Two Publisher 2 Questions

[Nat20]

Hello! I have two questions about things that I'm pretty sure I didn't have an issue with in Publisher v1. However, I'm a newbie, so it's very possible I'm just doing something wrong...

I'm laying out a print book, and both questions can can be demonstrated from one screenshot.

1. This is a minor point, but all new documents seem to be created with a transparent background instead of a white background. How do I change the background to white? It seems odd to, for example, draw a rectangle in the bottom layer...

2. My bigger issue has to do with margins and creating new pages from master pages. In the screenshot above you can see a master page I'd like to use for the first page of every new chapter in my book. If I look at the master page's Spread Properties -> Margins, I see that the inner margin is set to 0.5" and the outer margin is 0.25", which is what I want. As you can see in the screenshot, this shows in the master page as a 0.5" left margin and a 0.25" right margin, i.e. a right-hand page. I would expect, however, that if I use this master page to create a left-hand page, the margins would reverse: the larger margin would go on the right, because that's the inner margin. Instead I get a page with identical margins—the half-inch margin is on the left, i.e. the outside, even though it's a left-hand page.

The problem is even worse with two-page spreads. I'd like to repeat a generic two-page spread to flow the body text of each chapter of the novel, but if I begin a two-page spread on the right, not only are the margins backwards, the elements from the master page are in the wrong place.

Am I misunderstanding how spreads are meant to be used? Is there a better way to do long flows of identical pages, for example, 20 pages of identical chapter text in a novel? Or do I really need to have separate master pages for Chapter Start Right, Chapter Start Left, Body Text One Page Left, Body Text One Page Right, and Body Text Two Page?

 

Thanks so much for any advice and answers you can offer!

[loukash]

1. In the New Document dialog, click the Color tab and uncheck Transparent Background. 
2. All master page(s) must be in the Facing Pages mode as well.

[Nat20]

1 minute ago, loukash said:

1. In the New Document dialog, click the Color tab and uncheck Transparent Background. 
2. All master page(s) must be in the Facing Pages mode as well.

Thank you! I can't believe I missed the answer to #1...

As far as Facing Pages mode, I swear I tried it before and it didn't work, but now it seems to be behaving how I would expect. Well, thank you! I'll carry on and check back in if it gives me any more trouble. Much appreciated!