DirtyHarry1224
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Can't bold on new line

Hi everyone.

I am running a fully up to date version of Pages 5.6 on a late-2013 rMBP running El Capitan.

 

Since the last pages update, I have observed the following behaviour occurring twice now, on two different documents. I have been unable to come up with steps to replicate this behaviour but will endeavour to do so as I keep using pages.

 

What happens is the following:

 

I am writing a document, then I press enter to go down to a new line. On this new, blank line, I press command-B to switch to bold formatting. The bold button in the formatting pane goes blue, as it should, however in the document, on the new line, a highlighted (as though selected with the cursor using a click-drag) line break symbol appears. Imagine this symbol from the insert top menuScreen Shot 2015-10-20 at 4.25.16 PM.png - but as a text symbol, highlighted. As though I had typed it like any other letter on my keyboard and selected it with a click-drag of the cursor.

 

If I then start typing, the highlighted symbol disappears and (this is the frustrating part) - so does the bold formatting. If I hit command-b again, the exact same behaviour occurs. I have to type some characters in and then bold them in order to type bold on the line.

 

Again, I have not been able to figure out exactly how to reproduce this. I was wondering if anyone else has observed this behaviour?

Posted on Oct 19, 2015 10:38 PM

by VikingOSX,Apple recommended
VikingOSX VikingOSX
Level 7 (21,562 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Turn on your View menu : Show Invisibles.

 

When you press a hard return at the end of a line, and then press command-B, nothing will show because there is no text present yet, and you can continue to type in bold until you deselect the command-B. However, if you come to the end of a line, press a hard return, and then place your insertion point behind the word that precedes the original return, and press return again, you now have a hidden hard return symbol on the next line. When you press command-B, it is selected. That is what you will see with the Invisibles enabled.

 

With this second hard return selected, if you just start typing, it will be destroyed along with your bolding. However, while it is selected, just click directly behind it and start typing and your text remains bold until you return to plain text. Of course the best cure is to not double-tap the hard return, and learn about the After paragraph setting in the Spacing section of the Format panel.

 

I just tested this on Pages v5.6 on El Capitan 10.11.1.

Posted on Nov 4, 2015 4:35 PM

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DirtyHarry1224

Q: Can't bold on new line

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Irakraus,

    Irakraus Irakraus Nov 4, 2015 3:34 PM in response to DirtyHarry1224
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 3:34 PM in response to DirtyHarry1224

    Hei

    Did you find any solution? I have the same problem

  • by VikingOSX,Apple recommended

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Nov 4, 2015 4:35 PM in response to DirtyHarry1224
    Level 7 (21,562 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 4, 2015 4:35 PM in response to DirtyHarry1224

    Turn on your View menu : Show Invisibles.

     

    When you press a hard return at the end of a line, and then press command-B, nothing will show because there is no text present yet, and you can continue to type in bold until you deselect the command-B. However, if you come to the end of a line, press a hard return, and then place your insertion point behind the word that precedes the original return, and press return again, you now have a hidden hard return symbol on the next line. When you press command-B, it is selected. That is what you will see with the Invisibles enabled.

     

    With this second hard return selected, if you just start typing, it will be destroyed along with your bolding. However, while it is selected, just click directly behind it and start typing and your text remains bold until you return to plain text. Of course the best cure is to not double-tap the hard return, and learn about the After paragraph setting in the Spacing section of the Format panel.

     

    I just tested this on Pages v5.6 on El Capitan 10.11.1.

  • by manuforti,

    manuforti manuforti Jan 15, 2016 1:11 PM in response to DirtyHarry1224
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 15, 2016 1:11 PM in response to DirtyHarry1224

    Just for clarity:  This issue only occurs when you have gone from the end of your document to add or change previous text.  This was happening to me as I was editing existing bulleted lists.  All the invisible paragraph breaks (i.e., "hard returns") had been "created" as I pressed return to move to the next line while creating the original list.  So, when I went back to add a bullet point (by "hard returning"), and pressed Cmd+B, intending for that new bullet point to be bold, Pages interprets that I am instead intending to bold the existing "paragraph" (i.e., the invisible symbol) and thus selects it (causing this issue).  My real intention is to bold the new text I have yet to input.

     

    While editing an existing bulleted list, I have used the keystroke series "return, cmd+b, [new text]" to add new bolded points throughout past versions of Pages and never had this response.  This seems a confusing and unnecessary change.

     

    Is there a keystroke to create new bullet points other than a "hard return"?

     

    Pages 5.6.1

    OS El Capitan 10.11.2

  • by gabrielthursday6,

    gabrielthursday6 gabrielthursday6 Jun 8, 2016 1:32 PM in response to DirtyHarry1224
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 8, 2016 1:32 PM in response to DirtyHarry1224

    Thought I had a solution.  On second trial, didn't work.

  • by mike clacton,

    mike clacton mike clacton Sep 21, 2016 7:00 AM in response to DirtyHarry1224
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 7:00 AM in response to DirtyHarry1224

    We are having the same problems on our iPads, iPhones and Macintosh's. They have fixed this issue in the latest Pages update on iOS, but it requires iOS10 and my Wife's iPad mini 1 (which is only 4 years old!) is not supported. I am also STILL waiting for a fix in Mac OS. I have reported these issues with a high priority as they really get in the way and wreck your flow of typing and kill your creativity, but what is worth there are more serious issues that are harder to demonstrate. We noticed a dramatic reduction in the performance of Pages on iOS and MacOS accompanied with frequent crashes during heavy typing (touch typist) and consequently loss of the last paragraph that was typed. This has been so frequent, my wife had enough and is abandoning Apple as a consequence. In our view this is such basic functionality and thus unacceptable poor QA on Apple's behalf. I do not have the luxury to switch platforms because of my work (Software developer 25+ years on Macintosh), but I would if I could. Sorry for my negativity, but I feel it needs to be aired somewhere, I begin to feel again that Apple are no longer listening to their professional clients.

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Sep 21, 2016 8:26 AM in response to mike clacton
    Level 8 (35,825 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 21, 2016 8:26 AM in response to mike clacton

    mike clacton wrote:

     

    ...I begin to feel again that Apple are no longer listening to their professional clients.

     

    So when and exactly how did you come to that conclusion?

     

    Also why do you feel the choice is between Pages 5 and Windows?

     

    Peter

  • by mike clacton,

    mike clacton mike clacton Sep 21, 2016 9:32 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 9:32 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Sorry, I should have not said as much as I did, but to answer your question. It comes down to what bugs Apple fix and which they ignore, compared to the speed at which they add new features while taking away others to streamline their apps with iOS. Many of these streamlining changes have also gradually reduced their usefulness as a professional tool within education and professional writing. Word processing is just the latest of examples about Apple's focus. MS Word has never crashed nor have we ever lost a paragraph of writing. It is save and professional. I used to love Pages because of its simpler interface, but when it starts loosing your text and hampering your flow of typing because of the bold issue (that took them as long to fix as it took them to produce an entire new iOS and it still isn't fixed in Mac OS) and the dramatic reduction of performance (try touch typing with Pages at lets say just 40 words per minute on iOS, it just does not keep up, unusable in the latest iOS9 & iOS10). MS Word on the same device has no such issues. How can anyone ignore that? As a professional you cannot. Over the years I have reported many such end user issues to Apple through their bug reporter (I have access to this as I am a software developer) and it has become very clear to me about their priorities in the last few years. This is my personal experience and observation. Other's may not agree, but this bold issue I feel underlines what I am saying.