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Can't rearrange thumbnails in Pages 12 in Layout document that worked in previous Pages versions

I have a page layout (Document body not selected) document with 80 individual pages (NO sections). I just got a new computer with Pages 12.2 and I cannot successfully grab a page in the thumbnail and rearrange it to a different order. This is something I did all the time with this document before. The super weird thing is I have other documents in layout format where I CAN rearrange the thumbnails.


I will happily send the file for someone to try to help.


Thanks!

MacBook Air (M2)

Posted on Feb 18, 2023 10:50 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 19, 2023 12:26 PM

Have you checked the File menu to confirm that this is a Page Layout Document?


The 'Convert to…' menu item in a Page Layout doc will match the one in the image.



If your document is a Word Processing document, you'll see this menu item in the same location:



Images are of a new document in Pages 12.2.1.


Some experimentation confirmed that a "Section" is the unit that can be moved to a new position in the document by clicking on a page thumbnail and dragging that page (and the rest of the pages in that Section) to the new location. If there are no Section breaks included in a Word Processing document, the whole doc is in the same Section, and the individual pages cannot be moved to a different location.

(To 'move' the 'pages', it is necessary to move the contents of a page, using cut and paste to place that content in a different position within the text flow from top to bottom of the document.)


Clicking the thumbnail of page 3 of my document and dragging upward had NO effect as all pages of the document were in the same section.


Inserting a section break on the second page split the document into two sections, one with two pages, the other with three pages. Clicking the thumbnail for page 3 dragging it upward and dropping it above the first page reversed the positions of the two sections.

Also noticed in my experiments that trying to drop a selected section (even one containing only a single page) between the original first and second pages (or between any two pages that were both in the same section) was not accepted.


In a Page Layout document, each Page is also a section. The rules are the same—a Section is the smallest unit that can be moved to a new location, and the location where it is to be placed must be above the first section, below the last section, or between two sections.


Regards,

Barry

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 19, 2023 12:26 PM in response to katybart

Have you checked the File menu to confirm that this is a Page Layout Document?


The 'Convert to…' menu item in a Page Layout doc will match the one in the image.



If your document is a Word Processing document, you'll see this menu item in the same location:



Images are of a new document in Pages 12.2.1.


Some experimentation confirmed that a "Section" is the unit that can be moved to a new position in the document by clicking on a page thumbnail and dragging that page (and the rest of the pages in that Section) to the new location. If there are no Section breaks included in a Word Processing document, the whole doc is in the same Section, and the individual pages cannot be moved to a different location.

(To 'move' the 'pages', it is necessary to move the contents of a page, using cut and paste to place that content in a different position within the text flow from top to bottom of the document.)


Clicking the thumbnail of page 3 of my document and dragging upward had NO effect as all pages of the document were in the same section.


Inserting a section break on the second page split the document into two sections, one with two pages, the other with three pages. Clicking the thumbnail for page 3 dragging it upward and dropping it above the first page reversed the positions of the two sections.

Also noticed in my experiments that trying to drop a selected section (even one containing only a single page) between the original first and second pages (or between any two pages that were both in the same section) was not accepted.


In a Page Layout document, each Page is also a section. The rules are the same—a Section is the smallest unit that can be moved to a new location, and the location where it is to be placed must be above the first section, below the last section, or between two sections.


Regards,

Barry

Can't rearrange thumbnails in Pages 12 in Layout document that worked in previous Pages versions

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