How do you select the master for automatically-inserted blank pages?

[Thomas_Calvin]

When working within a book, you can have it automatically insert blank pages if a chapter doesn't start on the type of page you specify. But I can't find where you specify which master page to use for the inserted blank page. Where is this?

[Mike Witherell]

Hi Thomas,

File > New > Book...

Book panel menu button > Book Page Numbering Options

But you cannot directly choose a Parent page from this dialog box.

[Thomas_Calvin]

Thanks for the reply.

You can't specify the master to use for blank pages? I'd say "unbelievable," but sadly I've come to expect this kind of blunder in this application.

[Eugene Tyson]

Having built a 25 year career on typesetting books and designing magazines and using the InDesign Book feature, I've never encountered a need for this feature. Intriguing though. It could be useful. 

Typically I set it up in the Book Panel to isnert the blank at the end and then apply the Parent Page I need. 

Some times I dont' need the same Parent Page each time, sometimes it's a different Parent Page for the blank, some are notes with Lines for writing on, some say intentionally blank page - etc. 

I've always felt that the choice should be mine and to make it without any prompting. 

But I get the idea - could be useful - you can always post a feature request here. 

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests

How is it a blunder? Can you elaborate on how you see it working?

[Thomas_Calvin]

Thanks for the reply. "Intentionally-blank" pages are a very common requirement in several kinds of widely-used documents, apparently ones that you've (remarkably) not encountered. Manuals and legal documents come to mind.

That's why it's a blunder for boilerplate text not to be supported as part of this automatic page-insertion feature. If nothing else, you might want page numbers on them. If not, no harm done; you could say "none" for the master page.

For reference: Intentionally blank page - Wikipedia

[Eugene Tyson]

I did say about intentionally blank pages, perhaps I didn't phrase it correctly. 

As I said you may not want the same parent page for all the auto inserted pages. 

I can see the potential for it. Equally it could be a problem inserting a parent page that is not required and its supposed to be another. 

Where in the book panel you can allow it to add blank pages. I typically don't, as I prefer to manage the page count per section myself anyway.

i can understand the requirement, it's your implementation I'm interested in hearing about. 

[Thomas_Calvin]

If you don't want the same page inserted in each instance, you would

1. Not select a parent for the inserted page (in other words, use the feature as it exists now), or
2. Use fields or markers to customize the text on the inserted-page parent, like any other parent

Simply letting you pick a parent opens up all the possibilities that parent pages offer. The only work required on Adobe's part is to add a drop-down list of parents to that Book panel, and then simply call the logic that already exists in InDesign to create a page from a parent.

Is that the implementation description you're looking for?

[Eugene Tyson]

But say you have 2 files.

File A uses parent pages a and b and then you have other parent pages for end of chapters, say x y z

How does it determine you want parent page x y z which one is inserted? 

I'm not in front of the computer to test. But pretty sure it inserts the None page which isn't editable.

But I totally get your point.

But I'm back to how the app knows if you want none or x or y or z inserted?

I guess it would be part of the insert blank option and you select the parent you want from that.

I'm only wondering on the how to flesh it out. If you do create a feature request the more informative and clear on how it operates the better.

You could even link back to this thread.

If you do create the feature request then post a link here so we can upvote it.

[Thomas_Calvin]

Ah, you mean what happens if the parent you specify for blanks doesn't exist in the file that needs a blank page appended.

Easy solution: Adobe could add the "blank"-page parent selector to the indd file instead of to the book. This is probably the easiest to implement and the most bulletproof to use. Suggested UI for the parent page attached.

Suggestion to Adobe posted here: Specify a master page for automatically-inserted blank pages – Adobe InDesign

[Barb Binder]

Hi Thomas:

Your ideas have merit so here is my gentle reminder to log these ideas as feature requests on the uservoice page: https://indesign.uservoice.com/

FrameMaker has a  workaround to automate the TPILB addition to the even pages added during a book update but it doesn't work in InDesign because InDesign still can't attach a parent page to a paragraph style. There is a feature request already posted that you may want to vote for: https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/31367593-ap...

Please don't shoot the messenger! 😉

~Barb

[Thomas_Calvin]

Thanks Barb!

I don't shoot messengers! In fact, I'm usually the messenger dodging the bullets...

And yes, I do make feature requests or vote for existing ones. The one you linked to is good, but I don't think it solves the auto-generated-page-parent problem though.

[rob day]

Hi @Thomas_Calvin , How long is your combined document? Usually you only have to resort to a Book when you are on an old or under powered computer. Or when constructing extra long complex documents.

[Thomas_Calvin]

Thanks for the reply. There are other reasons. One of them is the somewhat crippled text-variable functionality. I found that there's no way to have both a section number and section name, which is important for us. There is no way to create a text variable whose scope is limited to a section; they're all global to the file. Breaking the doc up into chapter files was the most straightforward workaround.

But beyond that, yes, we have some pretty large documents that merit separate files.

[Thomas_Calvin]

Specify a master page for automatically-inserted blank pages – Adobe InDesign

[Barb Binder]

I voted!

~Barb

[Thomas_Calvin]

Yay, thanks!

[Eugene Tyson]

I voted too

Was thinking about you when I posted here 

I was thinking - maybe I could have a go at developing a script for you - this would cycle through a book file - look for pages with None page applied at the end of a document - then you could specify a Parent Page for each of them - or do them all in a batch. 

If it's all the same Parent Page in all documents on all None pages - then the script could possibly trigger on Saving a Book File or simply saving any file you have. 

I'd like to try all I'd need is a sample Book of yours with dummy content to test on. 

I do this in my free time as I learn scripting so if you're up for it I could try for you.

[Thomas_Calvin]

That's a really nice offer, thanks! Unfortunately I don't really have time to strip out proprietary info from one of my files, but really any dummy file should work. Just create a couple of three-page files, put them in a book, and set the book to start chapters on add pages act activate the automatic blank-page insertion.

I maintain sync of all parent pages across all files in my book (something that InDesign should offer to do, but oh well). Or you could make your script look for a parent page called "blank" or any other hard-coded name; having such a page would be a reasonable requirement for making the script work. Certainly that would be enough to get a script most of the way there.

[Eugene Tyson]

As far as I know parent pages can sync

[Thomas_Calvin]

Thus far I have only seen a manual way to do it; there's no apparent option to have InDesign keep them in sync.

So every time you change one, you have to remember to go into the Book panel and sync them. Over and over and over...