A master page is a special page which will not print, unless you tell InDesign to do so. It's a page where you can set a basic layout and then all of the other pages that you will add to your document and which are based on that master page will look the same.
To set up Master Pages we work with the Pages palette. If you read the Work Area tutorial, you will know how to find it. So open your Pages palette now if it isn't open already.
You can see that the Pages palette is divided in two. The upper part is where your master pages are, while the lower part is where the actual pages of the documents are.
Let's have a look at the upper part.
- You have a master page called A-Master
- You have a page above the A-Master called None.
- If you were to drag a page from the master page to the lower part of the palette, you would get a new page based on that master.
- If you drag from the page called None, you will have a totally blank page which isn't based on any master.
- If you drag the page called None to the New Page button, what do you get? Surprise! You get a new master page called B-Master.
- If you carry on doing that, you will get a C-Master, D-Master and so on.
- You can also get a new master by clicking on the arrow on the top right of the palette to open the Pages palette menu and then choose New Master...
