Master Page :: Migrate

[thomaso]

On 10/30/2019 at 2:29 PM, AdamW said:

Migrate frame contents when replacing Masters
Option to 'Clear' or 'Migrate' content when replacing a master which has modified text / image content on the target page. Available via Pages Panel 'Apply Master…' etc.

How is this feature meant to work? I experience surprising, unwanted results with the "Migrate" option.

For instance it appears to unexpectedly move an object when applied to a document page with an edited master (B) text frame plus another master (A) assigned. Then the master A, which was not altered, gets deleted and the edited text frame of master B gets moved to the position on page of the deleted master A.

Besides this odd move behavior I wonder why it needs at all to delete other masters than the one I want to migrate. That way I can't have more than 1 master applied without harm when using "Migrate" for one of them. Though I need to tick "Replace existing" to have access to "Migrate" I would not expect to get any content deleted ("cleared", though "migrate" is selected) which has nothing to migrate, especially not any master which was not altered on the document page.

[fde101]

The "replace existing" option has been there since 1.7 and replaces ALL existing master pages with the one(s) being applied.  So that is consistent with existing behavior.

Being able to replace one master and leave the others alone would certainly be nice to have, though I suspect that once global layers are available that should help to mitigate the need for this somewhat.

[thomaso]

13 minutes ago, fde101 said:

The "replace existing" option has been there since 1.7 and replaces ALL existing master pages with the one(s) being applied.  So that is consistent with existing behavior.

With the new additional options "Clear" versus "Migrate" a deletion ("clear") appears strange and inconsistent if "migrate" was selected.

"Migrate" makes me think that it affects those objects which have altered content and therefore something to migrate (from before to after). I don't see a reason for unchanged master pages to become deleted. "Replace existing" + "Migrate" (not "Clear") would mean that an unchanged master gets replaced by itself – but not deleted. A deletion is no replacement. If something is replaced by nothing it is no replacement but a deletion.

That make me ask how this feature is meant to work at all.

[fde101]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

"Replace existing" + "Migrate" (not "Clear") would mean that an unchanged master gets replaced by itself – but not deleted

Yes, you are replacing all of the current master pages with the one master page you are applying and migrating the existing content to the newly applied master page.

[thomaso]

4 hours ago, fde101 said:

you are replacing all of the current master pages with the one master page you are applying

Ah, yes, that is how it behaves. All applied masters will be replaced by only one. – I wonder why the new feature is programmed that way for migration, because it limits the advantage of both a.) the ability to apply more than 1 master and b.) the ability to migrate one masters content.

I think the new migration feature – as kind of an update instead of a plain and delete & virgin re-apply – would not necessarily need to touch at all any other applied master then the one which is meant by the user to be updated. So in my opinion the checkbox "Replace existing" should not be a requirement for the "migrate" option: For the selected master it doesn't entirely "replace existing" (but migrate), and for others than the selected master this action shouldn't have any affect.

Note that in the retail version there also is the additional menu command "Clear masters" which can be used to replace existing masters with nothing.