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Subject:Re. PageMaker and master pages From:Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Tue, 9 May 1995 09:28:38 LCL
There's another misconception going around re. PageMaker having a
limit of 2 master pages. This really belongs in another discussion
group, but since PM is a useful tool for techwhirlers, I shouldn't let
this misconception stand.
Yes, PageMaker does only permit 2 master pages per document: one for
the left page, and one for the right page. But this isn't as limiting
as it sounds for a few reasons:
1. You can override the master pages on any given page in a document.
2. Most documents we write/design will have a consistent style
throughout, based on a consistent grid. Even where you vary
positioning with respect to the grid, it's bad design to do so
arbitrarily. I haven't seen any technical manuals that required more
than two master pages, to be quite blunt about this.
3. Most times, you'll want to change master pages when you change
functions (e.g., moving from the two-column body text to a one-column
literature cited section, four-column index or three-column glossary).
I find this easiest when I treat each functional part of the document
as a separate document; PageMaker links these documents very nicely
with its book functions, something that I believe Quark lacks without
additions (but can't say for sure). If you have 20 documents, this
gives up to 40 master pages.
PM might not work well for catalogs or other free-form,
stream-of-thought layouts, but the limited number of master pages is a
nonissue for technical publications.
--Geoff Hart #8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: These comments are my own and don't represent the opinions
of the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada.
