Special Keyboard Shortcuts for Pages Styles

Since there are no menu bar selections for styles in Pages, you cannot assign standard keyboard shortcuts to them. But there is a special method that can be used to assign F-keys to paragraphs, character and bullet list styles. You access these through the format sidebar in a way that isn't readily obvious.

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Video Transcript: Now in most cases when you want to create a keyboard shortcut you simply look for the Menu item and then you decide you want a keyboard shortcut for that. You go to System Preferences, go to Keyboard, and you can set one specifically for that menu choice. But sometimes there are commands that don't have any equivalent up here in the menus. 
One such case is in Pages when you want to apply a Style. If I wanted to make this line here the Title Style, the way for me to do that is to go to Format, on the right sidebar here, and then go to the Style pulldown, and select Title. Now it would be nice if I had a keyboard shortcut for that. Maybe I don't use Title so often but maybe I use Heading a lot or Body, or something like that. You can create a keyboard shortcut for this but it's not done the normal way. 
The way you do it is you look to the right here. You see this little arrow that appears here to the right. Click that. You get a little menu of some items here. You can do lots of different things but one of the things you can do is find a keyboard shortcut. Now you have to pick an F key for this. So in this case let's go and set this as F1 for Title. Now you see, instead of the arrow there, F1 for Title. We can do the same thing for Heading. We can select F2 for that. For Body let's select F3 for that. Now we have keyboard shortcuts for these. So I'm going to hit F1 here. Select this line hit F2 and this line hit F3. So you can easily set these up.
Now, as always, keep in mind for F keys you want to check in System Preferences, under Keyboard, and look for the checkmark here. Use F1, F2, etc keys as standard function keys. If you have this turned off that means you have to hold the fn key on your keyboard when you  press F1 in order for it to be an F1 key otherwise it will be a brightness control. 
So you can also do these for some other things inside of Pages. For instance, Character Styles, as you would imagine, are just like the Paragraph Styles.  In here you also see these little arrows. I can also click here and set a shortcut and select an F key. Even for Bullets & Lists Styles here it's got the same thing. It has these little shortcut keys here that you can add. So this gives you a way to start a bullet list, for instance, by hitting say F4 instead of having to choose it from the sidebar here or use it instead of characters to start it. Like I can just hit F4 and then start typing a list. 
So it's useful to know that there's that special way to setup these shortcuts for Paragraph Styles, Character Styles, and Bullets & Lists Styles.

Comments: 11 Responses to “Special Keyboard Shortcuts for Pages Styles”

SCERRI Emmanuel

7 years ago

Thanks. That was useful.

Lauren Eisen

gary, is there a shortcut or way to set a pref for inserting a graphic or file? i always have to select arrange > text wrap > none. is there a way to make "none" a default?

Gary Rosenzweig

Lauren: That's a common complaint, so you are not alone. You just have to set it each time. Or, copy and paste an existing image and just change the image with the Format sidebar, under Image, there is a Replace button. Then you keep all of the settings.

Malcolm Stevens

Is there a way to make bullet list using a special character, other than the default options?

Shirley

I agree with Lauren and Gary. It is a pain to constantly have to change Text Wrap to "None." If enough people complain at https://www.apple.com/feedback/ maybe Apple will hear us!

Yes, go to Bullets & Lists near the bottom in the Sidebar, choose Image Bullets and then Custom.

Beth B.

Is there a shortcut for setting margins? Every document I type, I change the default margin settings. Thank you!

Beth: Always to the same margins? Then why not create a template for that?

Dennis Craig

I always learn something new! This will be a handy lesson for my use of Pages! Thanks!

Bruce Holland

Hi Gary

I really like your posts. Over time they are making me far more literate.
I often use start speaking to check my typing. I have entered the following into System Preferences/Keyboard/Shortcuts:
Edit->Speech->Start Speaking

But it doesn't work. Can you help please?

Regards Bruce Holland
Bruce Holland

Bruce: You don't enter the full path, just the exact text of that item. So: "Start Speaking".
See my video on it here: https://macmost.com/adding-custom-menu-keyboard-shortcuts.html

Comments Closed.

Special Keyboard Shortcuts for Pages Styles

Comments: 11 Responses to “Special Keyboard Shortcuts for Pages Styles”

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