Learn how to create a Pages document and add text with formatting, line spacing, headers and footers and much more in this quick tutorial. If you need to get up to speed fast to start a report or paper, this tutorial is for you.
Want to know more about how to use Pages on your Mac? Check out this MacMost course!
Comments: 19 Responses to “Learn How To Use Mac Pages In 5 Minutes”
Richard Greene
2 years ago
Great lesson, as always, Gary. I'm stuck in a Microsoft world at the university where I teach and have to use Word. I've occasionally encounter some conflicts when I save a Pages document in the Word format. Is there any kind of list of things that saving a Pages document in Word will result in some kind of error or revision in the final Word document? Thank you.
Richard: So why not just use Word? That's what I would do in that situation. Both apps are so deep you can't really create a definitive list like that.
Charles Bake
2 years ago
Absolutely amazing what you managed to fit in. Pages is just so good and is now my go-to app for word processing.
Paul Gardner
2 years ago
Gary - Can I set a default that will open a new document with the font values I want? I prefer Arial 14 pt, but new docs seem to always open on my iMac in Helvetic’s Neue 11 pt. Note that, on my iPad, my Arial preference is the default.
Nicely done. Not sure it was a "five minute tutorial." If you had spoken at a more typical speed maybe 7-8 minutes. Funny, I started out on Claris many years ago, then switched to Windows for Mac to communicate better with all of my business clients. Now I am retired and back wanting to use Mac "suite of word processing" including "Numbers." Going to look for a quick tutorial on Numbers.
Umesh Kumar
2 years ago
Excellent. Was afraid to us pages as I have invested in Word for many years. Would try Pages now for little things.
Mark McCluski
2 years ago
Amazing: I've been using Pages for years. I looked at the video to get an idea on how to explain something to someone who is new to Pages. And boom, I learned two great things I never knew!
Caroline
2 years ago
Fantastic whistle-stop tour! Yes, Gary, when you say at the end that you have a ton of video tutorials to help us get the most out of Pages, that's absolutely right. And I'd also like to mention your fabulous Course on Pages—as a former Word user, I learnt a massive amount from that course, which was totally worth doing and is still a valuable resource that I come back to whenever I need a refresher on any aspect of the app.
Joe Grillo
1 year ago
Absolutely one of the best vignettes I've ever seen. Watched it twice and loved it both times.
Dennis Craig
1 year ago
Gary, with the new version of Pages 12.2, when I create a function key as a shortcut to do a bullet, Pages shows that the function key is selected correctly, but when I actually try to use the function key to insert a bullet, the computer just "beeps" and the function key does not give a bullet. I have used this shortcut for bullets for years. Have you experienced the same, or do you have an opinion on why it is not working? Thanks from a Patreon supporter!
Dennis: Just tried it and the same result. Must be a bug.
nick
1 year ago
Hi Gary, I can't find a preference within Pages that deals how documents are saved. I opened a template I made, created something new with it then just closed it expecting Pages to ask me to save it and I would have chosen No. Instead it closed the document and it saved my new creation, which is not what I wanted to do, I like to save the template as is. Any suggestions? thx
nick: Are you trying to update the template, or save a new document based on that template? If the first, you need to use File, Save As Template to save the new version of the Template.
nick
1 year ago
Want to save the new document based on that template. Maybe I have the terminology wrong. I have a pages file with set margins, page size etc. I'm calling that a template, and I then use it to insert elements (graphics, text etc) and then save it as a new file, but always want to retain the template as I created it. When I closed the new file, I didn't want to save it to overwrite the template, but Pages did, without me saving it. Hope this make sense. thx
Nick: Oh, so you aren't using an actual Pages Template? You should look into doing that. Turn your "Pages file" into a template and make it easy to use. (https://macmost.com/creating-templates-in-pages.html)
But also, you could simply Lock the Pages file you use as a template now, to force you to have to open it and then save a copy. Or, turn it into a Stationery Pad (https://macmost.com/creating-template-files-for-any-app-on-your-mac.html). I recommend the first idea since it works so well in Pages.
nick
1 year ago
thanks very much for the suggestions
Phil
1 year ago
Gary, thanks for the very good 5 min tutorial on Pages. I really like it and have referred to it several times to make me comfortable and knowledgeable with Pages. You go thru it quickly.......obviously to keep it to 5 mins.........but it's a very useful tutorial. Keep doing these short videos......very helpful!! Thanks much and Happy Thanksgiving!!
Deborah Ellis
1 year ago
I've learned so much from these. Keep up the great work!
