Long continuous passages -- spanning several pages

Question

I am trying to set-up my iWork for a booklet, but am having problems.
On each page, I need three basic sections for text:
1) MAIN BODY - I've got a bunch of text that I want to drop here that would not fit on one page, but I'd like it to run over to the next page's MAIN BODY and so on.
2) RIGHT-LEFT BORDER COLUMN - I've got running commentary on the side of the main body, that I also want to span several pages.
3) BOTTOM FOOTNOTES - At the bottom of each page, I want a text box for footnotes. This does NOT need to span several pages.
And finally, after getting a page set-up for this... how do I save it as a template?
Thanks in advance to all those who help me... I hope!

Answer 1

Hello Brad,
for the booklet you need a two sided page layout, I think. So set the option "Facing pages" in the "Document" inspector under the "Document" tab panel to active. Now set number fields in the "Document margins" section in the same tab panel so you have the width of the main text column covering the main text area and the commentary area. You don't need the header or the footer so set both to "0". In the "Layout" inspector you have to set the "Layout margins" "Outer" number field to a value, so you have the space for your commentary column and enough width for the main text area.
Now the next layout part that is missing is the commentary column. This we have to insert as a fix positioned textbox on every page.
So show the first page and make sure the text cursor is not visible (or you will insert the textbox into the text are where the text cursor is visible, what we want to avoid). Now be sure the snap tool is active (the last two options in the preferences window). Insert the textbox and place and resize it to fit the room you need for it. Now deactivate the text wrap for this textbox in the "Wrap" inspector with the option "Object causes wrap".
Now the last area, the footer. You only have to insert it when you need this footer or you will have an empty textbox on every page. I think you want to have it's width from the outer border of the main text area to the outer border of the commentary textbox. So insert a textbox with no shown textcursor and place and resize it for your needs. Make sure this footer textbox is in the front level (menu: "Arrange/Bring to Front") but normally every new inserted object will be placed in the top level. For this textbox the wrap option has to be set so it wraps the text of the main text area and of the commentary area. That prevents the footer text from covering the other text. Now insert the text you need, and if the text will began to overfill the box, go in the layout mode for that textbox (click once outside and once inside of it), grab the middle handle at the top border and resize it so you can see all text.
If the main text area will be full, Pages creates automatically a new page to contain the overflowing text. This will not be the case for the commentary column, because it is a textbox. You will notica a small rectangle containing a plus sign at the bottom border, if this textbox will be overfilled. To see this hidden text, do a double-click into the blue rectangle near the bottom of the right border of the textbox. A new textbox with the same size will appear on the next page, containing the text that don't fit into the textbox of the previous page. You only have to place the textbox aside the main text area.
So that is one layout appearance for the booklet, but you can have a none facing pages document as well. I think after this little tut you will be able to do the layout you need.
To save this as a document template, use the menu item "File/Save as Template...". If you want to have a section template for inserting different sections with the same layout (like with the menu item "Insert/Pages/") we will answer this in a new post, because this box will overflow soon as well.
And if there are more questions (because my explanations are not understandable), feel free to ask.