Scratch area in pages?

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Level 1

4 points

Scratch area in pages?

Items moved to the "scratch area" (not sure term in Mac speak) are not visible unless you click on them. In Publisher, you can see all those items if you want and I used that as a helpful tool by moving items to and from the scratch area. Is there a way to make items moved to the scratch area always visible? Finding it hard to manage without this feature and have not been successful in finding a solution. It may just be that I don't know what to look for if the area is named something different. Thanks in advance for any help!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 12:18 PM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

128,256 points

Oct 1, 2023 12:50 PM in response to SoozieQ17

Pages has no "scratch area", so you will need to elaborate on what you believe you are using in Pages.

The Mac has a clipboard where you can copy/paste things from Pages and subsequently view them via Finder : Edit menu : Show Clipboard. Each copy to the clipboard erases the previous content.

Pages is just a word processing application that does optionally offer a page layout alternative, but it is not intended to be a replacement for MS Publisher, Affinity Publisher, Quark, or InDesign by any stretch of the imagination.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

128,256 points

Oct 1, 2023 2:04 PM in response to SoozieQ17

Ok. I got a good laugh and eye opening about "scratch area" as I never used Pages in that manner.

That area is appearance mode sensitive, so if you switch from Dark mode to Light mode, you have a pale gray area outside the document page. And just after one's hopes elevate, dragging a text box (for instance) with text in it over that scratch area forces its content beneath the scratch area while the text box itself remains selectable above it. A shape simply dives under it never to be seen again…

I suggest you use the Page's application menu's Provide Pages Feedback menu item to communicate directly with the Pages team and let them know this could be improved. They do not participate here, and that menu item is your only means to reach them.

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Answer 3

SoozieQ17 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 1, 2023 12:57 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks VikingOSX. The dark area around the white page is what I am referring to. You can use it as a scratch area in that you can place things there (ie drag or paste a photo or text box) but they "disappear" until you click on them again, and even then they only show the outer markers and are not truly visible until you bring them back to the white part of the page.

I have found Pages to be almost as functional as MS Publisher and use the layout functions extensively, but the lack of a good scratch area function is frustrating. The clipboard just doesn't work for me the same way.

Thanks for your input.

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Scratch area in pages?

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