Before worrying about how your finished document should look, concentrate on writing first. Use zoom, fonts, highlights and other writing tools in Pages to write a good book, report, memo or other document and then format it for reading later.
Want to know more about how to use Pages on your Mac? Check out this MacMost course!
Comments: 18 Responses to “10 Tips For Writing In Pages”
Gail
3 years ago
Thank you Gary. I am going to use this to create a lease template. I'll use a note style for each item that changes. As I'm doing a new lease, I'll change the note style's format match the body style so it's not noticeable, save it as a final lease. Later I can pull it up and reset the note style back to different format to find any lines for updating when the lease is renewed. Thanks again! Gail
Phyllis
3 years ago
When I copy using the "edit" it works...then when I am adding a new paragraph copying with edit, it is not the new copy but the old copy keeps is added no matter how many times I try. What is the problem? I find Pages very difficult to use.
Phyllis: I'll need to know more details. What, exactly, are you doing? Step-by-step, key-by-key.
Paula M.
3 years ago
As usual, excellent info! As usual, very fast (how DO you talk so fast!). Also:
1. I like written content for future reference (I make notes in another program).
2. Like w/Phyllis above, even after many years, I still find Pages difficult to use. Not as intuitive as Word (or as WordPerfect from long ago - best EVER!).
3. I prefer to "type&format" as I go using keyboard."Finding" the content, etc in the document afterward to re-format, easy as it is, is a pain. Personal preference.
BartP
3 years ago
Thanks Gary,
I decided to try Pages and Numbers a year ago when I got my annual bill for Office. The learning curve has been slow for me, but this video showed me how to do some things I use to do in MS Word and that I did not know how to do in Pages. Have you made a similar video for Numbers or do you plan to do so? I have had a lot of issues adapting to Numbers.
ray sacks
3 years ago
Can styles be used to provide a caption facility as in Fig 1, Fig 2, Table 1, table 2 etc
Thanks for this Gary, the use of styles is huge and so important to embrace it!
I wasn’t aware of the Headings groupings in the sidebar, or I sort of recollected it but only when you addressed it; thanks for this.
I think one other aspect you could explain in future is cleaning up text of invisible characters using Find & Replace. \r works but not \l nor \n - I think \i is the equivalent, but I think this is very useful to know if you paste text that has all these hidden characters.
Ray
3 years ago
Hi Gary, Thanks for your reply - I have been experimenting with the caption option and the use of styles in Pages. They work as expected - very well... BUT - I would have liked to see if numbering and automatic number updating can be done in Pages rather like the 'Insert Caption' option in WORD under the ribbon heading 'References'. Probably this feature is down to a Pages updates some time!
Al Katz
3 years ago
I'm not sure this is directly related, but is there a way to insert or import a pdf document (238 pages long) into a new Pages document?
Thanks. Al
Al: Not really. You can copy and paste the text. But the best way to do it is to get the original source document (Pages, Word, etc) and go back to that. A PDF is like a printed piece of paper. The source is what you want, not the final exported PDF.
Steve
3 years ago
Gary, I listened to this post on Pages - indeed helpful. However, I cannot figure out why on some Pages documents the "View" sidebar goes the length of the document top to bottom and on others it only goes up to the tool bar. When it does not go the length of the document, the "Edit" option in the "Table of Contents" view in the sidebar is not available. Called Apple - spoke with two tech guys. Neither knew how to access the top to bottom view as you demonstated in your video. Can you advise?
Steve: I can't think of why the toolbar would cover the left sidebar for you some of the time. What happens when you quit the app and launch it again?
Teri Byrne
3 years ago
I made a great horizontal book of nearly 90 pages with the guidance of your excellent PAGES videos.
But now I need to rearrange some of those pages.
For Example: Page 35 needs to become Page 42. How do I rearrange those pages?
They don't seem to cooperate while trying to move them in the Page Thumbnails in the "View" screen!
Any advice?
Teri: is this a Word Processing document or a Page Layout document? If Word Processing, then copy and paste the text to move it around in the body. If Page Layout, then you use the thumbnails view on the left to drag and drop the pages.
Maggie
2 years ago
What's the easiest way to add italics only to foreign words in my text and can I proof my document in two separate languages so that the words in each are spelled correctly?
