Applying a master's format to a page, rather than ADDING it?

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

I've imported a Word manuscript to ID CS. I now want to apply the master-page formats I've set up in ID, so I drag a master's icon onto a page's icon.

When the target page is empty, this works great: It replaces the target's frame(s) with the master(s).

But my pages already contain text---so instead, dragging the master onto a page superimposes the master over it. I must then unthread the page's existing frame from the preceding frames, delete the existing frame, then rethread the content to the "dropped" frame.

I can see how combining pages' formats like this could be useful. However, can one hold a key, or something, to avoid doing this? Thanks!

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

You need to read about the Layout Adjustment feature in InDesign. (Read about it in InDesign's Help or it's well described in Kvern & Blatner's Real World InDesign CS.)

However, it's kind of tricky, and I discovered when I started experimenting with it. You must start with a frame on the master page before placing your Word file. It could either be a Master Frame or could be a frame you drew on the master page. THEN you place the Word file using that frame.

If you then choose Layout > Layout Adjustment and Enable Layout Adjustment, changes to your "A-Master" frame will be reflected in the pages based on that master. Applying a DIFFERENT master won't change the result. But, if for example, you change the number of columns in your "A-Master" frame, it will change the frames on all the A pages.

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

?? It seems like we're talking about two different things.

Steve> You need to read about the Layout Adjustment feature in InDesign...




I just did. As far as I can tell, it lets you set automatic compensation rules for when you change your document's page-size or margins. (E.g., if you switch from portrait to landscape, it redistributes everything logically.) It says nothing about applying new master pages to existing pages. I can't see how one has anything to do with the other.

Steve> You must start with a frame on the master page before placing your
Word file. It could either be a Master Frame or could be a frame you drew
on the master page. THEN you place the Word file using that frame.




That's what I did. Sorry, guess I should've been more clear:

(1) I set up two master pages: a "normal" page (header frame and a main frame), and a "section start" page (no header frame, taller main frame, title placeholder frames, etc.).

(2) I used File > Place to insert the Word document into pg. 1, then auto-flowed it through the rest of the document. At this point, all pages were based on the "normal" master.

(3) I formatted the text by applying the ID styles I'd created.

(4) I tried to change certain pages to "section start" pages by dragging the "section start" master's icon onto their icons. (Till formatting the text, I had no idea where the new sections would start.) But rather than replacing the "normal" frames, it simply superimposed the "section start" master's frames over the existing frames, as if two masters had been applied to the page.

As I've mentioned, this doesn't happen when you drag a master's icon onto a page containing no text; its frames replace the existing frames.

What am I missing?

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

Okay, guess it's not that big a deal. Here's what I'm doing:

(1) I break the text thread between the page I want to change and the one preceding it.

(2) I delete the page's existing frames, apply the new master to the now-blank page, then re-flow the text to it.

It seems like a lot of work, but maybe ID has no idea which of the other master's frames you want the existing flow to use (if it has more than one). So it just adds the new frames and lets you adjust everything as you wish.

FrameMaker never had any problem handling that, though...

[agreen@adobeforums.com]

Just checking the subscribe box to see how this develops.

[Andy_Fielding@adobeforums.com]

It seems that two threads are going on this topic (and that I, in my senility, may have started both of them).

Anyway, I just tried the same thing in FrameMaker 6. It had no trouble substituting one master's layout for another and reformatting existing content to fit it.

Maybe the ID guys had a different approach in mind? ID CS's Help is vague. It refers to "applying" masters, but doesn't say they replace what's already there.