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I use Command + F in pages and preview (and other similar software) to find and replace. Today even after restart, it no longer works. By that I mean it does not go to first use of word selected, not does it show no hits, nor is a selected word highlighted - in short no response at all.
Using Mac with MacOS 11.6. How fix?
iMac 27″, macOS 11.6
The Pages Find/Replace tool does not operate off of any selected words, but rather will scan the entire document for the word that is in the Find field. This defeats focusing the Find/Replace operation on a single block of selected text.
If you previously copy/paste a word into this field, it will remain on the search options clipboard and automatically appear in the Find field, the next time you use it, which would require you to manually update that field with the current text to be searched.
If the Find/Replace panel is set to Match Case, then searching for a lower case word when the body text word is title/upper-case text, or enclosed in quotes, will fail. If Whole Words and not Match Case is selected, then nothing will be found until you click the right-arrow in the Find/Replace tool — regardless if the word is quoted or not.
In practice, the use of the Find/Replace tool in Pages v11.2 is now, as described above, working differently than described in the Pages User Guide for Mac's entry on Find/Replace.
Tested: Pages v11.2 and macOS 11.6 on M1 mini.
The Pages Find/Replace tool does not operate off of any selected words, but rather will scan the entire document for the word that is in the Find field. This defeats focusing the Find/Replace operation on a single block of selected text.
If you previously copy/paste a word into this field, it will remain on the search options clipboard and automatically appear in the Find field, the next time you use it, which would require you to manually update that field with the current text to be searched.
If the Find/Replace panel is set to Match Case, then searching for a lower case word when the body text word is title/upper-case text, or enclosed in quotes, will fail. If Whole Words and not Match Case is selected, then nothing will be found until you click the right-arrow in the Find/Replace tool — regardless if the word is quoted or not.
In practice, the use of the Find/Replace tool in Pages v11.2 is now, as described above, working differently than described in the Pages User Guide for Mac's entry on Find/Replace.
Tested: Pages v11.2 and macOS 11.6 on M1 mini.
I experienced exactly the same problem after the latest update of Pages. The solution is to put the cursor in the text, then press <command-a> to highlight the entire document, or just select a part of of it depending on what you want, and then <command-f>. Then the search function works as before. The difference is, as I see it, that you now can search just in a chapter for instance and not having to search through the entire document. As an author with large documents with several chapters, this can be useful...
I have a Pages document with 179 pages. The last word in the document is unique. Without selecting any text in the document, a Find of that word is immediately found and highlighted. Again, Pages v11.2.
And, on a one-page Pages document, different than the one I based my previous post in this thread, it immediately finds a unique word on a single-page Pages document, without any selected text, and this behaves differently than my previous test performed in my earlier post. Fun software…
Yes, and when I tried an older document, created in a previous version of Pages, the search function works as before, without having to highlight anything. But not in the manuscript I'm currently working on.
Very strange. Is this meant to be or is it a bug, one wonders...
ThanK YOU, VikingOSX and BozzeH both for your replies. Let me add a little to what seems to be going on. I find it interesting that older (I wonder how old?) documents respond to command+F as before but newly created documents do not. I went back to see what I was looking at when I posted the original question. I tried command+F, using a word known to be in the document on an older document (opened before updated Pages and was open when I updated Pages but the effect of Command+F had changed. Then I closed the document and reopened it. When I opened the document I tried the known word again, Command+F worked as before. I would have thought it should be just the opposite. I am willing to believe something in the update broke the old effect of Command+F. But if that is what happened, I would have thought the old document open when Pages was updated would still respond as before, but by closing the document and opening again would likely fail. But just the opposite. But I know almost nothing about MacOS. (All of this without highlighting any word.)
But, I created a new document and without highlighting anything I would open Command+F and the word would appear without any previously highlighting.
So from here it seems that if (1) older documents that were open when Pages was updated Command+F does not work. If (2) older document was closed when Pages updated, Command+F works as before. If (3) older document open when Pages updated, the saved and closed or just closed, Command+F works as before. If (4) document is created after Pages was updated, Command+F works as before.
???
ehw
This find/replace issue has nothing to do with viruses, which cannot attack a Mac anyway, and only remotely might it be any anti-virus software running on the Mac that is interfering with Pages. I have none of the preceding sentence issues or installations, and Pages v11.2 Find/Replace will work differently based on which document I have open.
Of course, I could use another word processing application that likely would not have these Pages issues, and could save some of my personal time by not responding in this community… 🙃
Viking OSX - I appreciate your responses to my original question. I depend on folks like you who donate your time to respond to questions people like me raise. I trust you know that I am not the one who suggested the problem is a virus.
I also appreciate that I should not have left documents in pages to remain open during update. I had a lapse of thought at that moment. It was late I was tired. I was setting up a new MacBook Air and the last thing I did was upgrade the iWorks apps. When I finished I closed the MacBook Air and decided to upgrade my Mac and did so without even looking to see if pages was open or if documents were open.
Again, thank you for your assistance and observations.
I'm having the same problem. I think it's a Pages issue as I've tried the Find function (command + F) in Acrobat Reader and it works perfectly.
I'm using Pages 11.2 in Mac OS 11.6
NOTE: I experimented creating new documents just entering keywords I wanted to search and saving them in different locations (iCloud, Dropbox) to see if it was a path issue. The Find function worked in both cases, but still not with my original document.
I then created a new Pages document and copy-pasted all (CMD+A) from the original into the new one and presto! Find works!!
My thought is that the original document somehow got corrupted.
Also as a side note: when I initially tried the Find function on the original document, I got the spinning beachball of death and had to force quit. I'm not sure if it was due to the original document first being created in an older version of Pages then subsequently saved with the updated version?
In my case, it ended up being that I had to close the document and reopen it. Even though I had rebooted countless times and opened and closed Pages, Find still wouldn't work. Kind of embarrassing, really. Apple finally contacted me and so I started gathering info for them. I was so surprised to find that a new document worked fine. So, I took an existing document and that worked fine. I tried the ones that had been causing trouble and they still didn't work. Then, I finally attempted closing and opening the documents and they worked fine! Really, really weird.
It may be a crawling or flying form of bug or just poor code design. You can send constructive feedback to the Pages product team from the Pages application menu, but I doubt they will respond.
I have never updated Pages with the application or document still open in it. A good way to torch an open document.
It does seem they would ignore an atom bomb.
This is bad. I can't decide if it is a bug or a virus. I'm glad I have nothing of value to steal on my computer. That is a terrible failure when Find doesn't even work.
Weird update on this one. If I reboot with a pages document open, it loses CMD-F. For those documents only!
Command + F in pages stopped working