Maggie: Do you mean automatically? There's no way for Pages to know what words you want in a different style. As for proofing, not sure what you are looking for. Do you mean spellcheck? It should do that now if you are using both languages in System Preferences.
Thank you Gary. I am going to use this to create a lease template. I'll use a note style for each item that changes. As I'm doing a new lease, I'll change the note style's format match the body style so it's not noticeable, save it as a final lease. Later I can pull it up and reset the note style back to different format to find any lines for updating when the lease is renewed. Thanks again! Gail
When I copy using the "edit" it works...then when I am adding a new paragraph copying with edit, it is not the new copy but the old copy keeps is added no matter how many times I try. What is the problem? I find Pages very difficult to use.
Phyllis: I'll need to know more details. What, exactly, are you doing? Step-by-step, key-by-key.
As usual, excellent info! As usual, very fast (how DO you talk so fast!). Also:
1. I like written content for future reference (I make notes in another program).
2. Like w/Phyllis above, even after many years, I still find Pages difficult to use. Not as intuitive as Word (or as WordPerfect from long ago - best EVER!).
3. I prefer to "type&format" as I go using keyboard."Finding" the content, etc in the document afterward to re-format, easy as it is, is a pain. Personal preference.
Thanks Gary,
I decided to try Pages and Numbers a year ago when I got my annual bill for Office. The learning curve has been slow for me, but this video showed me how to do some things I use to do in MS Word and that I did not know how to do in Pages. Have you made a similar video for Numbers or do you plan to do so? I have had a lot of issues adapting to Numbers.
Can styles be used to provide a caption facility as in Fig 1, Fig 2, Table 1, table 2 etc
Ray: Not sure what you mean. Images already have a caption option. You can definitely use styles in the text INSIDE the caption, yes.
BartP: I have a ton of videos on Numbers. Search the site or use https://macmost.com/video-list to see them all.
Thanks for this Gary, the use of styles is huge and so important to embrace it!
I wasn’t aware of the Headings groupings in the sidebar, or I sort of recollected it but only when you addressed it; thanks for this.
I think one other aspect you could explain in future is cleaning up text of invisible characters using Find & Replace. \r works but not \l nor \n - I think \i is the equivalent, but I think this is very useful to know if you paste text that has all these hidden characters.
Hi Gary, Thanks for your reply - I have been experimenting with the caption option and the use of styles in Pages. They work as expected - very well... BUT - I would have liked to see if numbering and automatic number updating can be done in Pages rather like the 'Insert Caption' option in WORD under the ribbon heading 'References'. Probably this feature is down to a Pages updates some time!
I'm not sure this is directly related, but is there a way to insert or import a pdf document (238 pages long) into a new Pages document?
Thanks. Al
Al: Not really. You can copy and paste the text. But the best way to do it is to get the original source document (Pages, Word, etc) and go back to that. A PDF is like a printed piece of paper. The source is what you want, not the final exported PDF.
Gary, I listened to this post on Pages - indeed helpful. However, I cannot figure out why on some Pages documents the "View" sidebar goes the length of the document top to bottom and on others it only goes up to the tool bar. When it does not go the length of the document, the "Edit" option in the "Table of Contents" view in the sidebar is not available. Called Apple - spoke with two tech guys. Neither knew how to access the top to bottom view as you demonstated in your video. Can you advise?
Steve: I can't think of why the toolbar would cover the left sidebar for you some of the time. What happens when you quit the app and launch it again?
I made a great horizontal book of nearly 90 pages with the guidance of your excellent PAGES videos.
But now I need to rearrange some of those pages.
For Example: Page 35 needs to become Page 42. How do I rearrange those pages?
They don't seem to cooperate while trying to move them in the Page Thumbnails in the "View" screen!
Any advice?
Teri: is this a Word Processing document or a Page Layout document? If Word Processing, then copy and paste the text to move it around in the body. If Page Layout, then you use the thumbnails view on the left to drag and drop the pages.
What's the easiest way to add italics only to foreign words in my text and can I proof my document in two separate languages so that the words in each are spelled correctly?
Maggie: Do you mean automatically? There's no way for Pages to know what words you want in a different style. As for proofing, not sure what you are looking for. Do you mean spellcheck? It should do that now if you are using both languages in System Preferences.