Pages - cannot escape "select all"!

Hi StrugglingDE,

Pages makes two types of documents:

• Word Processing documents (such as the one you are apparently using) contain a 'document body' which contains the main text stream that runs from beginning to end to the document.

Word Processing documents add pages automatically as they are needed to accomodate the text in the document body. Other objects (eg: images) can be added to the document. If these objects are set to be 'inline with text,' they are treated as if the image was a single (very large) character in the text flow, and like text, force a new page whenever one is needed to accommodate the text (and the inline images).

The added pages remain in the same section (think of it as a "Chapter" in a book) of the document. You can end one section, and start another at any point in the document by inserting a section break at the end of the text in the earlier section.

A section will contain at least one page, and may (as in your document) contain many. To make a one page section requires two section breaks: one at the end of the text on the last page before the new section, the second at the end of the text in the new section (ie. the end of text on th first page of that section).

The second type of document produced by Pages is a Page Layout document.

• Page Layout documents do not contain a 'document body.'

All text in a Page Layout document must be in a container—usually a text box, a shape, or a table.

Text does not flow from page to page (although it can be set to flow from one text box to the next), and new pages are NOT added automatically to accommodate the text that is entered. When needed, the user inserts a new page using the New Page menu item in the Insert menu.

Each page in a Page Layout document is a separate Section, making it a more appropriate document type for creating, say, a 'slide show'.

Suggestion: Save your current document.

Open a new document, give it a name, then, in the Document Inspector, locate and uncheck the Document Body checkbox.

You will get a warning that removing the Document Body will also remove all of its current content (which is why you are doing this on a NEW document, with no content to lose).

Place a text box on the page, then Copy the text for that page from the original document, and paste it into the text box.

Continue with the other pages.

Regards,

Barry

Have a look at these web pages from the online Pages User Guide:

Add and remove sections https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/pages/tan04071ed64/mac

Add, rearrange, and delete pages https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/pages/tan8f54dbbd9/mac

To duplicate a page, you first have to put that page in its own section. The blue border that you see shows you all the pages that are in that section.

The right-click menu in the Pages thumbnail gallery deals only with sections, not individual pages of a section. If you right-click on page 2 of Section 1, and choose duplicate, that entire section is duplicated below the first. Although you can drag an entire section before, or after another section, there is no thumbnail gallery manipulation of individual pages within a section.

The Pages User Guide for Mac approach to page duplication is to duplicate the section, and then delete the individual pages that you don't need in that result. Although the linked Pages help information suggests that you can select a page to duplicate or move, this is wrong, and the entire section is impacted, not just a single page of a section. This makes working in Pages woefully inefficient, and you might be more productive in a subscribed Microsoft 365, or its single-purchase Office 2019 for Mac alternative. I would not overlook the free, 64-bit LibreOffice (now at v7.0) which is a deliberate Microsoft Office clone.

So, just to be clear you’re stuck? Frozen when you enter Pages app? If you’re not, if you can, possibly copy and paste your documents to another writing application? Nevertheless, maybe you should set up an appointment at Best Buy or some place like that to go get some extra help with this.

If you’ve saved your pages then you should be all good, and I suggest forcing restart on your Mac.

Link:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201150