How can I replace a single line of text in a Pages template?

Question

How can I replace a single line of text in a Pages template?

Pages 10.0 w/ OS Catalina 10.15.4

I'm editing a document created from the "contemporary resume" template; I've had this same issue with other templates.

There is a text box with multiple lines of text, each ending with a paragraph symbol (i.e. the lines break, they don't wrap). I want to replace the filler text. It seems like I should be able to select the sample phone number and replace it with mine, while leaving in place the paragraph symbol that ends that line and thus preserving the formatting. Then I should be able to select the sample email and do the same, etc. But I can only select all of the text within the text box, so that I can't maintain the line breaks and formatting. See screenshot below.

Is it not possible to select and replace one line at a time?

thanks

Rich

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.12

Posted on Apr 12, 2020 10:14 PM

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Answer 1

Barry

Level 9

60,023 points

Apr 12, 2020 11:29 PM in response to Richard Potter

Hi Rich,

The text in the box has been formatted as Placeholder Text. The main property of Placeholder text is that it gets out of the way as soon as you start typing. Depending on the template, the text on each line may be independent of the other lines, or may be a group of lines, or may be an entire paragraph. Whatever highlights when yo click in that text space is the selected block of placeholder text, and is going to depart at the first stroke of a key.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 2

Apr 13, 2020 1:52 PM in response to Barry

Thanks again, Barry. I don't need to use this template frequently -- I asked because it just seemed like it should work differently and I thought I might be missing something -- but what you suggest seems like the right way to create a maximally efficient template for those that do need to use it frequently.

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Answer 3

Apr 12, 2020 11:31 PM in response to Barry

Thanks, Barry. That confirms what I suspected. Just seems like it would be more efficient / useful if I could replace the text line by line.

Rich

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Answer 4

Barry

Level 9

60,023 points

Apr 13, 2020 12:22 AM in response to Richard Potter

I checked a couple of the Letter templates (knew I'd find an address block there) before posting. At lest one of them (possibly Modern letter) had individual lines of placeholder in the address. They're in text boxes, so it might be possible to copy a text box from from one template, then paste it into another to replace the address block there.

Another route is to consider is how often will you use this template, and what parts of it will NOT change from his use to the next. Open the template, enter the parts that won't change, replacing the placeholder text with regular text, formatted as you want it, then save the result as a template, adding "My " to the beginning of the original name.

The new template will appear in the bottom section of the template chooser (Mt templates). A document created from this template will have all the stable data already inserted and formatted. It is still editable, if need be, and since it's no longer placeholder text, you can replace as much or as little as you need to.

Regards,

Barry

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How can I replace a single line of text in a Pages template?

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