How to delete a single Master?

[pomme27]

In Affinity Publisher, I often apply a lot of Masters to a single page. For example, with the "replace existing" box ticked, I apply Master A to the page. Then, with the  "replace existing" box unticked, I apply Master B. I then repeat this process to apply Master C.

This process works fairly well for me, and seems to provide a lot of formatting flexibility without creating an excessive number of Masters. But sometimes I want to delete Master B from a page. To do this, I currently delete all Masters from the page, then re-apply Master A and Master C. This works but is tedious.

Is there a way to delete a Master from a page, in this case Master B, without deleting Master A and Master C?  Thanks.

 

[R C-R]

16 hours ago, pomme27 said:

Is there a way to delete a Master from a page, in this case Master B, without deleting Master A and Master C?

What seems to work fine for me is to select the master page (not its contents) in the Layers panel of the document page you want to remove it from & delete it, either from the Edit menu, by right clicking on it & selecting Delete from the popup menu, or using the Delete key on the keyboard.

[pomme27]

I didn't phrase my question very well. I wanted to remove Master B from every page of my project. But. your answer helps. Thanks.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, pomme27 said:

I wanted to remove Master B from every page of my project.

Easily done by selecting it in the Master Pages section of the Pages Studio panel & clicking the trash can icon at the top of the panel. You can also right-click on it in that panel & select "Delete" from the popup menu. Then confirm that is what you want to do:

[pomme27]

Thank you.

[MrMe]

On 3/27/2020 at 2:44 PM, R C-R said:

Easily done by selecting it in the Master Pages section of the Pages Studio panel & clicking the trash can icon at the top of the panel. You can also right-click on it in that panel & select "Delete" from the popup menu. Then confirm that is what you want to do:

That does solve OP's problem (and mine, hence this response), but in a much more terminal manner than I would like.

Is there no option to simply remove a specific master from all pages (or even better, a specific set of pages) without having to delete the master entirely?

My use case is as follows:

1. I have two numbering and runner masters; one for left-hand pages and one for right-hand pages
2. However, there are a number of pages that don't need the master (i.e. content title pages)
3. When I have to export a sample of the manuscript for review, it needs page numbering. However, if I needed to add an odd number of pages the masters switch to the incorrect pages (i.e. left on right). Thus, I either have to:
a: Delete the master entirely, recreate it, and reapply it or
b: Manually remove it from every page it is on before reapplying it again

I'd much rather be able to just "Remove Master From [selection] Page(s)", and then go reapply it where necessary.

Is that actually possible and I'm just missing it? If not, is there any chance that feature might become a thing in the future?

————————————

 

Adjacent to this issue, it would be excellent if we had a Master Page overview manager tool, which, on top of the current options available in the right click menu (i.e. inserting, applying, deleting etc.) would provide the following functionality:

1. Provide an overview of all master pages, and how many pages each has been used on (which also allows you to navigate to said page)
2. Allow the user to see which pages of the manuscript is using which master page (at a glance)
3. Allow the user to remove masters from specific pages without having to leave the tool
4. Allow the user to add masters to specific pages without having to leave the tool
5. Allow the user to define specific pages that should not receive any masters (even if "Apply to all/even/odd" is selected)

Is there any chance of something like that happening?

[Old Bruce]

We can hover the cursor over any page in the Pages Panel and there will be a tool tip show up with the name of the applied Masters. We can see what masters are applied in the Layers Panel.

Select the pages you want to remove the master from and right-click on it, select Clear Masters. A better way is to select the pages and right click Apply Masters then choose from the options and Replace Existing.

 

  The blue pages are selected and will get changed.

[MrMe]

21 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

We can hover the cursor over any page in the Pages Panel and there will be a tool tip show up with the name of the applied Masters. We can see what masters are applied in the Layers Panel.

Select the pages you want to remove the master from and right-click on it, select Clear Masters. A better way is to select the pages and right click Apply Masters then choose from the options and Replace Existing.

Thanks for this @Old Bruce, I really appreciate you taking the time. 

However, as my understanding goes (I just tested and can confirm it does act as follows) Replace Existing removes all masters from a page and replace with the selected master. This is a problem, because in some cases a page has multiple masters I don't want deleted.

For example, multiple pages in my document have Masters A, C and F.
I want them to have Masters A, C and D.

If I understand you (and the documentation) correctly, the only way I can achieve this is by removing Master F,
— either by deleting the master altogether, which then also removes it from pages I do want it on or
— deleting it manually from each page in the layers panel (which can get time consuming in a 100 page manuscript)

then adding Master D, again:
— either by apply it to all odd/even pages and deleting from the pages I don't want it on, or
— listing every single page I need it applied to.

Is my understanding of this correct? Because if it is, the available control of Master Pages still feels a little... limited.

Don't get me wrong here. I love the software, and the Master Pages feature is super useful. But I do feel that the control we have (especially in large manuscripts) could be improved.

[SRThomp]

I, too am in this same situation and have not yet seen a satisfying response. 

*I would also love to see the above mentioned Master Page Overview.

1. I most often use my masters as added and therefore would like to option to choose to remove the default of replace. Without this I cannot figure out how to just drag and drop.

2. I am building a workbook with several types of page structures and each page may have up to 6 masters and to have to CLEAR them, or delete the entire original master page is not practical. Understanding the limitations - I can see that is our existing workaround, but; it would be very helpful to add this feature in the future.

Thanks

BTW - appreciate the above tips - does make things a bit more manageable

[Andyboy]

Make a blank master. Apply in to the page and replace existing. Apply new master and reapply existing that you want.

[Andyboy]

Whoops you don't need the blank master! Just clear all and reapply those needed. Lots of steps