What's the smartest way to clear masters when formatting a book in Publisher 2.3.0?

[Stace]

I'm new to Publisher so this'll be one of those basic questions which is so basic I can't find the answer written down.

 

So I'm formatting the inside of a book. (Cover in Photo/Designer.) In Publisher I'm keeping it simple with a single double spread master: Header and footer with page numbers, title of work, section heading.

Several times I've (prematurely) gone in to 'clear master' on certain pages which don't need the header and footer. (Blank pages, first page of each chapter/section etc.) But then something minor will need changing and the Publisher pages will shift up or down. Now the wrong pages have their masters cleared and I have to redo it. This is such a lengthy work it's actually impossible to do it manually and not make any slip-ups before export.

There must be a smarter way of clearing masters.

Is the workaround to make another master with nothing on it, and apply the blank master to the pages which don't need the headers and footers? Or is there a way to anchor the 'clear master' selection to a specified document page rather than to a Publisher page? Some other trick I haven't learned about yet?

Any advice appreciated.

[Catshill]

I use a range of different masters with meaningful names and use the pages panel on the left to apply them. I highlight the page thumbnail(s) and right click to apply the required mp from the drop-down.

[firstdefence]

5 hours ago, Stace said:

Is the workaround to make another master with nothing on it, and apply the blank master to the pages which don't need the headers and footers? Or is there a way to anchor the 'clear master' selection to a specified document page rather than to a Publisher page? Some other trick I haven't learned about yet?

I'm no Publisher guru but I would consider having a blank master page is a good idea for all pages that do not require the formatted master pages.

[Oufti]

In addition to these wise advises, I also find useful to have different sections in my document (titling pages as a first section, main text in the second section, or one for each chapter, table of content…)

If there are separate stories for each section (i.e. linked text frames dont extend from one section to the next), it is possible to apply a different Master pages for the first or last pages of a chapter, for example, so that when pages flow while editing, first page of a chapter remains with its master page. 

[Stace]

So the solution is indeed to apply a master to every single page of the document, even if the master is blank. 

Cool, thank you!

[MikeTO]

56 minutes ago, Stace said:

So the solution is indeed to apply a master to every single page of the document, even if the master is blank. 

I think you misunderstood Oufti's advice. You don't need to apply a blank master, the problem is your document is one long story (a series of linked text frames). You have applied a master to the first page in a chapter and then edit the text before it, causing the start of the chapter to move up or down a page. Now the chapter start master is applied to the wrong page.

To keep the chapter start master applied to the first page in the chapter, you must break up your one long story into separate stories for each chapter. I've provided detailed instructions on how structure a document into separate stories and how to break a story into multiple stories in the free Publisher manual I've shared in this forum. Please see the link in my signature below.

Good luck.

[Stace]

You're right MikeTO, I did have trouble understand that comment and anyway it didn't work. Still messes up.

Thank you for the excellent resource. However, I'm caught between your sentence:

"The disadvantage of using the Books feature is increased complexity and the inability to package a Book for publication"

...and just being really, really careful to proofread carefully for applied masters before export because both options look like about the same amount of hassle.