how do you insert a pages document into iMovie iMo

With your document open in Pages, go to the menu item Share and select Export (otherwise use File>Export). In the drop-down menu select PDF then Image Quality - Best. Click on Next and give your PDF a name and save location (for example, Desktop). Click Export.

The exported file should now be on your Desktop (or other saved location). Right-click (or Control-click) on the file, then select Open With - Preview. In Preview choose File>Save As from the menu. In the drop-down menu change the Format from PDF to JPEG and set the Quality slider to Best. Name the JPEG and save to the Desktop (or other location). Now import the JPEG file to iPhoto.

Now that you have the JPEG in iPhoto, you can drag it from iMovie's Photo Browser (click on the camera icon, centre tool bar) to your iMovie Project.

In providing these instructions I'm assuming you have one of the later versions of iMovie (version '08, '09 or '11).

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell

Very difficult to import "portrait" formats into a "landscape" design. Movies are always wider than they are tall and document formats are always taller than they are wide.

Text (if your Pages file uses it) will be difficult to read when you convert it to "video". It will be blurry and small in size.

Your best option would to use the built-in screen capture tools found in the Mac OS.

The special key commands you would use are Command-Shift-4 keys. This will change the cursor into "crosshairs" and will also show pixel dimensions for the location of the cursor. Your job is to note the dimensions and try to match them to the dimensions of your video.

Open your pages file and drag the window to expose a maximum width. Increase the font size, if needed, to get the best image quality, and take your screenshot. Default save location for the screenshot is your Desktop and you can drag, or import, it into iMovie. Split the landscape format into two parts to maintain the proper aspect ratio.

Some good information there. I often use the screen capture method (Command>Shift>4), but overlooked that in responding to amyfromtexas. If I'm using a portrait document in iMovie, such as a birthday or wedding invitation, I utilise the Ken Burns feature to scroll down the page.

So, using Ken Burns I set the start (green) rectangle to fit over the top half of the document (giving a landscape view) then place the end (red) rectangle over the bottom half. After setting a suitable duration for the movement, a nice effect is achieved. As this type of document is usually in a larger font (and partly hand written) it is generally easily readable. But for normal typewritten documents some zooming in may be required.

Thanks for the extra info QuickTimeKirk!

John