Mastermatic

MASTERMATIC

Apply master pages based on paragraph and object styles

This InDesign add-on lets you link up master pages (also known as ‘parent pages’) to paragraph styles and object styles.

With Mastermatic you can make a list of instructions to tell InDesign:

  • Wherever paragraph style A appears in the document, apply master page X
  • Wherever paragraph style B appears in the document, apply master page Y
  • … and so on.

You can do the same with object styles:

  • Wherever object style A appears in the document, apply master page X
  • Wherever object style B appears in the document, apply master page Y
  • etc. etc.

Mastermatic Promo

For example, you can now easily have a special master page applied on every page that contains a graphic image, and a different master page applied to every page that has a “Chapter Title” paragraph style, and so on.

But the best part of it is that it will update automatically while you work!

Unlike a traditional InDesign script, this script can keep track of your document while you work and update the master pages as needed – automatically! So if your text reflows, or you move a graphic to a different page, the appropriate master page will be applied automatically while you continue to work. It’s truly MASTERMATIC!

  • “Thank you. I’m in the midst of preparing 4000 pages of my translation and commentary, in seven volumes, and there are lots of small chapters now, so I was forever having to click None, Master-A, None, Master-A. And every little change made the whole thing slip. So, to find Mastermatic has been a lifesaver!”
    Eric Winkel - Book Designer, thefutuhat.com

You’re in good company!

Major world publishers, including Penguin Random House, have rolled out Mastermatic to large teams of their designers. The response? “Overwhelmingly positive!” says John Tomaselli, senior manager. “The designers using it have all acknowledged substantial time savings. [Mastermatic] has become an important tool for us, [and] is highly recommended.”

Main Features

 

 

  • Create as many paragraph style–master page pairs as you need.
  • Create as many object style–master page pairs as you need.
  • “Live Update” – InDesign will continuously monitor your document, and apply the correct master pages as needed.
  • Choose a default master page for all other pages.
  • Choose a master page to apply to all blank pages.
  • Ignore the first X number of pages at the start of the document (often, preliminary pages have a specific set of master pages applied whose order never changes).
  • “Sticky” mode lets you easily create a document with colored sections.
  • All your settings are stored in the document, so you do not need to set them up more than once.
  • New in Version 2.2: Load the settings from an old document so you don’t need to create them from scratch each time.
  • New in Version 2.5: Enable the old-style InDesign layout adjustment feature. When you apply a new master page with different margins, the text frame will resize accordingly.

User Guide

To browse the full product documentation, click here.

Download a Free Trial of Mastermatic

Fill in the form below to download a trial version of Mastermatic.

The trial version is identical to the full version, except that it can only be run 10 times.





Instant Download

To purchase the full version of Mastermatic for only $57, click the “Buy Now” button. Your product and serial numbers will be available for instant download when you complete the purchase.

Money-back Guarantee

If you are not satisfied with Mastermatic for any reason, simply let us know within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

“Mastermatic is amazing! Thank you.
Worth every single penny.”

Cathy Anderson, Creative – Just Organize Your Stuff

Buy Now

Mastermatic: $57

For multiple licenses (5 or more), please contact us to arrange a discount.

Requirements

System Requirements

  • InDesign CS5 or higher (including InDesign 2025)
  • Windows or Mac computer

Trial Download

Version History

Article Comments

  1. Brad

    June 9, 2022 9:32 pm

    I just installed Mastermatic yesterday and it is working very well.

    However, I found a minor glitch.

    I have a long table that splits across three pages of the document. Mastermatic thinks the middle page is empty and assigns the “empty page” master/parent, whereas it should have assigned the “default” master/parent. Is this a bug in Mastermatic?

    Cheers and stay well!

    Brad

    • Ariel

      June 9, 2022 11:16 pm

      It’s a known limitation. The same thing would happen with an extra-long footnote that spans 3 pages.
      A couple of ideas that might help: (1) Apply an object style to the middle frame and link a master-page to that object style with Mastermatic. (The problem here is that if the text reflows, the object style won’t travel with the table). (2) Add an anchored object to one of the middle cells in the table, and again link the object style of that anchored object to a master page with Mastermatic. This might be a better suggestion since it would travel with the table if text reflows.
      The basic issue is that InDesign reports to the scripting system that these pages are empty, and although there are fairly complicated workarounds to overcome this limitation, they would slow things down too much.

Comments are now closed for this article.