I need to replace some plain text (a title) with italics

By default there is a character style named italics, so you can use that. If your title is already using a paragraph style that nothing else is using, you could modify that style & then redefine the style to change all. If you want some other settings you could set up a paragraph style & use that.

You can use the advanced tab of find & replace to apply styles to replace text. In my screen shot the find & replace text is identical, only the replace style is different. (For both screenshots, click on them to view full size.)

For redefining a style, click on the down-facing triangle.

Just like word, click and hold to select the text you want to make italic. Then go to the top of your screen and there is an icon with a i that is slanted. Click that and it will apply the italics to that selected text. Without clicking anything hit "command key and C" on the keyboard to copy. Don't use the option key as well. It is just command C. Then select the text in the other areas of the document, and hit command V, to paste it in.

howard.weaver wrote:

BTW, I didn't seem to have an italics default character style, and I find that the one I created doesn't show up in other Pages documents. Is there something I can do about that?

That seems odd. You might try deleting the Pages preferences to see it the style will come back. Go to HD > Users > (your account) > Library > Preferences, delete the com.apple.iwork.pages.plist, empty the Trash & then restart Pages.

I think it's better to go ahead & create your own template with everything you'd like. Open the blank template & set all of the styles as you'd like. You can import styles from another Pages document in Format > Import styles. Then insert a text box, click in it & choose the font, size, color, etc. you want in the fonts panel or format bar. While you're at it resize the box if you want, set the amount of extra space in the wrap inspector, etc. You can do similar changes to inserted objects & tables. Delete each text box, object & table after you've set them. Now, save this document as a template & select that template as default in preferences. If you decide to make any changes to the template down the road, just Save As Template again with the same name & replace the previous version.All of your new documents will have these settings for inserted objects, images & tables. Unfortunately, the settings won't apply to any other templates or "foreign" documents you open with Pages.

About the only thing you can’t set a template to do is remember to show invisibles & the window position. It is possible to get a template to show invisibles when opened, if you want. Save this document as a document then, in the Finder, change the extension from .pages to .template & put it in your My Templates folder in HD > Users > (your account) > Library > Application Support > iWork > Pages > Templates > My Templates.

What's the book about?

You can go Format > Import Style and import the styles from another document.