How can I change to "Dark Mode" in the Pages app. I don't know how "Yellowbox" was able to get the following:

Hi Markhsw3,

Tested in Pages 13.1 under macOS Ventura 13.3.1

We are going to insert a dark Rectangle Shape into the background.

Menu > Pages > Settings > Rulers:

Tick every box that I ticked. Very useful!

Under Ruler Units I chose Centimetres, but you can choose Points or Inches.

Menu > View > Show Rulers and Show Layout.

insert a Rectangle Shape and make it a dark fill.

Drag the Shape to the top left of the page. The Alignment Guides will magically appear when the Rectangle Shape is where you want it.

Drag the bottom right handle on the Shape to fill one page. You will see it "snap" to the page margins. The Alignment Guides will magically appear when the Rectangle Shape is where you want it.

Menu > Arrange > Section Layouts > Move Object to Section Layout

That dark rectangle will appear as a background on every page of that section.

Now set the text colour to anything but black!

Regards,

Ian.

Pages does not support the operating system's Dark Appearance mode for its page background. Yellowbox's method of using a black shape is fine if you do not plan to share the document with anyone who expects to print it, or potentially revise it.

Once you export DOCX and open this document in Word (v16.80), the black shape becomes a medium gray color with retained white text. Exporting to PDF retains the black background with white text. Not a favorite of anyone who may not want to waste black toner as a compromise to printing it.

The mentioned Word version has a Preference setting to force the document background to appear black with white text and when saved, it will be a white background document with black text, even in PDF format. LibreOffice v7.6.4.1 allows you to also do this artificial black background with white text, though in a different manner than Word.

Tested in Pages 13.2 MacOS 14.2.1:

Under Document, select Section, Background Colour Fill Black. Voila, done.

Not until you set the text color from black… 😉 Same caveats that I mentioned previously about appearances when exported. Additionally, if one exports to Word, here is what Quick Look does to that document's white text on macOS Sonoma 14.2.1:

Not my problem. Unless you're collaborating with a bunch of Word users there's absolutely no reason to export to Word.

Agreed, not yours, but a large number of Pages users do export to Word and this may affect those that try a dark background.