InDesign, the basics

Member lesson

Pages, parent pages and the grid

Lesson 2 of 7 in InDesign, the basics.

Checked against the makers' documentation on 9 October 2026.

Design SMARTER With Parent Pages | Design Tutorial | Adobe InDesign · Gareth David Studio
Lesson

A parent page holds whatever should appear on many pages at once, such as page numbers, a running head, a logo or an empty frame waiting for a picture. Adobe's help calls it a reusable template. Draw a page number once on the parent, apply that parent to forty pages, and all forty show it. Change the parent and every page using it changes too. Until October 2021 these were called master pages. Adobe renamed them in that month's update as part of a move to more inclusive words, so older books and forum answers that say master mean the same thing.

12 columns · 8px gutterspans 5spans 6
A twelve-column grid with gutters, and a block spanning five columns.
Member

The rest of this is for members.

You have read the opening of this lesson. The rest of it comes with a membership.

One membership covers all four courses and Brands.

  • All lessons in the four Learn courses
  • All brand breakdowns in the Brands section
  • All quizzes, flashcards and crosswords
  • An AI teacher on every lesson, for up to 60 questions a day
  • All course material published during the membership

Price

Membership is from $12 a month on the Yearly plan, which is charged at $144 once a year. Lifetime access is $59, paid once.Membership is from ₹200 a month on the Yearly plan, which is charged at ₹2,400 + GST once a year. Lifetime access is ₹3,999 + GST, paid once.

Check what stuck

Members only

You can't take this check yet.

Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    What did InDesign call parent pages before Adobe's October 2021 update?

    • Master pages
    • Template pages
    • Layout pages
    • Base pages
  2. Question 2, locked

    You put a Current Page Number marker in a frame on A-Parent. What does the marker show on the parent page itself?

    • The number 1
    • The letters PB
    • The parent's prefix, the letter A
    • Nothing until the page is exported
  3. Question 3, locked

    What value does Adobe's help say to enter in Increment Every when you set up the baseline grid?

    • A round 12 points, whatever the type
    • Half the width of the column gutter
    • The size of the largest headline
    • A value that matches your body text leading

Elsewhere in the library

Hear about new courses.

Leave an email and we will tell you when something new lands. We do not write often.