Skip to main content
L
luciaa17409449
Participating Frequently
April 4, 2024
Question

Parent Page/Applying Changes After Unlocking Text in child pages

  • April 4, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 719 views

Hi- Quick question, working on a book in InDesign. I unlocked text boxes in pages 6-7 to insert content. These pages were taking on Parent Page A settings (fonts, etc). When I later made changes to Parent Page A (font size, etc) -- pages 6-7 where I had unlocked text to insert content earlier---did not take on the new changes made in Parent Page A. If I "apply parent to ___" page, the parent overrides the content that I had placed inside the text boxes of pages 6-7. Should I have done something differently? I also tried repeating this process and locking (CTRL + L) the text boxes in pages 6-7 after inserting content into them, and then making changes to Parent Page A, but nothing worked. Would love some guidance. Thanks so much.

Screenshot of Master/Parent Page and child page attached.

As you can see, the child pages look the same, except once I have unlocked them, they no longer take on any changes that are made to the master.... 

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Willi Adelberger
Community Expert
Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 4, 2024

Are you aware that text styles are not saved on the master? They are saved as Paragraph and Character Styles. In my opinion you have way to many text frames. Try to make layouts which align to the margins and try to make a single text frame per page.

The overridden text, does it come from the master/parent? That should not be. On the master/parent should not be any text, use text variables, or orientation like page numbers, bit no text, no blind text, no placeholder text.

    L
    luciaa17409449Author
    Participating Frequently
    April 4, 2024

    Gotcha.  No, I wasn't aware of that. I now understand, thanks to your reply.  what would you recommend as far as workflow for a project where most of the page will be the same, including two subheadings on each page. 
    The only thing that would change is 2 text boxes on each page.  (Envision a book with a "thought for the day" and a "challenge for the day" for each page.  So the entire page would be the same, except those items.   I did plan on keeping the text identical for those items as well, but as I added content to the pages, i thought "let me see how this style looks" and applied a different paragraph style.  Not realizing that just because I had detached the text boxes, they would no longer take on the styles of Master page.  Did not know that.  Any suggestions you have would be so much appreciated. 🙂

    Willi Adelberger
    Community Expert
    Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 4, 2024

    I know what you mean as I have a side job with a small Christian Publisher and I work as freelancer for some others and I make bulletins for Evangelical Free Churches. So I get often similar tasks. 
    I choose between 2 Solutions:

    1. I work with text variables or other variables like section markers and use these on the master/parent. 
    2. Or I use numbered lists without a number. In your case I would set up a paragraph style as numbered list without any number, but prefilled with "Day ". So everywhere where you apply this paragraph style "Day " preceedes the individual text. But maybe you want to include the numbers too. 

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices