Updating templates

[karl19]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to InDesign and still struggling a little trying to find ways to create things just the way I want them.

My question deals with templates and more specifically updating templates and implementing the changes 'down-the-line'.

I am presently creating a number of manuals that all have a few basic things in common - page proportions, numbering, company name, table margins. Most of these are set as Master attributes.

I have no problem creating a template, nor opening a new page based on this template.

What I want to do is make changes to my original template and for these changes to take effect in the pages based on this template.

This to me is the main idea behind a template, so I find it hard to believe this is not possible in an advanced program such as InDesign!

Any information would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Karl

* Running InDesign CS on Windows XP.

 

[Eggles]

>>What I want to do is make changes to my original template and for these changes to take effect in the pages based on this template.<<

Do you mean for files already created using the original template? If so, then probably no.

 

[karl19]

Thanks Eggles,

After much searching through posts, I'd just come to the same conclusion. You were right, I was after a way of updating files based on a template, when new changes were made to the original template.

Still a bit confused as to why InDesign can't do this. Perhaps it's a technical no-go, but in terms of how the very idea of templates work in other programs, I fail to see how such an integral part is unobtainable.

Karl

 

[Eggles]

I don't think any other program files could automatically be updated if you changed the original template it was based on. If you have saved the file, then the template it was based upon is no longer the template file, but whatever you have called the file you created. How would it 'know' there are new margins or page sizes or whatever you have changed in the template?

 

[karl19]

It's a bit of an aside, but what I had in mind was based on programs such as Dreamweaver (the web authoring tool), where you create editable regions within you template, and when you cretae a new file based on you template, you can only change these areas. When you make updates to the non-editable areas in your original template file and open your sub-file, the changes are passed down the line.

I realise InDesign is not built that way, hence when you create a file from a template, it simply takes the design of the template and creates a new, independent file. But to me that defeats the purpose of the template - I could just have a normal ID file that I call Master and make normal copies of that.

Anyway, many thanks for your replies. As mentioned earlier, I'm pretty new to ID (though not to Adobe), so I'm sure I'm bound to walk into more confusing technical walls!