Do the header boxes touch each other on the master pages? (i.e., overlapping to margins/gutters). Are they grouped across the spread?

I’ve had similar problems, especially if there is an inside bleed.

In the current job I’m working on, I had to nudge the right-hand box over .5 points from the inside gutter.

I know your problem is left-hand pages, but maybe it’s something similar.

Dan, I don’t have an answer.

But–there’s nothing wrong with assembling things or testing things on the pasteboard. Many people do it (myself included).

While I also have sample files, I still do things on the pasteboard.

For example, had a job where all of the chapter titles were pieces of art. And some heads. We were supplied the art, which was good. But there were a few that were not provided, but they had provided an artfile of the entire alphabet. So a few short titles I had to create by putting the different letters in separate picture boxes and grouping and anchoring.

I found it easier to assemble on the pasteboard than creating a new document.

There is nothing wrong or improper about using the pasteboard. That’s what it’s there for. So don’t beat yourself up about it or think it makes you an amateur.

For your character style, you will make the text color white.

Then you will go to your underline options and create your black rule. You will need to play with the height of the rule and the offset.

David–the issue isn’t so much files that are copied and saved to Dropbox. It seems when someone works directly off of Dropbox (sort of like working on files on a server across the network).
When we receive those files (copied to our hard drives) we get a permissions error–we can read only.
It’s a simple enough fix–just get info on the folder and change to read & write.
ID files were locked, so were the fonts, the art, etc. Everything.
Like I said–changing permissions on the local computer the job was on worked–but it was an annoyance.
I am thinking the designer had the entire job on Dropbox and worked on the job directly from Dropbox.

It seems he tried the paragraph rules with no success.

I personally would create a circle text box, make the fill red, and then type in the numbers and make white. And then anchor in place.

I figure a half hour tops.

You can do it, but you will have to by hand (and figure out the math). Whether you do it on one single page or a master page, it’s the same set up.

Set it up for four columns. Then right click on the pasteboard of that page. Scroll down to ruler guides, then uncheck “lock column guides.” You can then move the colum guides to where you want them.

Note–I am talking about four columns on the page–not an actual text frame that is set up for four columns.

I’d suggest you create master pages for it.