How to assign master pages to certain pages and "lock" them so reflow doesn't move them
I’ve searched the Adobe InDesign handbook and many forums to find out how to do this, but I haven’t seen a solution so far. It would be amazing if someone could help me.
I lay out my books so the chapter opener is always on an odd page by using “break to next odd page,” and then assign it a chapter opener (CO) master page with a Running Feet paragraph style for the page number. All other pages in the chapter are assigned to a text (T) master page with paragraph style Running Heads; blank pages are set to “none” master page.
During each round of edits, the smart flow moves everything a page or two up or down, and then I have to go through the whole book and manually re-assign the master pages so the running heads/feet/none match up. I’ve easily spent hours doing this, and/or researching to see if any solution exists.
I’ve tried putting chapters into sections and setting preferences to “smart reflow at end of section” and unchecked “limit to primary pages”, but that didn’t work. I unchecked “facing pages” which seemed to work for a minute, until I noticed that it had reversed the text box margins on the verso pages, and showed single pages instead of spreads in the Pages panel, which looked extremely scary and wrong.
What I’d like is for the chapter opener page to ALWAYS be tied to a CO master page, regardless of edits, and if possible, if the page before it is blank to be assigned “none”, but if any text reflows to that page, it gets assigned T.
Is that even possible? It would be a HUGE help if someone knows how to do this!
Thanks!
