Cannot select text at bottom of pages?

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Level 1

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Cannot select text at bottom of pages?

Is there a bug in Pages '09? This question has been asked a couple of times before, but I don't see an answer. I have an irritating issue while using Pages 09 (4.1). I'm writing a book using a standard pages template. At the very bottom of each page in the document the last few lines of text are not selectable. If I move the cursor onto the bottom lines to try and highlight (blue) a word it tries to draw a box instead! I can move the cursor to a line a few up from the bottom of the page where it works normally, and use my arrow keys to move down on to the bottom lines and use the back shift key to delete and retype. If I open the Inspector, say on Text - More, the Inspector operates normally until I get my cursor on the bottom few lines when it greys out and doesn't respond. Here's the interesting thing. Everything works normally and properly until page 170. Then on page 171 I lose the bottom line. Then on page 207 I lose the bottom 2 lines, on page 246 I lose the bottom 3 lines, and on page 288 I lose the bottom 4 lines...! I've got headers and footers and facing pages and I've adjusted and experimented with different spacings, etc. I've been to the Apple Store Genius Bar and they are as mystified as I am. Does anybody have the same experience? Does anybody have a fix? I thought installing Lion might do it...but no. I'm using Pages '09 V 4.1 is there a newer version? Any straight forward or easy to do suggestions? I can manage to work around the glitch by using arrow keys etc...but Pages ain't working right, as it should.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 21, 2011 1:42 AM

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Answer 1

Turtle73

Level 1

4 points

Oct 10, 2011 3:52 PM in response to rogerjl

I'm having exactly the same problem - including the page numbers! I use Pages heavily to convert my scanned book collection over to epub. I'm working on page 420 of my latest book, and I can't select anything from the last six lines of each page.

I hope Apple fixes this problem soon. Apart from this very annoying bug, Pages is the ideal tool for what I use it for.

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Answer 2

AdrianW7

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2011 3:07 PM in response to rogerjl

I'm having the same issue here while using Lion. However in my case the problem is accessing the footnotes in my document. Up until page 92 I can click on all footnotes, however at page 93 can't select the last. Then by page 108 I can't select the last 2 footnotes. Then by page 161 I loose the ability to select the last 4 footnotes. I hate to imagine what it is going to be like when I get to page 260! The frustrating thing is I have to go to a page where I can select the footnote and then arrow down until I get to the footnote I want to edit. This is driving me crazy. Until Apple fixes this bug, I'm going back to Pages 08.

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Answer 3

Jan 31, 2013 6:16 PM in response to rogerjl

There is a bug in Pages. It affects documents with non A4 / Letter sizes. Maybe do your document in A4 then at the end convert it to your preferred size.

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Answer 4

rogerjl Author

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Feb 4, 2013 7:51 AM in response to rogerjl

Steve, thanks. My document is on A4. Luckily I've just completed it. 220,000 words on 479 pages. I'm now looking round for something better than Pages for my next project.

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Answer 5

bpberry

Level 1

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Nov 27, 2013 3:59 AM in response to rogerjl

I have just come across this problem. My document is A4, no headers or footers and is at the moment only 243 pages. I'm nearly finished my project and was really enjoying using Pages for it, but now I cannot continue.

I have to switch to Microsoft Word in order to complete my book. That's a real pain as the image handling features of Pages was making my life easy.

So disappointed!

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Answer 6

Nov 27, 2013 8:33 AM in response to bpberry

I select the first line of the following page then use the arrow up to get to the text that cannot be selected. It is an easy solution that works for me.

Another solution would be to divide your document into several files. Maybe each chapter has a separate file. That way the page length will never be enough for you to meet this problem.

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Answer 7

rogerjl Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 28, 2013 1:57 AM in response to rogerjl

Using the arrow keys on the same or next page looks like the only work-around. I selected the last of the "working" lines on the same page and then used the arrow keys. I did manage to finish my project, but it did add time and effort, and enjoyment to the process. Since then I've looked at other word processor and authoring software, but Pages still looks the easiest for infrequent or one off projects.

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Answer 8

bpberry

Level 1

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Nov 28, 2013 2:15 AM in response to rogerjl

I have actually found that Word is no better at handling my document, so I'm back to Pages and have splitmy document into two to continie working on the latter half.

I'm hoping that I will be able to stitch it together again when finished ok.

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Answer 9

bpberry

Level 1

0 points

Nov 28, 2013 6:07 AM in response to bpberry

Hmm, started finding the same problem, even though I cut the doc into pieces that were much smaller than before the time when I started having a problem.

So I changed my Preferences to 'save new documents as packages' and then pasted in the different parts to the new document.

So far, it is working beautifully.

I've not been able to find out much about this preference, I hope it doesn't have any downsides that I'm not aware of. I will be needing to export to Word and/or ePub in due course...

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