It’s that time of year when the leaves are changing, pumpkin spice is added to most drinks and cobwebs that were previously considered unsightly are now ambiance.
In the spirit of the season, let’s do something scary and tackle the fear of using Master Pages in InDesign. Up until now you may have been ignoring them and hoping they will go away, but just like Halloween movie sequels, Master Pages are here to stay, so let’s get better acquainted.
What Are Master Pages
A Master Page is a nonprinting page that you can use as a template for your document. Basically, whatever you put on a Master Page gets applied to all identified pages within the file.
This is especially handy when you have elements that are repeated throughout a file, such as headers, footers or page numbers; or if you have pages that use a consistent format.
Where Are Master Pages
You’ll find the Master Pages at the top of the Pages palette (Window>Pages). The default for Master Pages is one spread, identified as “A-Master” and a single page called [None].
We’ll explain how to use [None] later in this post, but for right now let’s look at how the “A-Master” works.
How To Use Master Pages
As we mentioned, whatever is put on a Master Page is simultaneously placed on pages using that Master throughout the document.
You can see in the Pages palette that there are small thumbnail pages identifying each page in the document (an 8-page document is displayed to the right).
Double-click on the A-Master page and it will take you to that page. In order to show how it works we placed a magenta circle on the left-hand Master page.
In the Pages palette, it shows a magenta circle on the left Master Page as well as every left-hand page throughout the document.
As lovely as that is, there are probably not many projects that would benefit from a large magenta circle being placed on every spread, so let’s look at a more functional use of Master Pages; placing page numbers.
How To Place Page Numbers
Go to your Master Page and place a single text box on the left-hand page. Position it where you would like a page number placed. Don’t worry about exact placement, you can adjust that later
With the text box selected go to the Menu Bar>Type>Insert Special Character>Markers>Current Page Number. (For those who prefer key commands you can use SHIFT-OPTION-COMMAND-N)
While the Master Page will show the letter “A” as the page number, if you click on any page in the Pages palette, it will take you to that page where you will see a page number in that text box.
Notice that the page number is only applied to the left-hand pages. This is because you have only placed a text box on the left page on the Master Page.
In order to have a page number on every page in your document duplicate the current text box and place it on the right-hand page of your Master Page spread.
You now have a document that has a page number displayed on all pages. Even if you add more pages to your file, each one will have a page number added (as long as that Master page is applied to that spread).
As mentioned earlier, you can make adjustments to any element on your Master Page. So if you start with your page numbers centered at the bottom or the page, but then decide that you want them in the corner of the page, all you need to do is make that adjust the text boxes on the Master Pages.
In addition to changing the positioning on the page, you can also change the size, color, or even the style of font and it will automatically be applied to all of the pages.
Don’t Want A Master Page?
What if you have a page where you don’t want to include elements from a Master Page? Using our current example of placing page numbers; rarely would we want a page number included on the cover of a document. This is where the [None] page above the A-Master comes into play.
Looking at our Pages palette, we can see that every page has a letter “A” in the corner. This means that each page is currently linked to the “A-Master” page and will show all the elements on that page.
If we don’t want a page to be associated with a Master Page, we simply drag the [None] page over whatever page we want to apply it to in the Pages Palette.
While there are multiples ways to apply Master Pages, the ability to drag and drop within the Pages palette is definitely the most user-friendly.
Once you start using Master Pages you will start to see the many different ways it can save you time and also help you to keep consistency in your graphics.
For example, we were working on a 42-page newsletter and the client decided to change it from the Spring Issue to Spring/Summer Issue because they wanted to add additional programs to increase the longevity of the newsletter.
Without Master Pages, we would have had to change the footers on each page individually. (yikes!) However, because the footer was created on the Master Page, we changed the copy of the footer once and it was applied to the entire document (much less scary and less chance to miss something).
Most of what we have reviewed is for the new or non-designer just getting started with Master Pages. However, for our more seasoned designer I wanted to share something I do with Master Pages during concepting.
Advanced Master Page Tip
When connecting a project, we usually create a cover and interior spread. You can read more about our process here. Once a concept is approved we then have a direction for fonts, color palette, and a general approach to layout and graphics.
Depending upon the project, it may be worth converting the concept spread to a Master Page spread. This can save on time if there are elements that will be repeated throughout the document.
To apply it, select the spread in the Pages Palette, click on the upper right corner of the palette, and select Master Pages>Save as Master. You can then use that Master Page on any pages you want throughout your document.
Even if you end up needing to adjust elements, it can be a great starting point for laying out a document after your concept has been approved.
Hopefully, this intro into Master Pages has been helpful and you are starting to see potential they have when working in InDesign. Let us know if this was helpful. We can do deeper dives into this topic (like using multiple Master Pages) or if there is different feature in InDesign you would like us to walk through, please leave a comment.
Leave a Reply