Pages can't center text vertically on a page

Yes you can work around this with a transparent text box over another box, but it is more convenient and flexible to do vertical, top, centre or bottom alignment.

Pages can not do this except in the cells of tables.

I guess it depends on one's definition of "not nearly as practical" -- adding a text box is one step, and pretty easy to do in Pages. Note also that text can be vertically centered within a text box, so you don't have to do any aligning after the box itself is centered. Of course, this approach isn't as simple as being able to specify vertical centering directly.

Well it did take a while for even the heavyweights of DTP to have vertical alignment, but it is true this has been standard now for many years.

Even *Swift Publisher*, the other cheapie DTP package, has vertical centreing of text.

Let the programmers know through Apple's feedback that they need to include this in their next revision.

Hi rabascuas,
Vertical alinement would be a nice feature. In the upper left of the Pages screen click Pages > Provide Pages feedback; describe in detail what you want. Your comments go directly to Team Pages, then let's hope the next version of Pages will incorporate your request. I've sent in many.

Also, "... I am astounded that Pages can't do this simple thing...". Your being astounded is a non-sequitur. Truly we all could be astounded about any product inability to do things we want. It's astounding MS Word doesn't do things Pages does so well. 🙂

These Discussions are enduser helping enduser, not Apple employees answering questions. Apple provides these discussion forums for endusers however, Apple neither monitors nor engages in discussions. Enduser such as yourself when they have extra time answer questions.

Again, welcome to Pages '09 Discussions, have fun here.

Cordially,
RicD

Hi rbascuas:
Thank you for your feedback.

Truly I was poking friendly jabs at you 🙂 It makes me smile when someone says "astounded", to me they must be flipping out in disbelief or about to vapor lock. Myself I'd be astounded winning the loto.

As for, non sequitur: a reply that has no relevance to what preceded it, or, (logic) a conclusion that does not follow from the premises. From your use of "astounded".

Again it was a friendly jab nothing more, it was my hope you'd take it that way as well. Folk here jab me, making me laugh at myself for dumb mistakes to questions.

Also, thank you for sending Apple feedback on your issue. I too hope they'll include it.

Cordially,

RicD

Astonishing, astounded, confused, bewildered or whatever, to ***** at us is pointless.

You may think Apple trawls here to see users' reactions to its software and to gather up suggestions for improvements.

It doesn't. Those are reserved for the feedback links.

Look to us for commiseration, support and sometimes solutions but not for major changes in software.

We're all in the same boat.

Hi rbascuas,
Yes, truly I know the definition of astound however, thank you for your comment. When folks use astound many times they're being overly dramatic with they're comments, actions, and being pompous; thus my humors impression of them flipping out and vapor locking. The perception now is you're being much too sensitive.

These forums are for tech support leave it as such. When you again need software assistance please post back here. It's now the end for this conversation.

Cordially,

RicD

FWIW, I feel rbascuas' pain.

While "astonished" may be hyperbole (I just discovered that OpenOffice.org also lacks this functionality and I'm equally astonished at that), the text box solution is unacceptable for me.

I have exactly the same need as rbascuas: I need to produce cover pages in APA format.

I'm attending courses at an on-line university who asks that all assignments be submitted in rich text format (RTF). Guess what disappears when saving in RTF? That's right: text boxes. Furthermore, Pages drops headers when exporting to RTF. Word does not (I haven't checked OpenOffice.org).

So - I'm not bashing the product, and I realize Apple doesn't monitor these forums (fora?). I've sent a report to Apple about the vertical alignment, and will submit one about losing headers when exporting to RTF.

Pages doesn't let you vertically centre text on a Page as a paragraph style, but it does appear to internally support it (as it does adding text before a list number). This came up some time ago in this forum. If you create a vertically centred page in Word and import the document into Pages, the vertically centred format survives.

So it doesn't seem to me to be a huge leap for Apple to actually provide the functionality.

What kind of text do you need centered? It is extremely easy to centre a text box in Pages using the guides.

RTF export is virtually useless. All pictures disappear too.

However, Apple improves it slowly. Before Pages '09, tables were also ignored, but they are no handled.