Video:How to Use InDesign Master Pages

Transcript:How to Use InDesign Master Pages

Hi, I'm Natasha Levitan and I'm going to show you how to create and apply master pages. Master pages are useful when you want to use repeated graphics.

Adding Items to the InDesign Master Page

To add items to the master page: Here is a new document I opened. To view the master page you can double click the master page icon in the Pages menu. If you notice at the bottom of the lower side of the window it says A-Master. That's the name of this master page.

Now let's add something to the master page so I'm going to go to the File menu and choose Place. It will allow you to add text or graphic or snippet on the page. In our case I'm going to add an image and it will let me choose where I want to place it anywhere on the page.

You may want to have more than one master page in a document. For example you may want a master page to define your editorial and a master page to define your inside pages.

Adding More Pages to the InDesign Master Page

To add an additional master page in the document you can go the pages panel Fly out menu and choose New Master. It will pop out a window asking what to name the master page, let's name it B and then say there will be two pages here and click OK.Now you have two master pages listed here in the pages panel. A and B. And now you can base your master page based on either Master A or Master B.

Adding a New Document Page to the InDesign Master Page

If you want to add more pages to your document you can go the pages panel fly out menu and choose Insert Pages and I'm going to a new page 1 and I'm going to base it on Master Page A. The icon on the thumbnails appears. As there is currently nothing on master page B, lets add a frame tool and fill them with color, I'll use swatches panel and pick yellow. Now if you go to the pages panel, you'll see the pages you added have now has the image from A.

Applying a Master Page to an Existing InDesign Master Page

One way is to drag master page from the pages panel onto the open page or another way is to go to a flyout menu and click "Apply master to pages." A window opens and you can apply a master page to any number of pages so for example you can say you want to apply master to pages 1, 2-30, add a bunch or pages of ranges here, click OK and master page is added to all of those pages.

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