Working with Master Pages

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Why master pages
As soon as you consider using many objects (common headers, logos, background, page numbers etc.) on the same places throughout your document, you will be well advised to use master pages. You'll avoid some unnecessary drudgery and spare much time this way. The objects belonging to master pages cannot be changed in the normal Edit Mode. There as a good reason for it, since it could easily happen while working with a document that something on a master page would be unintentionally moved or changed. A master page always belongs to a document – it cannot be saved as a separate file. You can however create a sample file containing frequently used master pages and use it as resource to import master pages into other Scribus documents.

Plan A:
The master page Normal is always present and cannot be deleted – the delete button will be disabled, if the master page Normal is selected  (Picture 2). The master page Normal can be edited, it's better though, to leave it empty to be able to insert new empty pages.



If you move your mouse over the buttons, you will see some helpful tooltips (Picture 2).

Beginning from the left side:


 * New Master Page
 * Duplicate Master Page
 * Import Master Page
 * Delete Master Page

Clicking on the Button Add a New Master Page opens a window in which you may give your page a name (Picture 3).

Tip: try to pick a name that will have some meaning describing its purpose, so that if you haven't used it for a while, its name gives a clue.

You can also copy a Master Page from another document by clicking on Import master pages from another document button, which opens the Import Master Page window (Picture 5).

To empty document pages:
Selecting either Page > Apply Master Page... (Picture 6) or Apply Master Page... from the context menu (right-click on the page - Picture 11) opens up the Apply Master Page window. From this you may choose to apply the Master page to the:


 * Current page
 * Even pages
 * Odd pages
 * All pages
 * and you may apply to a range of pages

Select the desired Master Page from the drop-down list labeled Master Page.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the option Even pages can only be selected when the document has more than one page. Also, applying to a range of pages only applies when you have selected All pages.

Inserting as a new page:
The first German version of this howto was originally published in the German Scribus Forum.