would not be an option.

[Derek Cross]

Of course, people may use whatever application they wish, my point is – from a good-practice and professional workflow point-of-view – there are a number of good reasons to use a word processor (MSWord or another one) to produce a MS, especially if it needs to be circulated. And there are a number of reasons for using the features of a publishing application, such as InDesign, to produce a document. Horses for courses.

[jane-e]

Derek, in theory, I agree with you, and I know Microsoft Word at its core.

I am thinking of my father who started using computers in the 1960s and was an expert on DOS and memory management. As an economist, he used Quattro Pro and WordPerfect. When he retired he taught software classes for a number of years, then switched to Mac in 2004. It was the first computer he hadn't built himself. He refused—absolutely refused—to ever put Word or Excel on any computer he had. He hates Microsoft, even now at the age of 93.

When he switched to Mac he used Pages and Numbers—and CS3, of course!

[Derek Cross]

There are always exceptions (and sometimes bizarre workflows), but I feel we should encourage best practice to others who may view the forum answers. There are other word processing applications apart from MSWord!

[Scott Falkner]

jane-e  wrote

Some people refuse to install anything created by Microsoft on their computers and therefore Word would not be an option.

Some people already have a perfectly good word processor they paid for and see no need to blow good money on another.

[jane-e]

Jack  wrote

What I would like your help and advice on, or a pointer to instructions for installing this behavior in the _page master_, so that all pages _created_ from this master will have the desired, text flow behavior _by default_.

jwc

You can create a Primary Text Frame which will put the primary text frame on the master and the text will flow across the pages without the Shift + Click.

Here is an article from Steve Werner that explains how to use it.

https://indesignsecrets.com/indesign-basics-primary-text-frames.php

Test it now before your job is complete, and post back if you have further questions about how to use it.