Automating the application of Master Pages

[Rick Quatro]

Hi Alexandra,

I don't favor the Preface Right / Preface Left approach to master pages. It 
is better to have a separate Preface template with the appropriate default 
Left/Right master pages. The main reason is that only blank default master 
pages at the end of the document are deleted when the document is saved. 
Additionally, when new content is added to the document, the correct master 
pages are always applied. While it seems appealing to have a single 
template, the trade off is more work making sure that the correct master 
pages are applied.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing
585-659-8267
www.frameexpert.com


> Dear Framers
>
> I've just been looking into the automatic Apply Master Pages functionality
> in FM7.0 for the first time. I'm using unstructured FM on WinXP.
>
>
>
> I maintain multi-chapter books where each book component uses the same
> template and all possible master pages are defined in the template. 
> Hitherto
> I've assigned master pages manually and I'm happy enough to do that, but 
> as
> I had a bit of spare time yesterday I thought I'd see briefly whether I
> could set up the Apply Master Pages functionality to automatically set all
> my different master pages appropriately. I've never tried it before as the
> manual approach is not a huge overhead for me. But from an initial look I
> don't think I can make it do exactly what I want.
>
>
>
> For example, I have a Preface chapter prior to the main Chapters. There 
> are
> master pages for, say, Preface First, Preface Right and Preface Left, 
> which
> differ from the master pages used in standard Chapters. The first page of
> the Preface is distinguished by a unique para tag in the heading, so I can
> map that to the appropriate master page. But the subsequent preface pages 
> do
> not differ in terms of tags used from subsequent pages in a normal 
> chapter.
> What makes them preface pages is purely that they follow on from a preface
> front page until the end of the preface file. No unique tag on the page
> marks it as a preface page and the same tags can appear on chapter pages. 
> I
> would like to set things up so as to: map Preface Heading para to the
> Preface First master page, then for each subsequent left/right page apply
> Preface Left or Preface Right, until a Chapter Heading para is 
> encountered,
> whereupon map that para to a Chapter First master page, apply it and apply
> subsequent Chapter Left and Right pages etc. I have the same issue with
> appendices, but you get the idea.
>
>
>
> I think in theory that it would only work if I cloned and renamed a para
> that would appear on each preface page after the first, and mapped that 
> with
> an Until Changed range indicator, and similar for chapter pages. But I'd
> prefer to just keep doing the master pages manually than proliferate para
> tags.
>
>
>
> I looked on the web at the documentation for the Silicon Prairie Master 
> Page
> Tools, which looked more promising, as you can use a marker to indicate 
> the
> appropriate master page mapping in situations where you can't rely on the
> presence of a particular para tag. But I would still have to maintain the
> markers, and my interpretation of the documentation was that that I would
> have to have a marker tag on each page that couldn't be mapped to a para
> (i.e. I wouldn't be able to put a marker tag on the second preface page 
> only
> but have it apply appropriate preface left and right pages for all
> subsequent pages until a different master page trigger is encountered).
> Again, probably less effort to just apply the pages manually.
>
>
>
> I do have FrameScript so another option would be to write a script to suit
> my circumstances if I really really wanted to.
>
>
>
> I thought I'd run it by this list to see whether a) with my limited time 
> and
> knowledge I've correctly interpreted how FM's Apply Master Pages and 
> Silicon
> Prairie's Master Page Tools operate, and b) how anybody else might 
> automate
> this requirement. Like I said, it's not a major issue for me, but I'm sure
> that it can't be such a rare requirement.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Alex Wilowska