Ideas for masterpages in publisher

[gaiaswind]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to suggest something I've been missing for a while now, which is on one hand multiple side master pages (as for example a chapter or so).
The other thing I would love to see is categories or folders for master pages!

Greets
Linda

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @gaiaswind

Could you explain more about what “multiple side master pages” are and how they could be used?

Also, can you explain what “categories or folders for master pages” would achieve and how the user would use/maintain them?

The more information and detail you can give, the better.

Visual examples are often good ways to get some ideas across.

[gaiaswind]

29 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Welcome to the forums @gaiaswind

Could you explain more about what “multiple side master pages” are and how they could be used?

Also, can you explain what “categories or folders for master pages” would achieve and how the user would use/maintain them?

The more information and detail you can give, the better.

Visual examples are often good ways to get some ideas across.

Hi Garry,

sorry for not explaining it.

What I'm thinking of is:

Having the possibility to make master pages that are not necessarily either one page or a spread, but maybe even three separate pages that when you add new master pages to the project it would automatically add these three pages with the according design to the project. As an example imagine you always have three pages as chapter pages in a document, you could of course just make three master pages and add them after one another - but it would be faster if you add three in one go.

As for the categories I was thinking of something like a color coding or actually grouping master pages into a "folder" like you would do with layers in affinity photo.

In the end both ideas go into a similar direction, just with a different approach.

 

Hope that explains it  

 

[GarryP]

Thanks for explaining things a bit more.

I’m still not entirely sure what you want but I think I can understand some of it.

The bit about the three master pages, I’m still confused about that so that might need someone more experienced to understand.
It sounds like you are wanting to apply ‘bundles’ of master pages at once, rather than single pages/spreads at any one time, which sounds like it might be useful but could cause problems if the master pages weren’t ‘aligned’ with the spreads they were being applied to. For example, three master pages with the first being a left-hand page being applied to pages the first of which is a right-hand page.
Or maybe I’m missing the point entirely (wouldn’t be the first time).

The bit about colour coding and folders is, I think, along the same lines as other people have suggested but slightly different.
There have definitely been people asking for better organisation of master pages but I don’t think colour coding has come up before, so that’s something which may be popular.

Let’s see what other people think...

[fde101]

There are really two requests here, and they should be in separate threads:

Quote

Just a few things to bear in mind:

• Please search first, it may well be that you have a suggestion that others also want. If so add your feelings to their thread.
• If you cannot find your idea, make a new post. Try to keep your post as concise as possible, and for the title of your post to describe the request as best you can.
• Please just do one suggestion per thread. If your post title is “Here’s a few ideas to improve Affinity Publisher” you’ll be asked to split them up.
• Please understand we can’t possibly do everything which is requested, but we try to make the best calls we can in terms of prioritising our work. Constantly nagging or being overly ranty that we haven’t implemented one of your suggestions will not help your cause, and such posts will be deleted.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/52-feature-requests-suggestions/

 

 

I get what is being asked for in the first one, about applying multiple master pages together as a unit.  I can sort of see the value in that, though mostly as a time saving measure.  It would be low-priority in my mind, but of enough value to be worth considering.

 

I'm having a hard time picturing a type of project in which there would be enough master pages to need to organize them into folders or color code them in any way.  Even a dozen master pages and I would think that the document structure would benefit from being simplified.  What kind of project are you doing that you actually benefit from so many master pages that you would need to organize them that way?  Can you point to another DTP app that offers a similar organizational capability?

Not saying you don't have a legitimate use case for that - I'm just having a hard time picturing such a situation.

[prophet]

4 hours ago, fde101 said:

about applying multiple master pages together as a unit

Since one can apply a Master to another Master, you can already do this in a way.

 

[fde101]

4 minutes ago, prophet said:

Since one can apply a Master to another Master, you can already do this in a way.

I don't think that is what is being asked for.  I believe what the OP is requesting is the ability to apply a collection of masters to consecutive pages, not to the same page - in other words, if you have masters for the first, middle and last pages of a chapter, to be able to drag those onto the pages list to create a new chapter by adding three pages with three different masters in a defined order.

[prophet]

8 minutes ago, fde101 said:

apply a collection of masters to consecutive pages

Ah, I see. An interesting idea. I wonder if a template might be a solution? You could have a template doc with multiple pages with their masters applied and then, from your working doc, choose "Document > Add Pages from File"

[Komatös]

The simplest way I can think of is to create a single master page, then select the pages you want the master page to have by holding down the shift key and dragging the master page onto the selected pages.

[fde101]

10 hours ago, Komatös said:

create a single master page, then select the pages you want the master page to have

There are multiple ways to apply a single master page to multiple pages in Publisher, but that is not what is being requested here.