Item added to master not showing up cs4

Question

Hello all,  so here's my dilemma, I started a document that had left and right master pages. This document was used for various publications so items kept changing while the structure of the master remained. If I needed to edit, I overrode the master page to delete or edit items. Recently I changed an item on the master and it didn't change in my document. I selected the spot on each page and chose to 'remove override' and that solved the issue. It was a pain because I had to do it manually to alot of pages but it worked.   So now I've been told to add something to the page. I create a new text box on the master and place it where it's needed, but it's not showing up on any pages. I assume this has something to do with the initial override of each page, but I figured as a new item it wouldn't take on that attribute. The only way I seem to be able to get it to appear is to manually remove the override for the entire page, but then any other edits Ive made default to the the original master - meaning I'd need to go through and change all those again manually - a lot of work I want to avoid.   My question is this - can I not add a new item to a master and have it appear on all pages associated to that master regardless of if that page has already been overridden? It seems to be able to keep some items working even through the override (like page numbers) so I'm hoping the solution is simple and likely something obvious I'm missing.   Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Your description is a little hard to follow, but I think I've got the gist. New items added to the master page should show on all pages to which the master is applied, but if you've overridden other objects on the live pages and they overlap the new object, they are going to be in front of it on the live page, even if they are behind it on the master.
On any given layer, all master objects are behind all objects on the document page. if you have a situation wher you need a master object in front of a live object, add a layer and move it to the higher layer. Give that a try and see if it solves your problem.
And a general bit of advice. If an object is being overridden from the master page you need a REALLY good reason for it to have been on the master page to begin with. The whole point of master objects is they generally don't change, or if the do, they need to change everywhere. Perhaps you need more than one master, built in a "based on" heirarchy, so that you can edit a master object for a group of pages at a time.