Image in Pages

Q1. I rarely use Media > Image Gallery. Instead, I drag and drop, or select a single image from Media > Photos. More flexibility.

Q2. Apparently, Image Gallery images crop if they do not fit the predefined selection box. There is no apparent Pages solution to rescale the image to fit within the Image Gallery boundary, once it is in there.

The fix would be to not use the Image Gallery, and instead, just drag and drop the desired image on its own into the Pages document (or from Media > Photos), select the original size from the Arrange panel, and then optionally, choose the Format menu > Advanced > Define as Media Placeholder. The image will be scaled to fit within the placeholder boundary.

And with the update to Pages v11.1 (now), apparently, though I have yet to test it, you can place links on shapes, lines, images, drawings, or text boxes. Something to consider.

When you use the Media > Image Gallery feature in Pages v11, it starts by inserting a Placeholder image box in your document to which you add your first image. Because this is an Image Gallery, it places a black (selection) dot beneath the first image. When you drag and drop a second image onto it, now you have two dots under the image and a click on the image presents superimposed arrow keys to switch between the images in your "gallery."

As an example, I have dropped two images on my own image gallery. Notice the change in indicators. One can click the underlying dots, or the arrows to transition the image in the gallery.

Thought I would mention that Image Galleries do not export functionally to Word. The image gallery is removed on export, retaining only one image from the image gallery. However, when exporting to EPUB, the image gallery remains functional with user-selectable images.