I write a monthly newsletter dealing with family history, which is distributed locally. I like to include a link or two to each subject. I highlight to make them links, then highlight them using Insert>Highlight. They show up on the screen as yellow links, but they never print out yellow. The link feature is still attached, just not in the highlighted yellow. I'm using Pages on my 2-year-old Mac Mini, with an HP Officejet Pro 8620. If t
Want to know more about how to use Pages on your Mac?
Great lesson, as always, Gary. I'm stuck in a Microsoft world at the university where I teach and have to use Word. I've occasionally encounter some conflicts when I save a Pages document in the Word format. Is there any kind of list of things that saving a Pages document in Word will result in some kind of error or revision in the final Word document? Thank you.
Richard: So why not just use Word? That's what I would do in that situation. Both apps are so deep you can't really create a definitive list like that.
Absolutely amazing what you managed to fit in. Pages is just so good and is now my go-to app for word processing.
Gary - Can I set a default that will open a new document with the font values I want? I prefer Arial 14 pt, but new docs seem to always open on my iMac in Helvetic’s Neue 11 pt. Note that, on my iPad, my Arial preference is the default.
Please advise.
Paul
Paul: Yes. See https://macmost.com/how-to-set-up-a-default-template-in-pages.html
Nicely done. Not sure it was a "five minute tutorial." If you had spoken at a more typical speed maybe 7-8 minutes. Funny, I started out on Claris many years ago, then switched to Windows for Mac to communicate better with all of my business clients. Now I am retired and back wanting to use Mac "suite of word processing" including "Numbers." Going to look for a quick tutorial on Numbers.
Excellent. Was afraid to us pages as I have invested in Word for many years. Would try Pages now for little things.
Amazing: I've been using Pages for years. I looked at the video to get an idea on how to explain something to someone who is new to Pages. And boom, I learned two great things I never knew!
Fantastic whistle-stop tour! Yes, Gary, when you say at the end that you have a ton of video tutorials to help us get the most out of Pages, that's absolutely right. And I'd also like to mention your fabulous Course on Pages—as a former Word user, I learnt a massive amount from that course, which was totally worth doing and is still a valuable resource that I come back to whenever I need a refresher on any aspect of the app.
Absolutely one of the best vignettes I've ever seen. Watched it twice and loved it both times.
Gary, with the new version of Pages 12.2, when I create a function key as a shortcut to do a bullet, Pages shows that the function key is selected correctly, but when I actually try to use the function key to insert a bullet, the computer just "beeps" and the function key does not give a bullet. I have used this shortcut for bullets for years. Have you experienced the same, or do you have an opinion on why it is not working? Thanks from a Patreon supporter!
Dennis: Just tried it and the same result. Must be a bug.
Hi Gary, I can't find a preference within Pages that deals how documents are saved. I opened a template I made, created something new with it then just closed it expecting Pages to ask me to save it and I would have chosen No. Instead it closed the document and it saved my new creation, which is not what I wanted to do, I like to save the template as is. Any suggestions? thx
nick: Are you trying to update the template, or save a new document based on that template? If the first, you need to use File, Save As Template to save the new version of the Template.
Want to save the new document based on that template. Maybe I have the terminology wrong. I have a pages file with set margins, page size etc. I'm calling that a template, and I then use it to insert elements (graphics, text etc) and then save it as a new file, but always want to retain the template as I created it. When I closed the new file, I didn't want to save it to overwrite the template, but Pages did, without me saving it. Hope this make sense. thx
Nick: Oh, so you aren't using an actual Pages Template? You should look into doing that. Turn your "Pages file" into a template and make it easy to use. (https://macmost.com/creating-templates-in-pages.html)
But also, you could simply Lock the Pages file you use as a template now, to force you to have to open it and then save a copy. Or, turn it into a Stationery Pad (https://macmost.com/creating-template-files-for-any-app-on-your-mac.html). I recommend the first idea since it works so well in Pages.
thanks very much for the suggestions
Gary, thanks for the very good 5 min tutorial on Pages. I really like it and have referred to it several times to make me comfortable and knowledgeable with Pages. You go thru it quickly.......obviously to keep it to 5 mins.........but it's a very useful tutorial. Keep doing these short videos......very helpful!! Thanks much and Happy Thanksgiving!!
I've learned so much from these. Keep up the great work!
I write a monthly newsletter dealing with family history, which is distributed locally. I like to include a link or two to each subject. I highlight to make them links, then highlight them using Insert>Highlight. They show up on the screen as yellow links, but they never print out yellow. The link feature is still attached, just not in the highlighted yellow. I'm using Pages on my 2-year-old Mac Mini, with an HP Officejet Pro 8620. If t