Mastering Master Pages

One of the unique features of Freeway, compared to other web design apps, is the Master page. It allows you to speed up the work considerably since every item you put on a Master page, every bit of extra code, every Action, propagates to any individual page based on that Master. So we use them to hold sitewide layout bits like navigation, site brand mastheads, copyright notices etc. But, they’re not only unique for web design apps. Used the wrong way they can be extremely annoying as well. So here’s a brief look at Master pages and their pitfalls. Walk with me.

Freeway’s Master pages work much the same way as in Quark XPress. You base new or existing pages on a Master and every item on the Master can be edited from the child page. Hm? Oh, not to worry: when you edit an item on the child, that item is no longer considered a master item, but belonging to the child. In that sense your Master layout is always preserved. This is a good thing – but not always. Consider the situation where you’ve edited that master item on the child, thus disconnected it from the Master page, and then you decide “no, that’s not it”, so you go ahead and reapply the Master to the child, to restore the Master layout you think. Oh, boy. What just happened here?! Duplicates everywhere, rollovers no longer working properly, oh my!

(Pausing for effect.)

That is not an amusing situation, trust me. But it can be avoided with a bit of clear-headedness (if there is indeed such a word). First of all, if you’re going to edit a Master item, *do it on the Master*, not the child. So it happens anyway, a Master item gets edited on a child. What to do to save the situation? Select the item you edited, cut it from the child page, go to the Master page where you remove the corresponding item and then paste the item you just cut from the child. Go back to the child. Your page should now be resurrected. No? Oh, you’ve edited more than one item, but couldn’t remember which ones. Or, there are other things that have been added to the child which makes it still be disconnected from the Master. Okay, we’re going to have to go in with the big saw here... That is, we will have to do Reapply Master. Wait! Not just yet. First we prepare, then we do, a’ight? We don’t want a repeat of the mess we just made, now do we.

Reapplying a Master Page

Consider the fact that there may be items where you want the content to be different from the placeholder content on the Master, but the position, effects etc should stay the same. How do you keep the content from reverting to the placeholder content when you reapply the Master? You de-tick the checkbox “Use Master Content” that can be found in the Inspector palette (when an item is selected) (Pro version at least). You can deselect the option “Use Master Settings” as well, but only if you don’t want the Master settings to be reapplied to an item. So, do this on all items you wish to protect from getting Master values reapplied. Remove all other items from the child. (You don’t have to delete them, just move them off the page.) Then go to the top menu and choose Page > Reapply Master. This should cause all Master items (as well as hidden stuff like Meta tags, Extend... code etc) to be applied to the child except for the protected items.

To Recap

Master pages work similar to Quark XPress’ master pages. Any content on a page based on a master can be edited directly on the child. Child items that have been edited are no longer connected to the Master and will not be updated when the Master changes. If you want to edit a Master item, do it on the Master page – not on the child. Connection between child and Master can be resurrected with the command Reapply Master. Use it with care.

Try this a few times in a test document and you’ll soon feel like a Master of Master Pages. Promise. ;D