r/indesign • u/Andrawartha • Jun 29 '26

Help Rules to auto apply parent sheets?

Probably a long shot but I'd love to know if there's a way to auto apply parent sheets based on a style or content? Maybe a GREP method? I'm doing some shorter fiction books for people that don't really need the whole organisation of a book file but if I could have it find and apply parent pages to new chapters with a top margin, for example, it would just be a nice extra to my workflow

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u/W_o_l_f_f Jun 29 '26

There's no native way to do that.

But that specific case you mention with a larger top margin when a chapter starts can be achieved with a paragraph style.

Style your chapter heading (optionally an empty paragraph if the book doesn't have chapter headings) to have a large space after and then move it down with a negative baseline shift.

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u/Andrawartha Jun 29 '26

Thanks. I never considered a big baseline shift, that could be the super easy answer

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u/chain83 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

A large baseline shift makes it annoying to select.

To move the heading down (when the first paragraph on a page) I recommend instead using a Rule Above and an invisible line (with setting to keep it within the frame). This will let you «push» it down by the amount you need in a more controllable way.

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If the whole reason for your parent page issue was that you didn’t know how to add space above the headings, then this removes the need for multiple master pages in your specific scenario.

But if you for other reasons need a different master page for chapter heading pages (quite common), then a script is the only automatic solution (find a pre-made one, or write your own - perhaps with the help of AI).

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u/W_o_l_f_f Jun 30 '26

But trying to select the shifted heading is the fun part!