Use masters in Pages

See how master pages can help you set up, lay out and revise documents

Master pages are available in Pages’ Page Layout mode. They’re just like regular pages, and are stored along with them in each document file, but they’re displayed separately and won’t be output when you print or export a document.

Used in your document templates, master pages can store lots of ready– made layouts; when you want a page similar to one of them, you just create a new page based on it. The new page doesn’t have to stick to the master’s layout — you can adapt it as needed — but in an instant you’ve taken a big step towards the page layout you want.

Particularly useful is basing multiple pages on one master. When you create a page based on a master, everything from the master appears on it. Anything you then change (or delete) on the actual page stays changed, irrespective of the master. Anything you don’t change remains invisibly linked to the master, so if you later change it on the master page, the derived page updates to match.

What if you lay out a page based on one master, then apply a different master to it? Items belonging to the original master, and unchanged, are hidden; items unrelated to a master remain; items from the new master are added. But Pages’ masters go a step further. Each text or picture box on a page can have a tag. When you switch a page’s master, any content in a tagged item is moved into the object with the same tag in the new layout. So wherever the main text box is, for example, your text reflows into it.

Of course, you may need to re–edit pics, but you’ll still have saved plenty of time. It’s also a handy way to play around with options. Even if content disappears when you switch masters — because there’s no object with a matching tag on the new one — it is easily reclaimed.