Problem with Master Pages

[Prep32068218umbt]

Hi! i have this Question.... I have used the Multi Page Importer Script in a document of more than 800 pages and the thing i want to do is that if i move my Master Page, lets say in the half per example, and i want to affect all the pages (what I want to do is to hide the page numbers from the original pdf that i don't need and put some new ones)... i have assigned the master page to all but doesn't seem to work, note: some of the pdf pages were different size.  Or if there is some other way to Hide the previous pagination numbers of the pdf and put new ones in INDD (I know how to put the numbers, put no the part of hiding the other numbers in all pages not having to do it manually).

Thank you!

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

I'm a little fuzzy on your overall workflow here, but it sounds as if you've placed 800 PDF pages in an InDesign doc for some modest editing.

You can't, of course, directly edit the PDFs. If there are elements on them that you want to blank out or change, it may be possible to create a Parent page (we don't use the no-no word "Master" any more... yeah, sigh) with, say, a white graphic rectangle that covers the page number in the layout, and then create a new header, footer or text frame with automatic page numbering. This would probably best be done using layers, so that you can push the imported content to the back and stack the new content on top of it.

I don't know of a simple solution to differing pages except to create a suitable Parent page for each type, and/or scale the pages so they are all the same effective size.

Does that get you pointed in a useful direction?

[Prep32068218umbt]

Thank you solved with layers and parents.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Hi @Prep32068218umbt:

So the question is how to hide the page numbers in the PDF? Were they added using Acrobat's Header/Footer command? If yes, then possibly you can remove them there. If they were in the source files that were exported to PDF then that won't work.

Otherwise, you could accomplish this with a combination of layers and parent pages. You will need three layers: one for the PDFS, one for a box to cover the existing page numbers and one for you new page numbers.

Order matters: the PDF layer should be on the bottom, then the white box layer and finally the new numbers layers. Put the white box and the page numbers on the parent pages. 

~Barb

[Prep32068218umbt]

Hi Barb I did just as you wrote, and it's solved, Many thanks and best regards.

[Barb Binder]

We are always happy to help, @Prep32068218umbt! 😊

~Barb

[Peter Spier]

I'm guessing you've put some sort of object on the master page to block out the page number in the PDF. I think your problem here is stacking order.

On any given layer, objects placed on the document page are always in front of objects on the master page on that layer. Your imported PDF pages are on top of anything on the master that is on that layer.  You can fix this by adding another layer above the layer with the PDF and moving your blocker object to that layer (along with any new page number marker you might want to add).