Is "master pages" something to expect be release by DP in the short term?

[Jonopen]

Egg I don’t have any apps installed at the moment to demonstrate the advantages and usefulness of master pages over the Xara approach, and I can see how the lack of a master page feature can be worked around, but the fact that dedicated DTP programs like InDesign, QuarkXPress, Scribus, PagePlus, FrameMaker etc, and many presentation apps like PowerPoint, Impress etc, all do use master pages (and have done so for many years), they have become an industry standard and a widely recognised concept - and not without good reason.

As soon as you start working on slightly longer or complicated publications, with left and right pages (as mentioned), different page orientations, spreads, contents, indexes, appendices, alternative page layouts etc, having a system to create, store, edit, select and apply master pages really comes into its own. They would also be of benefit on the web design side of things too.

[Egg Bramhill]

Thanks for the info Digital/Jono.

I'll take your word for it on the DTP side of it. I only use Xara in this manner for creating simple posters & small leaflets, no big stuff.

However I still fail to see any advantage on the web side.

[mwenz]

Last WYSIWYG web site I created was in Serif's now defunct WebPlus.

I had over 400 pages using one of 9 different master pages. Repeat absolutely doesn't work in that manner. And even if one bodges it together, it is a nightmare to create using the repeat feature in XDP (in my case) and especially in future maintenance (adding pages). Master pages are fast to use and update across a whole site.

And if, say even a few years from now, someone approached me for a static, WYSIWYG-type of web site, I would dust off WebPlus and use it. It is a far better, faster web site creation tool. XDP doesn't come close.

[gwpriester]

Egg - Master pages are very useful because you can have several. So while yes you can repeat on all pages then turn the repeating object off on some pages and not others, it is basically a one size fits all approach.

If you have master pages for a book or a long document, for example, you can have left pages and right pages with different inside and outside margins. You can have a master page for the first page in a new chapter where the text starts 1/3 down from the top. And this applies to websites as well. It is a very useful feature for working with large documents.

One work around would be to create and format these pages and then duplicate them as necessary, but this is very clunky.

[Egg Bramhill]

... yes you can repeat on all pages then turn the repeating object off on some pages and not others

Place your 'repeating' elements on their own layer (see my earlier attachment) then just alternate between these layers switching their visibility on/off, no need to stop repeating.

[gwpriester]

OK Egg, good work around. And Xara developers, if it is this simple then it cannot be that hard to implement.

[Egg Bramhill]

OK Egg, good work around

Thanks Gary but I don't see it as a work around, just part of the design process. Similar to using supplied templates as opposed to designing your own.

[roly]

Hi, it would be nice if Cadu gave his comments to Egg's great suggestion.

Ciao

Roly

[hseiken]

"Repeat on all pages" is an interesting solution for the web site. But the print media have in at least even and odd pages. To say nothing of cover etc... Not suitable!

Fair enough. I only use P&GD, but would've thought it would work similarly with web components.