Managing Pages and Books in Adobe InDesign CS4



Inserting Pages

Most documents will be more than one page, so inserting new pages is a common practice in InDesign. You can quickly add a new blank page to a document using the Pages panel. You have several different methods to complete the task. You can use the New Page button on the page, drag a master page to the document area in the Pages panel, or use the Insert Pages command on the Options menu. If you’re inserting only one or two pages, the first two methods work the best. If you want to insert multiple pages, the Insert Pages command is your best option, where you can use the Insert Pages dialog box to set additional options.

Insert Pages Using the Pages Panel

Select the Pages panel. You can also click the Window menu, and then click Pages .

Select the panel. Use any of the following methods to insert a page: Insert Page. Click the Create New Page button on the panel. Insert from Master Pages. Drag a master page or a nonmaster page from the master page area to the document page area of the panel. Click to view larger image Click to view larger image

Use any of the following methods to insert a page: Continue to insert pages as needed.

Did You Know? You can duplicate a page. Select the Pages panel, select the pages or spreads you want to duplicate, and then drag the selected pages to the Create New Page button on the panel or use the Duplicate Spread command on the Options menu.

Insert Multiple Pages Using the Insert Pages Dialog Box

InDesign Shorts: Tip #22

InDesign Shorts: Tip #22 – Using Parent Pages

InDesign Shorts: Tip #22 – Using Parent Pages

InDesign Shorts is a recurring series to help everyone of all levels master the ins and outs of the program and become more efficient designers. Got a burning InDesign question? Drop a comment below or join the LinkedIn group for more.

We often need to add repeated elements to our proposal pages, like headers or footers. We might also want to make sure our formatting of common pages, like resumes or project sheets, is consistent too. Using parent pages in InDesign can help with this.

Applying Master Pages

In the pages menu, you’ll notice you have two sections. The top pages are ‘parents’ and the bottom pages are those of your working document. Let’s say you want to apply a basic footer to all of the pages in your working document. If you create the footer on a parent page and then apply that parent page to your working document, it will automatically show up on every page the parent is applied to. Any time you make changes to the parent page, those changes will automatically be applied to every page using that parent as well.

There are two easy ways to apply your parent page. First, you drag and drop a parent page onto any page in your working document to apply it, or drag and drop it between pages to add a blank page with the parent content. Second, you can highlight all of the pages in your document you want to apply the parent to, right-click, and select ‘apply parent to pages…’

Unlocking Parent Pages

When you create a parent page and apply it to a working page, you’ll notice that the content appears to be ‘locked’. You can quickly unlock and access your parent content by holding ctrl+shift and clicking the element you want to edit. You can also hold ctrl+shift and drag your mouse over the whole page to unlock multiple elements at once.

Note: ‘Unlocked’ elements on a working page will not be updated if the parent page is updated. So if you unlock a footer or page number on a working page, and then update the formatting in the parent page, it won’t apply to the working page and you will need to reapply the parent to the page.

Moving to InDesign: Building Documents



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.