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DavidSweeneyBear
DavidSweeneyBear
Inspiring
February 11, 2020
Answered

Setting up a default text flow using master pages

  • February 11, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 2191 views

Hi all, I'm trying to set up master pages so my text flows the way I want it in a book I'm planning.

I have two master pages, Master A:

...and master B:

Master B is appied to all pages except 2 + 3, which have master A

Ignoring page 1, page 2 is intended to have a picture placed on it and I want the story to start on page 3:

As you can see I've typed some random text into the frame and allowed it to overflow and hence I get the red triangle

What I would like to happen is for the text to flow on to page 4 (which has master B applied) and then flow on to subsequent pages automatically.

It would seem that the output of Master A needs to be threaded to the input of master B - but I don't know how to do this.

Any ideas?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer rob day

Make sure both masters are using Primary text frames. Here I’ve set up the document with all A-Masters, and flowed the text from page 3 to 8. With thetext flow established I can drag the B-Master on to a page in the pages panel and convert that page to the B-Master without interupting the text flow

 

 

 

Dragging the B-Master on to the 4-5 spread

 

2 replies

Steve Werner
Community Expert
Steve WernerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 11, 2020

Rob is correct. Here's an article which explains more about Primary text frames:

 

InDesign Basics: Primary Text Frames - InDesignSecrets.com ...

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    February 11, 2020

    Make sure both masters are using Primary text frames. Here I’ve set up the document with all A-Masters, and flowed the text from page 3 to 8. With thetext flow established I can drag the B-Master on to a page in the pages panel and convert that page to the B-Master without interupting the text flow

     

     

     

    Dragging the B-Master on to the 4-5 spread

     

      DavidSweeneyBear
      DavidSweeneyBearAuthor
      Inspiring
      February 11, 2020

      Thanks for that, it all makes sense in theory. However, changing the frames to primary on all masters didn't quite do the trick for some reason - the text flow on page 3, corresponding to the right hand page of my master A still didn't seem to want to go anywhere.

      What did work was this: I manually threaded page 3's text frame to left hand text frame page 4, then left hand frame to right hand frame on page 5, finally right hand frame page 5 to left hand frame page 6

      Then i dragged pages 2 & 3 and 4 & 5 into the masters section, creating C and D masters.

      I now have masters that i can apply to my document and the text flow works.

       

      <br>~ David Sweeney-Bear ~
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