Book documents, syncing master pages

[macmac2000]

Sorry if my question is obvious but this is the first time using book documents.

So I've synced my documents to one "master" document in my book. I made changes to the source document's master pages, but the other documents didn't auto sync. Do I have to re-sync every time I make a change to the source?

And is there a way to know in the other documents if the source document has been modified? Or do I have to re-sync every time to make sure the most recent information is linked?

If the answer if yes to both, is there any easier way to achieve this so that the documents linked to the source document are always up-to-date on opening, or at least flagged that the source has been modified?

Thanks for any info!

[Mike Witherell]

Syncing is a deliberate, careful action, and should be thought through whenever done.

[macmac2000]

Hi Mike,

You are right. This may not be the best option.

My situation is, I have about 100 or so documents (each document with about 5-10 pages). All the documents and all the pages have the same header and footer, and each document has a sub-header, as well as some of the documents share the same pages.

Because these are all getting continuously updated I need someway to update all at the same time instead of having to update each document individually. Sometimes it's just text that needs updating but usually it's a page layout and images that need changing.

As well, there could be multiple people working on these documents so I need a simple way to do this.

I thought by using the book option I could keep all the documents in sync, but it may get complicated if something gets overwritten or not synced correctly.

I'm thinking now the only option would be to make a pdf of the items or pages that are the same across all documents and insert as an image. That way when those items get updated, the link will be flagged as modified.

[jennifersoucy]

I doubt this is still relevant to you, but just in case it helps any one else - you can place a page from one inDesign file onto another, similar to how you might place a page of a PDF or an artboard of an *.ai. This would save you a step over making a PDF each time you edited the pages that are the same across all documents. 

More info: https://www.highlander.co.uk/blog/placing-indd-in-indesign