Quark Forums

Often we hear the request to be able to base master pages on master pages.

This is especially important when you e.g. have a publication that has a common page header, e.g. "Quark News" and the current date, but each section, e.g. Sports, Technology etc. has different master pages.

It would be a nightmare to have to go through ten master pages and change the page header on all 10 (facing pages: 20) master pages. Instead it woudl be nice to build a master where all common elements are placed and the sub master pages reference this.

As good as it sounds it creates quite some administrative overhead to figure out what comes from where.

The question remains how to do this in QuarkXPress. It is possible since version 6, even better in version 7.

Here's how:
1. Create your first master page and place everything on there, specifics for this section as well as common elements (e.g. date).

2. Now synchronize all boxes and/or content which are common by using the "Shared content" palette. In 6 only text content, in 7 now you can even only synchronize the box shapes and leave the content specific or vice versa.

3. Build your next master page (section specific), onyl create specific elements (e.g. section header) from scratch, for the common elements use the "Shared Content" palette to drag and drop the common elements on here.

4. Done.

Now you have almost the same effect as master-pages-based-on-master-pages, the same time saver, but a - in my opinion - much easier way of creating and especially maintaining the common elements, ensuring always consistency.

Only notable restriction I can think of is the missing position of objects (so x/y-coordinates), only geometry (width/height) can be stored in shared objects. And, with object styles of XPert Tools you might want to solve that one.

Enjoy!
Matthias

P.S.: Yes, it is "just" a workaround, but an easy one and good if you don't want to wait until a future version of QuarkXPress offers this valid feature request.

Is there a way to copy guides from one master page to another?

Hi, gprovan,

gprovan:

Is there a way to copy guides from one master page to another?

yes, of course.

Just install XPert Tools and off you go:
1. Go to master page 1.
2. Open the XPert Guides palette (in Windows menu).
3. Mark the guides you want to copy.
4. Right mouse click them.
5. Select copy.
6. Go to master page 2.
7. In XPert Guides palette, right mouse click.
8. Select paste.

Enjoy!
Matthias

Synchronized Text always crashes me in Q6.5

Hi, Witcher,

did you contact tech support already?

By the way, synched text in QuarkXPress 6 only gives you "hierarchical" master pages with content. QuarkXPress 7 and 8 are far more powerful, as also objects (geometry) can be synched.

Best
Matthias

Good tip, Matthias. Thanks.