Welcome back to the Atticus training zone where you learn how to best use this professional software as efficiently as possible to format your books for publication. 

In this tutorial, we’re going to walk through the process of creating a page template that you can use and re-use across any or all books within your Atticus account. 

Create a Master Page

To create a template, you’ll first need to design a page within a book you’re working on how you would like it to be set up.

Creating templates of your front and back matter pages that are commonly the same or very similar in each book you write is a great place to start. This may be your About Author or Also by page, a review request page, or even a call to action.

Once you’re happy with it, click the three dots beside that page’s title in the left navigation panel and choose Save as template. 

Access a Created Master Page in Another Book

To access it in another book, simply go to that book, click the three dots on the Add a Chapter button and choose From Master Page>

You’ll then just need to drag and drop the page where you need it to be. 

It can take a few minutes to sync across all your books, especially if you have quite a few books in your account. If you’re not seeing it right away, it may just need a bit more time. You can also try doing a hard refresh:

• Windows Chrome Users: Press CTRL + Shift + R
• Mac Chrome Users: Press CMD + Shift + R
• Safari Users: Press Option + Command + E
• Explorer Users: Press CTRL + F5

How to Sync Changes to All Books

Once you’ve created a template, at the top of that page in any book you add it to, you’ll have the option to “Click To Apply Changes To All Books Using This Master Page”. If you don’t click this link, any updates will be on that page of that book only. 

If you do click, Atticus will sync the changes you’ve made across all the books currently using this template, as well as overwrite the original template for all future uses.

You will always see a popup to ensure you really want to take this step. 

Using the Master Pages Gallery

Once a template is created, you’ll be able to find it in your Master Pages gallery, accessible from your Home dashboard. 

For each master page, if you click the three dots beside the title you will have the following options:

• Edit
• Delete
• Sync template to all books

If you choose Edit, you can edit the master page. You can also edit any master page from any book that it is used in, and sync using the link we previously discussed. 

Delete will remove the template from your account. There will always be a confirmation popup to ensure you don’t accidentally delete your template. 

Sync Master Page to all books will also provide you with an update, reminding you that if you continue, any updates you’ve made to this master template will be applied to the version of this page in all books within your account that are currently using the master page. 

Additional Information

When you originally create a master page, it will take on the “name” of the chapter or page title you created it with. 

If you would like to create two or more versions of a page, you can change the title of the page in order to differentiate between them in the gallery. For example, one of the most common uses of a master page is to create an Author Bio or Also By page.

If you have multiple pen names, you may want to have more than one About Author template or Also By page. To differentiate between them, you can add your pen name to the title in the master page. When you add it to a new book, if you don’t want the pen name there, you can simply delete it in that book without syncing the change to the master template. 

Something else you may have noticed is that editing a page from the Master Pages gallery provides you with a much simplified view of Atticus. For here, your formatting options are limited to:

• Converting to another page type
• Setting the master page to be included only in specific versions of publication type
• Setting this page type to begin on a specific side of the page
• Choosing whether this master page will insert into new books as Numbered or not

The reason you aren’t provided with all the standard formatting options is because the master page will always take on the theme settings of any book you place it in. It will automatically update to reflect the theme of each book.

I hope you’ve found this tutorial teaching you how to create and use master pages efficiently within Atticus helpful. If you’re looking for more useful tips for using Atticus to produce your book, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and ring the bell so you’re notified when new videos are released!. 

Happy formatting!