Issues creating layers on the master pages

[Bojanglez]

hey all - 

I am trying to create a template in Publisher for lettering comic books and am trying to create the layers I need on the master page, but when I create pages from that master, the layers all combine in one called "Master A" and I can't show/hide, etc. I have taken screenshots of the process I'm going through in case I'm doing something wrong, but was hoping someone could point me to a tutorial specifically around layers on the master page (everything I have found is "using layers", not "setting up layers") so I can get beyond this? thanks!

 

 

[walt.farrell]

Everything from the same Master Page will be in a Master A (B, etc) layer on the document page you apply the Master to. If you need to hide or rearrange individual Layers there, you can right-click on the Master A layer and choose Edit Detached. That will detach some aspects of the Layers from the Master, though.

Note that you can apply multiple Masters to a document page, so perhaps you could use that to make the process simpler, by putting individual Layers on individual Masters.

[Bojanglez]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Everything from the same Master Page will be in a Master A (B, etc) layer on the document page you apply the Master to. If you need to hide or rearrange individual Layers there, you can right-click on the Master A layer and choose Edit Detached. That will detach some aspects of the Layers from the Master, though.

Note that you can apply multiple Masters to a document page, so perhaps you could use that to make the process simpler, by putting individual Layers on individual Masters.

Thanks, Walt - so am I thinking about this wrong? Should I not be trying to create layers on the Master page that can be propagated out? It seems inefficient to have to create the same layers on each page, or to create multiple masters to get 4 constant layers. Thanks again for your help. 

[Old Bruce]

Put stuff on the Master Page(s) that you are going to use on most if not all the Actual Pages. Don't put stuff on a Master Page if you are going to use it only on 1 % of the pages.

The preceding is a rule of thumb. Not a Law not even a convention.

[Bojanglez]

28 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Put stuff on the Master Page(s) that you are going to use on most if not all the Actual Pages. Don't put stuff on a Master Page if you are going to use it only on 1 % of the pages.

The preceding is a rule of thumb. Not a Law not even a convention.

Thank you, Old Bruce - that's what I'm looking to do. I need the same four layers on each page, and I thought that creating them on the Master would do that, but it's not, it's grouping them together in a "Master A" group.

I suspect I'm missing something really basic - if anyone has a tutorial on creating layers on the masters that propagate throughout the document, I would really appreciate it!

[Old Bruce]

Are there any things on those Layers, or are thy for organizational purposes? If you want to use Layers to organize your layout a la InDesign and Global Layers then you are out of luck. Doesn't work like that with the Affinity applications. Using Global Layers is a request that is apparently being considered for implementation.

[Bojanglez]

8 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Are there any things on those Layers, or are thy for organizational purposes? If you want to use Layers to organize your layout a la InDesign and Global Layers then you are out of luck. Doesn't work like that with the Affinity applications. Using Global Layers is a request that is apparently being considered for implementation.

Thank you again - yes, there would be many items on those layers - one layer is Lettering, with all the text I am copying in, and then I have a Balloons layer with each different balloon that's assigned to each block of text. Done this way, I can hide the whole balloon layer or each individual balloon.

If I'm doing it wrong, what would be the right way to do it?

[walt.farrell]

You can try it with 4 Master Pages, each applied to all pages, but you'll need to use Edit Detached a lot. Might be better to just create each Layer on each page. 

Or, create the first document page, add the 4 Layers to it, and duplicate that page as many times as you need.

[Bojanglez]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

You can try it with 4 Master Pages, each applied to all pages, but you'll need to use Edit Detached a lot. Might be better to just create each Layer on each page. 

Or, create the first document page, add the 4 Layers to it, and duplicate that page as many times as you need.

Thanks again, Walt. I got to that outcome yesterday and started duplicating page one repeatedly.

I’m still a relative to this so, I ask again, am I thinking about this wrong and should I be approaching this differently, or is this just a massive, glaring oversight in the software? 

I can’t be the only user needing layers to be repeated on various pages, can I? 

[Old Bruce]

12 minutes ago, Bojanglez said:

I can’t be the only user needing layers to be repeated on various pages, can I? 

You are not. If you do a search for Global Layers you will see that there are a number of requests for them.