Peter Weisz1

Q: Pages stopped hyphenating my text.

Pages suddenly stopped hyphenating my text no matter how a check the settings. This happened after doing a clean-up with MacCleaner. I suspect that something like a hidden hyphenation dictionary got deleted. Does this sound feasible? If so, how do I restore it?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), iMovie 10.1

Posted on Jan 27, 2016 6:56 AM

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Q: Pages stopped hyphenating my text.

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  • by jason269,

    jason269 jason269 Jan 28, 2016 9:07 AM in response to Peter Weisz1
    Community Specialists
    Jan 28, 2016 9:07 AM in response to Peter Weisz1

    Hi, Peter.  

     

    Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.  

     

    I understand that auto hyphenation no longer works with Pages.  I would start with making sure that the "Remove paragraph hyphenation" checkbox isn't selected.  You can find this setting by going through the steps in the help guide below.  

     

     

    Add or remove hyphens for specific paragraphs

    1. Click in the paragraph or select multiple paragraphs.

    2. Click the More button near the top of the sidebar on the right.

       

      If you don’t see a sidebar, or the sidebar doesn’t have a More button, click Format button in the toolbar. If the text is in a text box, table, or shape, first click the Text tab at the top of the sidebar, then click the More button.

    3. In the Hyphenation & Ligatures section of the sidebar, select or deselect the “Remove paragraph hyphenation” checkbox.

    Any paragraphs you modified aren’t changed if you later change the hyphenation setting for the whole document (see the previous task).

     

    Format hyphens, dashes, and quotation marks

     

    You can also adjust the text substitution in Pages for Mac by going through the steps in the guide below.  

     

    Use text substitutions

     

    Cheers

  • by Peter Weisz1,

    Peter Weisz1 Peter Weisz1 Jan 28, 2016 9:17 AM in response to jason269
    Level 1 (46 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 9:17 AM in response to jason269

    Thank you, Jason. I suppose I should have been more clear. I am not using Pages 5. I am using Pages '09 aka v.4.3. The reason is that I use it to design books and for some reason Pages 5 does not offer text flow between text boxes — a critical feature for my work.

    Hyphenation works in Pages 5 (I have copies of both), but it stopped working in Pages '09 after I installed El Capitan. I'm not sure there's a connection, but I suspect there is.

    I attempted to open a 425 page manuscript created in Pages '09 in Pages 5 and it did hyphenate properly. But it started a fresh paragraph at the top of every page and there is no connection between the text boxes on each page. This made the file unusable.

    I cannot use Pages 5 in word processor mode because of the large number of photos and text wrap.

    I attempted to check and uncheck "Do Not Hyphenate This Paragraph." Nothing happens.

    I simply need for Pages to continue to hyphenate the text and link the text boxes as it has done for years.

    Do I need to re-install Mavericks or Yosemite for this to happen?

    Thank you for your valued advice.

  • by dan_pyle,Helpful

    dan_pyle dan_pyle Feb 16, 2016 6:49 PM in response to Peter Weisz1
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 16, 2016 6:49 PM in response to Peter Weisz1

    I'm having the exact same problem. I have also continued using Pages '09 for formatting the interior of my books (because, for one reason among many, the new Pages doesn't allow different left and right pages), and my hyphenation is no longer working either. It had been a while since I'd worked on an interior, so I'm not sure when the problem started, but it makes it impossible for me to finish my work. I just asked someone else to check his copy of '09, and his isn't hyphenating either, so it's definitely not an isolated thing, but I have no idea how to go about fixing it. Please let me know if you hear anything else or figure out what the problem is. What a pain.

