Colour blocks at the top of each page

[procrastiwriter]

Hi

I am trying to create a training guide, where there will be a coloured block (containing a heading) at the very top of each page. Each chapter will have a different colour block - the idea being that, when printed, there will be no white space at the top of pages, so you will see a rainbow effect the when the thing is bound.

No matter how I experiment with margins and bleeds, I just can't achieve this, but to be fair, I'm not approaching it in a very scientific way because I don't really understand what I'm doing.

Do I need to set a page size slightly larger than A4, so allow some space for the pages to be cropped at the printers?

I hope this makes sense to someone

Thanks!

 

[jimoblak]

You need to read the manual or any basic page layout training material regarding 'bleeds'.

 

[procrastiwriter]

Ummm. I did. It didn't help. That's why I came here.

 

[eugenetyson]

What you need to do is set on your Master Page the coloured block in the position you need it.

You should have a Master Page for each individual section that is going to have it coloured. So you may have 7 different Master Pages.

Each block will need to come off the page, left and right, depending. So you can just drag the handle of the box off the page, about 5mm will be plenty of room.

There is no need to have a page size any bigger than what you intend the page to be finished at, e.g., the finshed size of the book, A4, A5? Or whatever size you want it to be.

Things you should read up on in the help files (use the live docs on Adobe site, they are slightly better):

Master Pages
Colours
Swatches
Styles (Objects, Paragraph and Character)
Pages

Start with just one master page, create that particular chapter.

Then When you have that done. Duplicate your first master page, change the colour of the box. Return to your document (all via the pages panel/palette).

Good luck with it. But it may be simpler to have someone do the book for you, a designer of sorts. Could be a big project if you don't know what you're doing and it's a small project when you know what you are doing.