Dark Mode in Pages

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Dark Mode in Pages

Hello Everyone---

I've recently seen the newest round of promotion for features in Pages and zeroed in on the following: "Dark Mode

Enable Dark Mode to give Pages a dramatic dark look and emphasize your content."

Because I have had Dark Mode enabled while never seeing any "dramatic dark look," I checked the support document's Table of Contents along with performing a search for "dark mode." Three results appeared with unrelated titles, and I did not waste my time reading them.

The first question I have might be answered easily. Where is the setting in Pages for Dark Mode? Since there is no evidence of a "dramatic dark look" with Dark Mode enabled at the system level, 1.) there must be a setting somewhere within Pages, 2.) something is broken on my system, or 3.) this is a hoax.

If this is a hoax, I can understand not covering the topic in the technical / user documentation. If this is not a hoax---a second, likely unanswerable question---how does Apple decide what new, promoted features will enjoy technical / user documentation and which ones will be ignored while assuming user intuition will light the path. Or, maybe this lack of information is, indeed, a small part of the Dark Mode?

***Being a 'smart aleck' here is not directed to community members but to the Apple AI, hopefully busy parsing these pages for public opinion. I've already wasted a good part of today moving files around and repartitioning an external drive since TimeMachine stopped managing the space by deleting older backups, a task it's repeatedly done well beginning with my earlier G4 mac mini and up to my present Intel mini, collectively for the last 13 years or so using the same 500GB LaCia drive, up to this morning. I would have rathered not wasting the other part of the day trying to find information about an advertised feature with no documentation.

Any assistance for Pages Dark Mode is appreciated.

Mac mini, macOS 12.3

Posted on Apr 16, 2022 1:21 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

124,808 points

Apr 17, 2022 4:37 AM in response to UnknownComplexity

What you see in Pages with dark mode enabled is what you get, and there is no magical defaults command that enables dark mode for the document body.

However, in more recent versions of Pages, it does provide a black document template that defaults to white text, but the black will become the permanent document background when exported to PDF or Word. This is not the case with other word processing applications, and hardly what most users want in a finished document.

I suggest that you stick with the tools that give you the visual interface that you require, and it sounds to me as though Pages is not among them.

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Answer 2

ku4hx

Level 7

23,700 points

Apr 16, 2022 1:24 PM in response to UnknownComplexity

Here ya go: dark mode in pages - Apple Community

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Answer 3

Apr 16, 2022 8:52 PM in response to ku4hx

In the helpful link provided, a user posted a screen shot with Pages using a darker page and different color font---without providing any guidance on how to achieve this. On other apps, like Mellel, I've figured out how to do this. Yet, I struggle with Pages.

Does anyone know if the 'defaults write' command can somehow solve this more easily than making changes in each instance, and if there is some plist that can control all three Apple Works based apps: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Of course, it's already clear that users can set defaults using the 'defaults' commands for such apps: "macOS applications and other programs use the defaults system to record user preferences and other information that must be maintained when the applications aren't running (such as default font for new documents, or the position of an Info panel). Some settings can be changed through an application’s Preferences, but many are not shown in the GUI but can still be changed using defaults." (https://ss64.com/osx/defaults.html)

It's my guess that it is possible to set some defaults in these apps that would render a more 'dark mode' like appearance. On the other hand, often major functionary systems change unexpectedly with hardly any documentation for an average user (take setting global environmental variables, as an example). If such a system hasn't already been depreciated, any advanced users who have achieved something akin to dark mode using defaults write, would love to hear something from you...

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Dark Mode in Pages

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