Help! I've created a brochure using one of the pre-formatted templates (Elegant Brochure). Only now I would like to change the background to a different/solid color. However, Pages will not let me select the background in the brochure.
The Apple Pages team creates these templates for two purposes. The first is to provide a library of starting points you can use to create great-looking documents. The second is to show all the different ways documents can be created. The background you're referring to could have been accomplished by using a rectangular object, then filling it with color. But in this case it was made by inserting a photo. I discovered this by clicking on the background. Little x's appeared in the corners, which tells me it's a locked object. Going to the Arrange menu, I was able to Unlock the object, which allowed me to select it. I then tried to change its fill color. I was unable to do that, because the color wasn't inserted using a fill. So I clicked on the Metrics inspector, and saw that it's really a photo called Elegant
FrontLeft.jpg. It's defined as an image placeholder. Here's what I did to replace it with a background color.
- Click on background so that little x's appear
- Click on Arrange > Unlock
- Press delete key to remove it
- Click on Objects icon > Shapes > rectangle
- Click on Colors icon
- Click on the little box or crayons icon
- Select your preferred color
- Drag the object into position, then stretch it as necessary
- Click on Arrange > Send to Back
Or, you could simply drag in another jpeg on top of it to replace it.
The Apple Pages team creates these templates for two purposes. The first is to provide a library of starting points you can use to create great-looking documents. The second is to show all the different ways documents can be created. The background you're referring to could have been accomplished by using a rectangular object, then filling it with color. But in this case it was made by inserting a photo. I discovered this by clicking on the background. Little x's appeared in the corners, which tells me it's a locked object. Going to the Arrange menu, I was able to Unlock the object, which allowed me to select it. I then tried to change its fill color. I was unable to do that, because the color wasn't inserted using a fill. So I clicked on the Metrics inspector, and saw that it's really a photo called Elegant
FrontLeft.jpg. It's defined as an image placeholder. Here's what I did to replace it with a background color.
- Click on background so that little x's appear
- Click on Arrange > Unlock
- Press delete key to remove it
- Click on Objects icon > Shapes > rectangle
- Click on Colors icon
- Click on the little box or crayons icon
- Select your preferred color
- Drag the object into position, then stretch it as necessary
- Click on Arrange > Send to Back
Or, you could simply drag in another jpeg on top of it to replace it.
In Elegant Brochure background colour is a JPEG image. First unlock the background object (under Arrange menu), click on Metrics inspector and you will see the JPEG file. So you can't change it's colour.
But you can replace one JPEG with another - with a different colour. And you create it.
Try this:
• Note measurements of the background window
• Open a blank Pages doucment and create a shape with the same dimensions or slightly larger
• In Object Inspector click colour fill and get the colour you want.
• When you are happy Print your document to iPhoto: Command+P, click on PDF drop-down menu, choose 'Save PDF to iPhoto'.
Go back to your brochure Pages document, open Media Browser, find your new coloured box in the Media browser and drag it onto the colour background window. Adjust mask the way you want and you should get the desired new background colour.
