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Pages Book Template Customize Headers and Footers

Hey All!


I just wrote a book using a Pages Book Template (Edgy Novel, in case you're wondering). I need to create different Footers for each page, left side for title, right side for author. I just cannot seem to get the options to show up in the toolbar. WTH am I doing wrong? I have the page numbers in the header starting on the correct page (right side), so that's all good. But this title/author thing is about to make me jump out a window, and I need to deliver it, asap.


Thanks in advance!!


Jon

Mac Pro, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 22, 2021 9:33 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 22, 2021 12:05 PM

You're not going to like this, but...


I hope I'm wrong, but as far as I can see, the default Edgy Novel template that comes with Pages has been created as a Word Processing document, not as a Page Layout document. (I personally think this is really, really stupid.)


To apply different footers to left and right pages, you need two different master pages: one for the right, one for the left. But master pages can only be created in Page Layout documents. So the Edgy Novel template can't do this out of the box.


Now... whatever you do, DO NOT convert your novel to a Page Layout document or you will lose all the text. Work on a copy if you want to experiment. Save the text into a plain .txt format file if you need to. At this stage preserving your text is far more important than the layout of your book, or your delivery deadline. Do not do anything that risks the integrity of your text.


If you want to continue, the next thing to consider is that a Page Layout document doesn't automatically flow text from one page to the next. So you will need to set up a new document with mostly empty pages, edit the master pages, set up left and right masters, add the different headers and footers and a text box for your body text on each master page. You may also want to create separate masters for blank pages, chapter starts, covers etc. Then go back to the document pages, link the text boxes into a thread, flow the text in, reformat as necessary...


Have a look at the help documentation for Master Pages and for linking text boxes, and post back if you need more assistance. At this stage (depending on the length of the book) it may be quicker just to copy and paste text frames with the title and author information onto the respective left and right pages.


Pages can do what you want:




but it's far easier to set up before you incorporate the text.


I would be delighted if someone could tell me there's an easier way...






3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 22, 2021 12:05 PM in response to jonrlind

You're not going to like this, but...


I hope I'm wrong, but as far as I can see, the default Edgy Novel template that comes with Pages has been created as a Word Processing document, not as a Page Layout document. (I personally think this is really, really stupid.)


To apply different footers to left and right pages, you need two different master pages: one for the right, one for the left. But master pages can only be created in Page Layout documents. So the Edgy Novel template can't do this out of the box.


Now... whatever you do, DO NOT convert your novel to a Page Layout document or you will lose all the text. Work on a copy if you want to experiment. Save the text into a plain .txt format file if you need to. At this stage preserving your text is far more important than the layout of your book, or your delivery deadline. Do not do anything that risks the integrity of your text.


If you want to continue, the next thing to consider is that a Page Layout document doesn't automatically flow text from one page to the next. So you will need to set up a new document with mostly empty pages, edit the master pages, set up left and right masters, add the different headers and footers and a text box for your body text on each master page. You may also want to create separate masters for blank pages, chapter starts, covers etc. Then go back to the document pages, link the text boxes into a thread, flow the text in, reformat as necessary...


Have a look at the help documentation for Master Pages and for linking text boxes, and post back if you need more assistance. At this stage (depending on the length of the book) it may be quicker just to copy and paste text frames with the title and author information onto the respective left and right pages.


Pages can do what you want:




but it's far easier to set up before you incorporate the text.


I would be delighted if someone could tell me there's an easier way...






Jan 22, 2021 3:02 PM in response to HD

Jan,


Wow! You really went to town for this! And no, I don't like it. :) I can't thank you enough for the effort you put into helping me solve it. I think I've discovered a quicker workaround, though it involves using MS Word for Mac. Turns out it has a much easier option to work with. I exported from Pages to Word, and opened it in that program. Their Header/Footer option gave me no problem for different headers on every other page. I saved it and opened in Pages and...voilá! D-U-N, dun.


You're right. Apple needs to make this easier.

Pages Book Template Customize Headers and Footers

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