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View Invisibles as default setting?

Is it possible to set the default for new Pages documents to "View Invisibles"
using a terminal command line like "defaults write com.apple.iWork.Pages..."?

Thanks!

Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Dec 15, 2009 3:43 AM

Reply
7 replies

Dec 15, 2009 7:50 AM in response to coxorange

We may get this behavior if we create a custom template with this feature set.
I looked in such a document ad found that the setting is stored in the property
SFWPShowInvisiblesProperty
Alas, when I installed such property in the preferences file, the newly created documents didn't reflect it.
I searched in the in thebox templates, there is no such property so, I assume that this one is introduced by the application code itself.

I guessed a way to force it by default thru the in thebox templates.

Navigate to reach :
Macintosh HD:Applications:iWork '09:Pages.app:Contents:Resources:Templates:Blank.template:index-iso.xml.gz
or Macintosh HD:Applications:iWork '09:Pages.app:Contents:Resources:Templates:Blank.template:index-trad.xml.gz
if you use American paper size.

Double click to expand it
rename the original ,file as
backup_index-iso.xml.gz
or
backup_index-trad.xml.gz
In the expanded file, search for the string
"</sl:SFWPCTShowDeletedTextProperty>"
Just after it, insert the string:
"<sl:SFWPShowInvisiblesProperty><sl:number sfa:number="1" sfa:type="c"/></sl:SFWPShowInvisiblesProperty>

User uploaded file

Save the file.
After that, every document created from this template will default to "Show Hidden Characters".

If you are interested, I may write a script able to apply the trick to every in thebox templates.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 15 décembre 2009 16:50:23

Dec 15, 2009 9:41 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

If you are interested, I may write a script able to apply the trick to every in thebox templates.


Thanks, that's not necessary - the solution you gave is perfect, no need for other templates - I rarely use them.

But what I'm doing quite often is opening doc, docx or rtf files (which must be edited and then be saved as pages files). In these cases invisibles are also hidden by default. I'm afraid there is no solution for these cases...?

(BTW, Yvan, since you are a scripting expert, would you please have a look my other question at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2265857&stqc=true ? Thanks.)

Dec 15, 2009 9:45 AM in response to coxorange

Unfortunately for those of us who would like templates to open with invisibles showing, the Pages engineers have decided we can't. There is a workaround, though, for templates you create yourself. Save the file as a Pages document with the invisibles showing & then change the extension in Finder to .template. Now the template will have invisibles showing.

Of course, this doesn't work with the built-in templates, so I am just in the habit of typing ⌘ ⇧ i (& ⌘ ⇧ L for layout) when I open a template.

I suggest you leave feedback for the Pages team regarding this. You can find it under the Pages menu > Provide Pages Feedback. That takes you to the same page as this link.

User uploaded file

View Invisibles as default setting?

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