Master Page Question

[westwoodep]

Hello all. 

I have a question regarding master pages. 

I would like to apply add some text to a master page, apply this master page to every page in the file and have that text appear as the top layer on each page. 

Does any one know if this is possible? 

Thank you. 

[Hangman]

Hi @westwoodep and welcome to the forums,

Any text added to your Master page will automatically be applied to the respective pages using that Master.

The Master page text will appear as a Master page element on each respective page and new layers added to the pages themselves will by default appear above the Master page text but you can change the on-page layer order so any on-page elements appear below the Master Page elements if that is what you need but that would be a manual process.

What is the logic of wanting the text in question to appear as the top layer on each page?

[westwoodep]

Hello @Hangman. Thank you for your warm welcome and your advice!

The logic is that I want to add text to bottom of a 15 page scanned document.

I scan the 15 page physical document in, then open that resultant PDF in Affinity Publisher. The goal is to have the text from the Master Page on top of each scanned PDF image on each page. I did tonnes of searching, and got to the same conclusion, that I would have to manually put the Master Page layer to the top of each page.

Based off that further information, is there any other work around you can think of to make this process quicker and simpler? 

Thanks. 

[Hangman]

Hi @westwoodep,

If you place a Picture Frame on your Master Page below your Text layer then you will be able to Place your PDF file on-page and your text will appear above the Placed PDF on each page...

[PaulEC]

If you want to have the text above everything else on the page (IOW - the Master page at the top of the stack):

Select the first page.

In the Layers Panel, right click on the Master Page layer.

Select Edit Linked.

In the Layer Menu click Arrange - Move to Front.

Then click on the Finish button.

This will move the Master Page layer to the top on all pages. (Although the thumbnails might not update!)

[westwoodep]

Thank you both for your replies.

@Hangman when I 'place' the PDF, it only brings through the first page - I've searched the help menus, but I can't see what I'm doing wrong not to bring the other 14 through. 

@PaulEC that didn't work for me - it only brings the master to the top of the 1 page I'm working on. I know you said the thumbnails don't update, but sadly the other pages also don't put the master on top. What do you think I might be doing wrong? 

[Hangman]

30 minutes ago, westwoodep said:

@Hangman when I 'place' the PDF, it only brings through the first page - I've searched the help menus, but I can't see what I'm doing wrong not to bring the other 14 through. 

Hi @westwoodep,

When you place the PDF you need to expand the PDF Preview in the Place Panel (see the 15-second mark in the previous screen recording) and then select the pages you need either by Shift-Clicking to select sequential pages or Cmd-Clicking to select non-sequential pages...

Once Placed, hit the Escape Key to end the PDF Placement process and repeat if required for additional pages or new PDF files...

[westwoodep]

Thanks @Hangman. That 'Place Panel' doesn't get opened when I place the PDF - how can I manually open it? 

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, westwoodep said:

Thanks @Hangman. That 'Place Panel' doesn't get opened when I place the PDF - how can I manually open it?

There is a tiny right-facing, expand arrow to the left of the file name in the Place Panel. If you click that it will expand to reveal all the pages in your PDF...

[Hangman]

This is how to achieve the same thing using @PaulEC's method...

[westwoodep]

Thanks @Hangman. Sorry, I mean that little panel with the arrows etc doesn't come up in the top left section so I can't drop it down to see the pages - how can I manually open the panel? Thanks. 

[Hangman]

Hi @westwoodep,

It will only appear when you Place a multi-page PDF file, if you have a single-page PDF then the Pages window won't appear... How many pages does your PDF file have?

I should also mention that this is only an option in Publisher v2 not in v1...

[westwoodep]

Thanks @Hangman I think the version is the issue - on my 'about' it says version 1.10.6. Do I have to purchase version 2 separately yeah? 

[Hangman]

Hi @westwoodep,

To use that particular feature yes, you would need to purchase/upgrade to v2 but you can still use a similar process in v1, it's just a little more manual and labour-intensive...

[R C-R]

8 hours ago, westwoodep said:

@PaulEC that didn't work for me - it only brings the master to the top of the 1 page I'm working on. I know you said the thumbnails don't update, but sadly the other pages also don't put the master on top. What do you think I might be doing wrong? 

Just guessing but did you use the Layer  > Arrange > Move to Front Menu item after you used Select Edit Linked in the Layers panel, or in the layers panel did you just try dragging the Master layer above the other layers on the selected document page? The latter won't work but the former (using the layer menu) should, even in V1.

[westwoodep]

@Hangman Thank you so much for support yesterday - I'm really appreciative! 

@R C-R Doh! Yes, I followed what you re-stated there and that worked perfectly - thank you! 

[Hangman]

Hi @westwoodep,

That's no problem at all, I'm glad you now have a working solution for your project, I hope all goes well...