Line break at open parenthesis

You could make a soft line break just before the §. Shift and Return or Ctrl + Return will break the line.

A parenthesis, like many other characters, is deciphered as a word separator so, if you are near the right edge, the app may cut the text because the 'word' which is just after is too long to fit at the end of the line.

Look in the list of Unicode characters. Maybe there is a _NO BREAK PAREN_ available.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 9 février 2010 22:49:06

This would work nicely if the document were in final or near-final shape, but changes made in the editorial process often move the citation from the end of a line to the middle of a line. In that situation, the soft line break would produce a half line. I was hoping to find some way of instructing Pages to leave the entire citation unbroken so that it automatically stays on one line. Every other word processor I've dealt with automatically treats a citation like the one I've given as a single word.

Unfortunately, I could not find a nonbreaking parenthesis character.

You could put the § code in a text box that you have inline in the text.

marco42 wrote:
Every other word processor I've dealt with automatically treats a citation like the one I've given as a single word.

If you disagree with the design choice made by bApple, you may :
(1) _Go to "Provide Pages Feedback" in the "Pages" menu_, describe what you wish.
Then, cross your fingers, and wait _at least_ for iWork'11 😉

(2) use one of the word processors behaving as you wish.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 10 février 2010 17:02:38

Thank you for suggestion 1. I've sent feedback to Apple with my suggested enhancement.

As for other word processors, I used Word for many years on a Windows computer. After switching to Mac, I tried Word for Mac, but I've found it cumbersome to use, in part because some of the usual Mac keyboard navigation shortcuts do not seem to work. So I've been trying to get used to Pages, which I'm liking very much. It is simple and intuitive and seems to have everything I need to create sophisticated legal documents. The only thing that has bothered me so far is this parenthesis issue.

What I would like to see is either a way to create a nonbreaking parenthesis (equivalent to option + space for a nonbreaking space), or an option in Inspector to force selected text to stay on a single line.

I don’t know if this will work in your situation but you can make the citation behave as a single word if you define it as placeholder text. (Menu > Format > Advanced > Define as Placeholder Text. )(Or Control Option+CommandT) At least it did when I tried it.

Walt

Thanks for this suggestion, Walt. Unfortunately, it does not seem to work for me. The citation still breaks at the open parenthesis and a piece slides over to the next line.

There is evidently a change in either the OS or Pages. I'm using Leopard and Pages '08 and with just regular formatting (no placeholder text) this is what I get:

Lute modit §
251(b)(3)(A)(iv) autatie, blam senectus eliquatum

It only breaks at the space. Looks like something changed with the upgrades. I wish I could have been of more help.

Walt

I am having the same issue, where in a technical document, the term C++ is split by Pages, with C+ on one line and the second + on the next line. I can't seem to find any way to make it keep "C++" all together. For me, the soft line break before C++ really won't work because the document format uses text which is left and right justified, so a line break would really mess with the paragraph formatting as that line would not be right justified.

Here, with Pages 4.0.3 under 10.4.11 as well as under 10.6.3 the open parenthesis move to the next line with the embedded text.

Which is your country/language setting ?
I know that the list of word delimiters is linked to the local rules.

You may try to insert the character NO BREAK HERE ($0083) between the open parenthesis and the firt enclosed character.
Try also the SPACE, ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK also named as ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE ($FEFF)

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) jeudi 22 avril 2010 19:08:10