Pages Text Boxes -- Linking

Joseph Becker wrote:
Is it possible in Pages '09 to create multiple text boxes on a page where the contents typed into one of the boxes would populate the other text boxes? Essentially, I want to link the text boxes -- similar to linking the values in multiple cells in a table -- so that I can enter text once that would be repeated in several text boxes. I know I can link text boxes to accommodate overflow text but what I want here is a substitution rule of some kind. Anyone with ideas?

I have a precise idea : *feature unavailable* !

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 27 avril 2010 22:24:47

Welcome to Apple Discussions

What you can do, if it suits your purpose, is to enter your text into one box, then select the box (not the text) and Option Drag to duplicate the box.

Walt

I should have mentioned that you can also select the box and type Command + D to make a copy.

Walt

Create a 2 cell table. In the second cell enter the formula =A1. (Table Inspector, format button.) If you want the cells separated rather abutting, use more cells and enter the formula in the cell that’s where you want it to repeat on the page. You can hide the cell borders as needed.

I’m sure you can expand on this to accommodate the info you need.

Walt

Walt:

Now THAT is clever, for sure.

I'm in this thread because I think that what I want is quite similar: I simply want text to flow from one page to the next, from Page 1 to Page 2. If this is possible with text boxes I sure haven't figured out how to do it. Maybe it is and maybe there's another way?

Michael

Michael,



Walt

Michael

Download and read the Pages09_UserrGuide.pdf from under the Help menu.

Peter

In Word Processong mode the text flow from one page to the next. In Pay layout you have to use the linked text boxes.

Walt = Smart.

Peter = Smart, too. Smarty aleck, tambien 🙂 He's right though about reading the manual.

While playing with it this morning, I did discover the method that Walt kindly demonstrated, and I did it the same way I usually solve Apple software problems: looking for a simple, intuitive way to make it happen (a great example is the creation of new folders in iOS4).

I can't mark this as solved, Walt, but it IS solved for me, and thanks.

Michael

Michael

This is such a fundamental task that I assumed the basic problem really was not reading up the instructions for usage. 🙂

Although it would not be a cause for RTFM if Apple actually made clear purpose built tools for common tasks like selecting objects and linking textboxes.

Apple is not simplifying things by hiding them.

Peter

Hi Peter,

I find myself taking a different view of this issue. Even though I needed help finding the feature, still, my sense of the technique used is on of smooth and intuitive elegance. It is true, though, that sometimes 'intuitive' becomes, in a sense, to mean 'hidden', which is the case here.

Oh. And 'fundamental task'? Here again I find myself seeing this a bit differently. I am a longtime Pages user, but never used any templates, so of course the issue never came up.

Either way, thanks for helping out so that I can paper the world with more drivel about design!

www.msadesign.com

Michael

I really don't guess what is unclear in :



It's the first part returned when searching for linking

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) samedi 26 juin 2010 16:28:23