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greencode75
Participant
May 28, 2009
Answered

Master page with editable text region

  • May 28, 2009
  • 4 replies
  • 181627 views

I'm very confused and I've asked a similar question previously but I'm hoping someone could explain in a little more detail.

I have created a new master with a header, footer and main content region. The main content needs to be editable for each page I add to the document but I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it! Has this changed since the first Indesign CS?

So the header and footer will remain the same throughout the document - if I change that in the master it will then change throughout. The text region will also remain the same throughout but I should be able to add content to that region on each page I create in my document. At the moment I can't. It won't let me select that region I've created on any of the pages in my document.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Correct answer BobLevine

If it needs to be changed on every page it doesn't belong on a master. If you want something like "Click here to add text" you can simply ctrl/cmd+shift click it to override the item and bring it to the live page.

Bob

4 replies

S
steviev13
Participant
August 11, 2015

I agree this is a necessary feature -- and it is incorporated, just in a non-intuitive way.

After creating the text field in the master, on each subsequent page simply - cmd+shift click - on the text object to change the text. It will preserve its connection to the master, essentially making it a template field.

If you really want to ensure that you don't need to modify anything more than the content itself, just be sure to set it all up properly in the master for future automatic modifications -- text layout and alignment, right-click and "Set Text Frame Options" to set automatic expansion and alignment, etc.

If setup right in the Master, it actually works really well.

-S

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 11, 2015

    steviev13 schrieb:

    I agree this is a necessary feature -- and it is incorporated, just in a non-intuitive way.

    After creating the text field in the master, on each subsequent page simply - cmd+shift click - on the text object to change the text. It will preserve its connection to the master, essentially making it a template field.

    If you really want to ensure that you don't need to modify anything more than the content itself, just be sure to set it all up properly in the master for future automatic modifications -- text layout and alignment, right-click and "Set Text Frame Options" to set automatic expansion and alignment, etc.

    If setup right in the Master, it actually works really well.

    -S

    ‌I can only recommend not to override master text frames in any case as it would cause problems if the same or another master is applied or reapplied.  Better is to prepair library elements which can be placed on the same position and layer later.

    The only case where you can use a master text frame on a page is, when you use primary text frames.

      J
      johns3470314
      Participant
      April 13, 2015

      The answer is that InDesign has some serious flaws in its functionality, and this is a big one. There is no way to do what the OP asked - a very basic and important task - to have a text box that repeats on every page using the master, has editable text, and remains tied to the master in terms of its size and placement. This is a very important thing for a page layout program like InD, and its omission as a feature is down to bad design by Adobe, plain and simple.

      Bob's statement

      If it needs to be changed on every page it doesn't belong on a master.

      Frankly is wrong. There is a totally valid and practical need for controlled and repititous positioning and sizing, with a sustained link to a master, while leaving content changeable (i.e. different text, different image source), and in InD this cannot be achieved, not through object, character, or paragraph styles, or through snippets, object libraries, or templates. Dreamweaver has editable regions within templates that are roughly analogous and serve a great function. CSS also accomplishes this end very simply in the web design world.

      If you want something like "Click here to add text" you can simply ctrl/cmd+shift click it to override the item and bring it to the live page.

      This defeats the purpose of using master pages and is not applicable to many projects. If I'm laying out a catalog and the same text box appears 500 times, with different text each time, there is no way to control the placement and size of the box on every page, and retain control over it, and have different text in every box. Ctrl+Shift overriding does nothing to solve this.

        Peter Spier
        Community Expert
        Peter SpierCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        April 13, 2015

        If you don't move or resize the text frame after overriding, but only change the text, the size an positioning attributes will remain linked to the master page.

        Peter Spier
        Community Expert
        Peter SpierCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        May 28, 2009

        Phyllis has done pretty well at explaining how master frames work, but I'll ad that if you want frames that fill margin/calumn guides you don't need to put them on the master page (and usually shouldn't) to autoflow. ID will add new pages with new frames that fit the guides automatically. In this respect I think it's more powerful than Quark.

        BobLevine
        Community Expert
        BobLevineCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
        Community Expert
        May 28, 2009

        If it needs to be changed on every page it doesn't belong on a master. If you want something like "Click here to add text" you can simply ctrl/cmd+shift click it to override the item and bring it to the live page.

        Bob

          G
          greencode75Author
          Participant
          May 28, 2009

          Thanks Bob for your very helpful response.

            phyllisj9
            phyllisj9
            Inspiring
            May 28, 2009

            Dunno if this is useful but I'll post it since it took me forever to understand this.......

            The master pages were really baffling to me when I first started using InDesign. The weirdest part to me is the way autoflow works. If you're planning to autoflow into your text region (filling up a whole bunch of pages at once), you don't need to select the box you created at all (the one that's locked on your page because it's on a master page). You load the document you want to flow (ctrl-d) and then hover your mouse over the text box that you've designated for that. Once the cursor looks like a parentheses, then you click. It will flow into that text box and then create new pages with the same text box and flow into those. It also simultaneously makes those boxes editable (without having to go through the override thing). It's really different from Quark, so you have to get used to it.

            Hope that's useful information...

            Phyllis

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