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Moving the cursor in Pages

Hello,


There is something I don't understand it with Pages. I'm not able to move cursor freely in document, I can only achieve this by pressing "Enter" which useless since this would move the entire document down! In MS Word, this can be done so easily. See the picture please.


Did anybody suffer from this issue before?


MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 8, 2019 11:43 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 17, 2019 3:39 PM

Hi Sayaf,


You wrote: "…the only way to move the insertion point down without text in to add "Line Break" for every line, is that right?"


No.

There are several 'break' characters you can use to establish some 'empty' space in a Pages word processing document.


  • Pressing option-return inserts a line break. The current line of text ends at the break and the insertion point is moved to the beginning of the next line. Both lines are in the same Paragraph.
  • Pressing return inserts a paragraph break, and moves the insertion point to the beginning of the new paragraph. If you have set a specific 'space before paragraph,' 'space after paragraph,' or 'first line indent,' the result of pressing return will be visually different from the effect of pressing option-return. If your document has none of these format changes, the visual effect will be the same.
  • Inserting a page break (Insert > page break) creates a new page, and moves the insertion point to the beginning of a new paragraph on that page.,
  • Inserting a section break (Insert > Section break) creates a new section (and, if necessary, a new page), and places the insertion point at the beginning of that section.


"The insertion point cannot be placed anywhere in the space between the page break and the first character on the next page"


The statement applies to the main text of the document, which is all contained in the document body.


In each case, the break produces a break in the document body space.


But text can also be placed in a container, such as a Text box or a Shape.

And the container can be placed anywhere on the page, including in the space created by a break character.


As seen here, containers can also be made 'invisible'—like the text box containing the Page Break label and the "This text" message



Regards,

Barry

Similar questions

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 17, 2019 3:39 PM in response to Sayaf1409

Hi Sayaf,


You wrote: "…the only way to move the insertion point down without text in to add "Line Break" for every line, is that right?"


No.

There are several 'break' characters you can use to establish some 'empty' space in a Pages word processing document.


  • Pressing option-return inserts a line break. The current line of text ends at the break and the insertion point is moved to the beginning of the next line. Both lines are in the same Paragraph.
  • Pressing return inserts a paragraph break, and moves the insertion point to the beginning of the new paragraph. If you have set a specific 'space before paragraph,' 'space after paragraph,' or 'first line indent,' the result of pressing return will be visually different from the effect of pressing option-return. If your document has none of these format changes, the visual effect will be the same.
  • Inserting a page break (Insert > page break) creates a new page, and moves the insertion point to the beginning of a new paragraph on that page.,
  • Inserting a section break (Insert > Section break) creates a new section (and, if necessary, a new page), and places the insertion point at the beginning of that section.


"The insertion point cannot be placed anywhere in the space between the page break and the first character on the next page"


The statement applies to the main text of the document, which is all contained in the document body.


In each case, the break produces a break in the document body space.


But text can also be placed in a container, such as a Text box or a Shape.

And the container can be placed anywhere on the page, including in the space created by a break character.


As seen here, containers can also be made 'invisible'—like the text box containing the Page Break label and the "This text" message



Regards,

Barry

Dec 11, 2019 9:50 AM in response to Sayaf1409

Hello, Sayaf1409.


Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.


From what I've read is that you're unable to move the cursor in Pages and pressing enter moves the text to the next page. I'd like to help. This is expected as the cursor you're referring to is Page Break: Set pagination and line and page breaks in Pages on Mac


If you need to follow the steps in the article to remove formatting or Select text and place the insertion point in Pages on Mac



Cheers!

Dec 12, 2019 1:27 AM in response to Sayaf1409

Hi Sayaf,


What you are calling the 'cursor' appears to be the insertion point—the marker showing where text will be inserted as you type.


The insertion point can be placed anywhere in the text in your document. It can not be placed where there is no text, which appears to be what you are attempting to do in the image you posted.


brenden.dv may be correct in saying there is a page break in play here, but that is not apparent in your image. You can check by going to the View menu and choosing Show Invisibles.


In the image above, there is a page break after the word decisively (and a period and a space) on the upper page. The break forces any following text down to the next page, where you can see the insertion point immediately to the left of a blue pilcrow sign marking a 'new line'. Note also that spaces between words are made visible by the blue dots.


The insertion point may be placed elsewhere in the text by clicking at the place you want it, or by using the arrow keys in the lower right area of the keyboard. The insertion point cannot be placed anywhere in the space between the page break and the first character on the next page except for the position immediately before that first character, as shown above.


Pressing 'enter' (actually 'return') places a 'new line' character at the insertion point, moving the text after the insertion point down one line, as you've noted.


Regards,

Barry

Dec 17, 2019 7:53 AM in response to Barry

Hello Barry,


Thank you for your explanation, that was really helpful. And you are right I was mistaken, it is the insertion point not the cursor!


Let me quote this from your reply "The insertion point cannot be placed anywhere in the space between the page break and the first character on the next page". Here we are, why is this not possible in Pages while it is possible in Word? From what I understand until now, the only way to move the insertion point down without text in to add "Line Break" for every line, is that right?


Best Regards,

Moving the cursor in Pages

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