In Indesign you margins are you text frames... as in, you don't need to draw text boxes on you paster pages.

There are two way to go about this:

View>show frame edges

Set up you margins like you normally would on the master pages.

Draw text boxes where ever you want them to be on the master pages.

link them together (like in quark) by (black arrow tool) clicking once in the little blue box in the bottom right hand side of the first text frame then click again in the top lefthand little blue box of the second text frame to link them both together, etc etc. if there are any more...

goto page 1

so with you black arrow tool selected.
File>Place: (this will "load" your curser up with you text file)

Hover your curser over the first text frame you wish to put the text in. it should turn into a picture of a chain link (like in Quark). If you get that then hold down shift and simply click.


The other way is heaps better IMO.

Set up you master pages with you pink margins acting as text frames

so you may end up with 10 different master pages, each with different margin set ups i.e one for text with margins set to 10mmTop, 10mmBot, 10mmLeft, 10mmRight. And also one for Chapter heading with same margins as text except the top margin will have a drop of 50mm on it.

Then File>Place to load your curser, hover your curser at the top left position of the margin, hold down shift and click...

I really hope this makes sense...

Master pages in InDesign compared with Quark are light years ahead in term of what you can achieve with them

All this is in the help files that come with indesign...


Good luck, happy InDesigning, let us know how this works out...or if you have any more questions...

Marcus
www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

Thank you Marcus!!! I will try this over next couple days when I have a break in my time. Please check back if you can in case I have a question.... time appreciated!! Hello to AU! B

Marcus--hello again! It's magic - it works great! Thanks. I used the second way with Master pages with pink margins as text frames- yes much easier as you say.

I have two issues. 1) Say I place text on the first page and auto-flow, and it fills, say, 10 pages of Master -A. Now, when I add some pictures and white space, so the text moves down to page 11, 12... it doesnt link to those pages. The text just stays stopped on page 10. (and goes off frame). Can i relink and re-flow the rest of the text to all of the new pages?

2) also, when I have Master-B pages following Master-A, same problem... the text just stops on last Master-A and does not flow/link to Master-B. Is this a similar issue, that I need to re-flow them? Thanks.  

Issue 1:
Yes you will have to reflow as InDesign does not automatically insert pages.
This is simply done by either draging a master pages and releasing it under the last page in your page pallet, or in your pages pallet click on the flyout menu and click on insert pages.

you then simply select  (with black arrow) the little blue box in the bottom corner to load you curser up, then navagate to the new page you made and simply hold down your shift while clicking in the top left hand corner of the margins.

Issue 2:
Same as issue One...almost

 

Marcus
www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

Hi  Again Marcus,
So I am getting this all going well! Thanks... Now, in terms of getting the overflow to flow to new pages I must insert (my last question)... This is what is happening:

1) The box on the lower right is RED not BLUE and when I hover the cursor to place the overflow text on the new pages (with the black arrow like you said)... the text it places is the ORIGINAL whole book--ALL OF THE TEXT, not just the overflow pages.

(In fact, that black arrow always seems to contain the original whole book).

Almost there! Thanks.
 

That's correct. when there is a little red box (overset text) you need to create/insert another page at the end of you document.

Click on the red box with your black arrow tool (which "loads your curser" with the remaining story)

then goto the new page you just made and while holding down the shift key align your curser with the pink margins and click.

This will autoflow the remaining text into as many pages until it runs out of text to place.

There are other ways to do this, but this is the simple...





 

Marcus
www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

Thanks!! VERY MUCH!!

Your welcome,
I'm happy it has helped you out.

Marcus
www.midlandtypesetters.com.au