Masters within InDesign are very useful – they provide a common background for whichever page(s) you are working with. But here are some not so well known/used tips regarding masters and pages.
1] A master can also have a master
Say you want a master for Chapter 1 – usually a header and footer. But the footer may be fairly general, just Page X say. This would be the same for Chapter 2, 3 etc.
If you setup a master with just that footer, the next time you create a master (Pages panel > options in the top right-hand corner > New master) notice that you have the option of basing the new master on one already created.
It is here that you can choose the background master just created, i.e the one with just the footer in it. What you will end up with is a set of chapter masters, each of which have another master set as their background – then these are applied to you pages.
This can save you a lot of time in creating and maintaining your pages.
2] master pages (for facing page documents) do not have to be identical.
The left page can be set up for two columns and the right for three, say. Just make sure that you have one master page (left or right) selected within the pages panel when changing the columns/margins (Layout > Margins and Columns).
3] Have you ever wondered what the little upside down black triangle is at the top of page 1 in your pages panel?
This is the section marker – this indicates when a new section is to appear and how the pages are to be numbered.
To create a new section (and a new black triangle will appear above the page you select), just right-mouse click on a page within the Pages panel and go to Numbering and Section options. Once there you can specify how the page numbering is to be handled, i.e. as letters, numbers etc, and also whether you wish to restart the page numbering – useful for contents pages and index pages.
(further information here http://help.adobe.com/en_US/InDesign/6.0/WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-710ca.html)