  • by Peter Weisz1,

    Peter Weisz1 Peter Weisz1 Feb 16, 2016 7:02 PM in response to dan_pyle
    Level 1 (46 points)
    Feb 16, 2016 7:02 PM in response to dan_pyle

    The problem is El Capitain. My wife is running under Mavericks on her laptop. So my only option (other than reformatting the entire book in another program from scratch) was to copy my Pages '09 file to her computer. I opened it using her version of Pages '09 and, lo and behold, all the hyphenation was properly carried out. This altered the text flow and I needed to repaginate the entire book in order for the signatures and the recto/verso to come out correctly. I then exported it as a PDF and copied it back to my computer. I then sent it off to the printer. What a royal pain!

    This will be the last book I design using Pages. Have designed more than 15 books with Pages '09 without a problem. Now, because of Apple's stubborn refusal to feature text-linking in Pages 5, I was forced to seek an alternative. And I found one. It's called iStudio Publisher (http://www.istudiopublisher.com/) and it appears to offer all the page design features you could ask for. I have played around with it and it looks great, but I have yet to actual use it in a real world situation. It's not free, but it's not anywhere near as expensive as Quark or InDesign. They have a 30-day free trial so check it out. DISCLAIMER: I have no financial interest whatsoever in this product. I'm simply trying to produce books simply and quickly.

    It's really quite puzzling. Pages '09 was an outstanding product. A capable, easy-to-use word processor and page layout program all in one for an unbeatable price. Why did Apple see fit to cripple it? How hard is it to offer text flow, a feature every basic layout program has offered for years? Or, once the incompatibility between El Capitain and Pages '09 ( a program many people continue to use ) was discovered, what's the problem with offering a bug fix? Why drive loyal users into the arms of a competing product? I'd be interested in hearing any theories on this. Thanks.

  • by dan_pyle,Solvedanswer

    dan_pyle dan_pyle Feb 20, 2016 3:55 PM in response to Peter Weisz1
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 20, 2016 3:55 PM in response to Peter Weisz1

    Thanks, Peter. I can confirm that El Capitan was the problem for me too. I opened my file on our older desktop, which is still running Yosemite, and there were my beautiful hyphens!

     

    For now, I've partitioned the HD on my laptop and installed Yosemite there so I can dual boot and run the final steps of my process without having to switch computers or programs. But what a pain. I checked out istudiopublisher and might consider learning that or something else for future projects, but I sure wish I didn't have to. Pages has always been such a perfect program for me. Sigh.

  • by Peter Weisz1,

    Peter Weisz1 Peter Weisz1 Feb 20, 2016 7:12 PM in response to dan_pyle
    Level 1 (46 points)
    Feb 20, 2016 7:12 PM in response to dan_pyle

    I know exactly how you feel, Dan. I agree with every word you wrote and believe me, I feel your pain. The partition solution won't work for me because I move around a lot and do all my work on a MacBook Air. While the solid state drive is wonderful, the cramped disk space is a pain. There simply is not enough room for another partition unless I plug in an external drive...which is also a pain.

    I have worked more with iStudio Publisher and am growing fond of it. It's stable, feature-reach, and easy to use. I think I will be able to lay out my next book with it with no problems. It's just a shame, as you said, that a program that I have been using for years with no trouble has to be dumped. Over some stupid hyphens! Or even stupid failure to flow text boxes. Surely there must be others out there in the same boat. I know Apple is pretty busy dueling with the FBI, the courts, and Donald Trump right now, but couldn't they spare a bit of time to address this problem...and fix it!!

    Good luck.

    -Peter

  • by AC1121,

    AC1121 AC1121 Sep 25, 2016 2:20 PM in response to Peter Weisz1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 25, 2016 2:20 PM in response to Peter Weisz1

    I just wanted to second what Peter and Dan have said.  For years, Pages was such a great program that let me do anything and everything I needed to— which is why I've continued using Pages '09 and avoiding "new Pages."  After updating to El Capitan, my documents are no longer hyphenated.  Luckily, my laptop is running Mavericks so my solution for now is to open Pages documents there, where they appear properly hyphenated, and export them as PDFs.  I'll be suggesting the restoration of proper hyphenation in Pages '09 to Apple everywhere I can, since I, like you, would love to keep relying on this program.