Pages

Before reinstalling, I'd suggest restarting the computer, and if that doesen't do the job, do a Restart into Safe Mode, using the instructions here: Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

Regards,

Barry

If you set the specific template to open in Pages Preferences : General, then the template chooser is not opened. In the following image, I have elected to allow the Template Chooser for all launches of Pages. Had I chose the Use template: TNRdefault, then the template chooser would have been suppressed.

Also, if you want to choose a template, and have Pages automatically use a specific font in that template, look at Default Font on that same General panel (Pages v8.2.1).

Tom,

I just launched Pages v7.3 with a double-click, on High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G11023), and it brought up the template chooser by default, because I have the following setting in Pages Preferences:

The OP is on Catalina with either Pages v8.2 or v8.2.1, and my Pages v8.2.1 application behaves just as this v7.3 application launch does.

It looks like the Pages icon in the dock has lost contact with the Pages application.

In Finder, open the Applications folder, and find Pages.app.

Drag the Pages icon off the dock, then drop it onto the desktop. You should see it disappear, possibly with a 'puff of smoke' effect.

(If it goes back to the dock, try again, this time moving it further from the dock before dropping it.)

When you have successfully removed the icon from the doc, grab the icon for the application (in the Applications folder) and drag that to the dock, placing it at the location you want it to be. (other icons will move aside to make room.

When you drop it, a copy of the icon (containing an alias to the application) will drop into the dock, and the original will fly back to the applications folder and rejoin the pages.app file there.

Close the Applications folder, and click on the new Pages icon in the dock to launch Pages.

Regards,

Barry

That is not a real Finder window, but an NSOpenPanel class dialog from the Cocoa AppKit framework that Pages has launched waiting on you to choose an existing, compatible document to open. The clue is the New Document button on the bottom of the panel. Finder windows do not offer this.

By default, when you click on the Pages dock icon, it should initially open a Template chooser. If you cancel that dialog, then you would have to select Open… from the File menu to get the Open File panel as you have shown.

On my Pages 7.3 (MacOS 10.13), launching Pages always gives me the window shown by the OP, and the preferences you mention only determine what happens when you click on New Document. No way to get directly to either the template chooser or a specific template by just clicking on the Pages icon.

VikingOSX wrote:

I just launched Pages v7.3 with a double-click, on High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G11023), and it brought up the template chooser by default, because I have the following setting in Pages Preferences:

Interesting! On mine those preferences only affect what happens after I click on New Document in the first window. Must be something slightly amiss with my install.

Launch Pages, and when the File Chooser appears, click Cancel. Then from the File menu : select New… to initiate the template chooser, select the template of choice, and this should open a new, unsaved document. Once the document is saved once, Pages will auto-save changes to your document.

HSKang wrote:

It's very hard to make a decision about what to do.

Like I said before, just click on New Document and you should get the template chooser. Does that not happen?

HSKang wrote:

How can I make the Pages app open?

Click on New Document. Don't you then get the Pages template choice screen??