editing business card template

Question asked and responded many times.

The copy paste feature is a good friend for this kind of tasks.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 4 mai 2009 21:15:46)

Clifford,

What is it that you are trying to do?

If you want to put someone else's details in every card on the page, create an Address Book entry with all the details in it then drag that card onto the page and they will all automatically change just as they did with your details, which were obtained from the same source in Address Book.

The graphics however you will have to copy and replace if you have altered them.

It would be a nice touch for Apple to let you use the thumbnail image in the Address Book (preferably in any useful format such as pdf) and have that auto replace the graphic in the card.

If you would like to nudge Apple into offering a genuinely useful feature in the next version of Pages, +Menu > Pages > Send Pages Feedback…+

Peter

Clifford Meece wrote:
So what I'm asking for is some kind of linked region support. Illustrator, publisher, pagemaker, and (I think) word all have that feature.

Here you are speaking to end users like you.

We may try to help you to use the application but we can't change it's design.

The asked feature is unavailable.

_Go to "Provide Pages Feedback" in the "Pages" menu_, describe what you wish.
Then, cross your fingers, and wait _at least_ for iWork'10 😉

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 4 mai 2009 21:55:48)

Clifford,

Which other word processing and design packages are you referring to?

Adobe Illustrator has the idea of symbols, not quite so quick to edit and change, which can then be placed in other Adobe software. The way it works though I wonder if it is worth the trouble.

Business Card Composer does this for a very specific kind of project, but is a poor design app IMHO.

Mostly though it is easier to just duplicate a finished design. In Pages if you group the card and have guides set up to help you position copies you can option drag dupes into place. Probably taking only a few seconds to do so.

If you are going to a commercial printer, even someone who is an Instant Printer, or digital printer, they do not want you to provide multiple copies. Their equipment usually does the duplication and positioning to exactly where their equipment wants it.

If you are printing it to a personal desktop printer, how often are you going to do this anyway?

On a level of difficulty making multiple regularly spaced copies of rectangular objects has to figure pretty low. The manual method usually wins hands down over painfully working out how to make your software do it for you.

If you haven't understood what I am saying it is don't fiddle with 10 copies. Make one and duplicate it. If you are altering an existing set, delete all but one, and duplicate that again.

Peter

Let me clarify the procedure.
#1 Design one card to your liking
#2 Select all text and objects in that card and group. Menu > Arrange > Group
#3 Duplicate, use the keys command + D
#4 Place the new "card" in their places, blue lines should show when you have aligned them to the other "cards"

Easier is:

#3 & #4 Option drag into place.