7.1. Using page templates

Page templates are a way of saving parts of a page that you want to apply to multiple pages. For example, you might decide that you want every page in your ten-page book to have a green background and a thick white border. On page 1, you could create the green background and thick white border; then you could save the page as a page template. If you apply that page template to pages 2 through 10, all your pages will look the same.

Creating a page template

To make a page template, make changes to the page, then click the + page halo to save the page as a page template. A window will appear asking which aspects of the page you want to save as a page template:

../../images/AddPageTemplate.png

All properties are chosen by default except for "Use as default template". Choose which you want to use; when you're sure, click Add. The page template you've just created will appear in the page templates palette in the library tab:

../../images/PageTemplatePalette.png

This screenshot shows three different page templates. You can have as many page templates in a book as you want.

If "Use as default template" has been chosen, the page template that you just saved will be used as the default page template for newly created pages. Until you save a new default page template, newly created pages won't use a page template: they will be white with no border. You can change the default page template by saving another page template as the default page template.

Applying a page template and adding pages

To apply a page template, go to the page to which you want to apply the page template. Go to the page templates palette in the library tab; choose the page template that you want to use, then double-click it. The page template should be applied to your page. You can also apply a page template by dragging the page template's name to either the page or the page's thumbnail in the page preview palette. The page that you're dragging the page template to should turn red to indicate that it's going to be changed. Be careful: applying a page template may undo changes that you've made to the page.

You can also drag page templates to add new page. Drag a page template before the first page, after the last page, or between any two pages in the page preview palette to insert a new page.