New Pages (MacOS) will no longer let me use or see the Header and Footage if an object is placed over it, why?

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Level 1

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New Pages (MacOS) will no longer let me use or see the Header and Footage if an object is placed over it, why?

Pages (MacOS) is no longer letting me use the Header and Footer if an object is placed over it.

In all previous versions of Pages, if an object like a Shape or PDF were placed over the entire document, you could still use the Headers and Footers.

As of Version 15.4 (7051.0.79), which was last updated in October, you can no longer do this. Any object placed over the Headers, even if that object is placed on the bottom layer (Paint Brush -> Arrange -> Back), will no longer let you see or use the header and/or footer. You might see the grey outline of the header but you can't click on it or see it unless the object is now removed.

I've used Pages for business for 15 years and I use the header & footers to keep up with version of the documents I create and use. Now I can't. Doesn't matter if Document Body is intact or not.

It doesn't make sense either. If I didn't want to see or access the Header & Footer I'd just toggle it off in the settings. Again, this was never an issue until just the last update. As long as the object is on the bottom layer, text boxes can appear on top of the object but not a header? Why?

Is there a new option I have to toggle to make it work or did an Apple programmer really decided to change how things work after nearly 2 decades?

Posted on Nov 5, 2026 6:55 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

131,770 points

Nov 5, 2026 7:27 AM in response to Curtpertino

Your bolded, red text in the center Heading panel will show through an occluding black shape object after you select that shape, and apply Arrange menu > Section Layouts > Move Object to Section Layout. This has been true with preceding versions of Pages, including Pages v13.1 that I arbitrarily tested on macOS Monterey.

Normal foreground/background settings apply only to objects in the document body and neither Header or Footer are in that category.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

131,770 points

Nov 6, 2026 8:33 AM in response to Curtpertino

That Arrange menu > Section Layouts > Move Object to Section Layout places the selected object below the document in a way that the foreground/background controls cannot. If you do not want this section layout object on all subsequent pages of a section, then it needs to be done on its own isolated section.

What Apple did with Pages v13.1 and v14.4 (e.g. Sonoma) is that when you drag and drop a PDF thumbnail from Preview onto Pages, that PDF object has a transparent background, thus allowing your Heading text (and even other document text) to be seen through the PDF object. In Pages v15.4 on Golden Gate, a PDF object dropped into Pages from a Preview thumbnail has a white background which eclipses anything behind it. You cannot fix this by exporting as a PNG from Preview, because the alpha channel (transparency) option is not offered.

I do have a Swift application that I put together here in the last hour that does take a white background PDF and write it out as a transparent PNG. That is just a proof of concept since you likely won't be able to build and use it on your end.

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Answer 3

Curtpertino Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 6, 2026 6:57 AM in response to VikingOSX

I never had to use that feature, ever. It was never needed. I've always been able to drag objects or full PDFs onto Pages documents and the header and footer always appeared over it unless I turned them off.

The feature you described is something I had to self-teach since you didn't elaborate on your solution. So for those who were unaware like me, Arrange -> Section Layouts -> Move Objects to Section Layout -- is a feature that lets you take a Section (which is collection of individual pages in a Pages document, many times you might have multiple pages but they're all under one Section unless you create a new Section) and apply an object, image, etc. that appears on the same location ON ALL of your pages in that Section.

This is a great feature to save time rather than copying and pasting and having to align these objects on each page to be at the exact same spot, and Pages will also prevent those objects from moving around on each Page unless you choose the option Arrange -> Section Layouts -> Make Layout Objects Selectable.

And Moving Objects to Selection Layout will let you see your Header & Footer always, HOWEVER, THIS IS A JURY-RIGGED SOLUTION rather than an actual solution. WHY? Because Moving Objects to Selection Layout was intended to duplicate objects across multiple pages at the same spot in a Section.

If you think about it, it's a silly notion to think while Headers & Footers can be toggled on and off, a Pages user has to use a convoluted, not easily found or identifiable Menu option (which is actually buried under a Sub-Menu) to make sure Headers & Footers always appear visible?

Also, it sounds time-consuming when I don't want the same PDF on all my pages in a Section. So if I have 3 pages with a different PDF per page then I would need to create 3 Sections and then use the Menu option for each PDF in each Section. This doesn't sound like a practical or obvious solution for doing something as simple as making sure my headers & footers are appearing on each page.

As I said before, I've never had to use this Menu option and every year prior to this update I've always been able to place an object, PDF, etc. over the Header & Footer area and the Header & Footers always appeared visible as long as I had them toggled On.

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