Template or Master Page?

[hamdogger]

Hello, I am making build sheets for my restaurant and I want to create a layout that will have different photos/text on each page, but I want to make a Master page so I can go back later and possibly change some of the elements of the layout, e.g. photo placing, table borders, etc.

When I set up a Master page, and then start to edit on page 1, all of the pages update to this. I understand that this is the point of a master page. So is there a way to do it with pages or how do I use templates for this purpose?

Here is a screen shot of how I want my layout now so I can start entering the text and photos, but I'm sure I'll want to change some aspects of the main layout in the future because I'm a tinkerer.

Thanks for any help.

[walt.farrell]

21 minutes ago, hamdogger said:

When I set up a Master page, and then start to edit on page 1, all of the pages update to this.

How are you doing that editing on page 1?

If you go to page 1 you should be able to immediately add pictures to Picture Frames, add text to Text Frames or Tables, etc. However, if you need to adjust the size/position of elements you would have to do something else. That may be where you're getting into trouble. It sounds like you may be selecting Edit Linked, which would affect all the pages. If that's it, use Edit Detached instead.

Note, though, that once you've used Edit Detached, you won't be able to make some kinds of global changes on the Master Page any more, as you will have detached the modified elements from the Master Page.

[Old Bruce]

According to your screenshot you have Selected an actual page, Page 1, but you are still working on Master A.

Trick is the Blue outline means 'selected' and the Grey outline means Actual Work is Happening Here.

[hamdogger]

Hello, thanks for your answer. How do I know if I am doing edit linked or edit detached? But I guess it doesn't matter because according to your second point, global changes would no longer be possible.

Say I just want to put a different picture into a picture placeholder on each of the pages and then later I want to change the size of the placeholder globally. How would I go about doing this?

 

Thanks again.

[hamdogger]

1 minute ago, Old Bruce said:

According to your screenshot you have Selected an actual page, Page 1, but you are still working on Master A.

Trick is the Blue outline means 'selected' and the Grey outline means Actual Work is Happening Here.

Yes, Old Bruce, I was trying to figure out which one was correct. I had it backwards. So page 1 should have a grey outline and then I can edit a single page, correct? 

Now I think I see it. When it is grey, it is edit detached as walt.farrell described. When it is blue it is linked.

This still doesn't help me. Maybe it's just not possible and I have to decide on my final layout before I start editing individual pages.

 

[Old Bruce]

Use Picture Frames not Rectangles for the the pictures. Do the resizing on the Master Page and all will resize on the Actual Pages.

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, hamdogger said:

Now I think I see it. When it is grey, it is edit detached as walt.farrell described. When it is blue it is linked.

 

No, blue means Selected for actions on the Pages Panel. Actions like Delete, add a page before or after this one, apply a Master page to this, remove a master page. etc

Edit the Actual pages and you'll see that you need more room in the table when you get to page 6. Go to the Master Page and make the change, continue working and see that the pictures should be smaller so go to the Master Page.... The page number is too small big needs to be on the top bottom, do that on the Master page.

[hamdogger]

13 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

No, blue means Selected for actions on the Pages Panel. Actions like Delete, add a page before or after this one, apply a Master page to this, remove a master page. etc

Edit the Actual pages and you'll see that you need more room in the table when you get to page 6. Go to the Master Page and make the change, continue working and see that the pictures should be smaller so go to the Master Page.... The page number is too small big needs to be on the top bottom, do that on the Master page.

Yes, I think I got it now. Everything works as you describe. The only thing which is not working is if I change the alignment on the MAster page table, it doesn't copy to the other pages. I heard the table function in Publisher is pretty weak, so maybe that's just a limitation of the software. I guess that's easy enough to do manually on each page.

 

Thanks a lot for your help.

Edited November 18, 2021 by hamdogger
added picture

[Old Bruce]

Are we talking about text? Alignment is best handled with Paragraph Styles.

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, hamdogger said:

The only thing which is not working is if I change the alignment on the MAster page table, it doesn't copy to the other pages.

Possibly you have detached the table or some of its elements on those pages.

In the Layers panel in your latest screenshot, the table has orange bars, indicating that some of its elements are detached from the Master, and in that case adjusting those elements on the Master won't affect the document page. You can see what is unlinked by placing the mouse cursor over the layer's thumbnail in the Layers panel.

[hamdogger]

2 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Are we talking about text? Alignment is best handled with Paragraph Styles.

Yes, I think I got it. Thanks

[hamdogger]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Possibly you have detached the table or some of its elements on those pages.

In the Layers panel in your latest screenshot, the table has orange bars, indicating that some of its elements are detached from the Master, and in that case adjusting those elements on the Master won't affect the document page. You can see what is unlinked by placing the mouse cursor over the layer's thumbnail in the Layers panel.

Yes I see the solid bar and the dashed bar. I can guess that means linked and unlinked. How do I relink them?

 

[hamdogger]

2 minutes ago, hamdogger said:

Yes I see the solid bar and the dashed bar. I can guess that means linked and unlinked. How do I relink them?

 

So I see it now. Once I start editing the text in the table, it becomes unlinked, which makes sense. But it means that I can't go back and globally adjust the paragraph styles, correct? If not, no biggie. I can manage with this. I think I got it all working now. Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[Old Bruce]

3 minutes ago, hamdogger said:

 But it means that I can't go back and globally adjust the paragraph styles, correct?

Paragraph styles are not attached to text frames. Change the paragraph style by using the text caret in the text somewhere and then click on a paragraph style in the Text Styles Panel or use the Paragraph style menu on the Context Toolbar.

[hamdogger]

4 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Paragraph styles are not attached to text frames. Change the paragraph style by using the text caret in the text somewhere and then click on a paragraph style in the Text Styles Panel or use the Paragraph style menu on the Context Toolbar.

It did actually work. I edited the cells in the master page with three different paragraph styles and it carried over to the unedited pages. However the first three pages which I had already edited (unlinked from the master) I had to do manually as you said.

So one last question, is there a way to relink elements back to the master? I am aware that I might lose my text, but I just changed the borders of the table and the three edited pages wont update to this change because the tables in those pages are now unlinked.

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, hamdogger said:

So one last question, is there a way to relink elements back to the master?

Not that I know of.

[hamdogger]

23 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Not that I know of.

Ok, thanks again for all of your help.

[walt.farrell]

You're welcome.

[carl123]

9 hours ago, hamdogger said:

So one last question, is there a way to relink elements back to the master? I am aware that I might lose my text, but I just changed the borders of the table and the three edited pages wont update to this change because the tables in those pages are now unlinked

Not sure what you mean.

How/where exactly did you change the "borders"?

[carl123]

9 hours ago, hamdogger said:

So one last question, is there a way to relink elements back to the master? I am aware that I might lose my text,

You can reapply the Master to specified pages by right-clicking the Master page and selecting Apply Master to Pages

Yes, you will lose your text and any other changes you made to any of the Master page elements on the document page(s)