- 4. Building Documents
- Default Page Sizes
- Changing Page Size and Orientation
- Opening Files
- Saving Files
- Adding Pages to your Documents
- Arranging Pages
- Deleting Pages
- Creating a Multipage Spread
- Targeting versus Selecting Pages
- Creating a New Master Page
- Creating Parent/Child Relationships
- Applying Master Pages to Document Pages
- Changing Master Items
- Removing Master Item Changes
- Customizing Ruler Guides
- Create Guides
- Working with Margin Guides
- Layout Adjustment
- Baseline Grid
- Document Grid
- Creating Sections
- Section Options
- Editing Sections
As with QuarkXPress and PageMaker, you can create master pages with InDesign to eliminate the need for repetitive page formatting. InDesign also includes additional master page features like parent-child (“based on”) master pages and selective overriding of master page items.
Creating a New Master Page
To make a master page, select New Master from the Pages palette menu—or, faster, by Command-Option/Ctrl-Alt-clicking the new page button in the Pages palette. In the New Master dialog box (see Figure 16-1) you can then enter the number of pages in the master and identify if it is based upon another master page. We discuss these capabilities later in this chapter.
Automatic Linked Text Frames
On a single-sided master page, you don’t have to do anything special to make a text frame “automatically” link from one page to the next. To make auto-linking text frames on a facing-pages master page, link the frame on the left page to the frame on the right page. We cover linking text frames in more detail in Chapter 20.
Unlike other programs, you can have more than one automatically-linked text frame per page. For instance, if you have two text frames per master page, you can link the first on the left page to the first on the right page, and the second on the left page to the second on the right page.
Duplicating a Master Page
If you want to create a master page that is very similar to an existing master, you can duplicate a master page by choosing the master page to be duplicated and then choosing the Duplicate Spread command from the Pages palette’s flyout menu. However, creating a “based on” relationship is even more powerful; we discuss that below.
Converting a Document Page into a Master Page
InDesign lets you turn a document page into a master page: Simply drag the document spread icon in the Pages palette to the master section of the Pages palette. If the original document spread was based upon a master page, changes to that master page will still impact both the document page and also the new master page that was built from the document page.