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Pages: Changing to bold or italic deletes empty line

Hi,


I'm using Pages 5.6.1 on Yosemite 10.10.5. Recently Pages has started doing something incredibly irritating - when I change the font from normal to bold or italic on a new line, it deletes the empty line and reverts back to the previous font. To give you an idea of what I mean:

User uploaded file

Changing font automatically inserts and highlights an invisible format character, so as soon as I start typing the entire line is deleted, moving the carat back up to the previous line and undoing the font change. It's infuriating. Why is this happening? I presume this is a bug? I've seen the best 'workaround' is to click off the page somewhere or hitting the left arrow and then start typing, but in the twenty five years I've been using word processing programs I've never had to do this, so of course this is not going to be a habit. It's slowing down my workflow and increasing my blood pressure. Anyone else encountering this problem?

iMac 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Apr 28, 2016 5:21 PM

Reply
9 replies

Jan 7, 2017 5:23 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Using Pages 5.6.1 in OS X 10.11.5 and 10.11.6


I am experiencing the same problem as Tim and hing9841 so I will try to explain step by step what I am doing that produces this strange behavior. I've taken screen shots with the invisibles shown, however there are no rogue characters in between the formatting as you will see, so I really don't know what is causing this other than it being an overlooked issue during program development.


Right now I am editing the notes I took in class. I have two blocks of text and I want to place a title (in bold) in between these paragraphs, with a line of whitespace above and underneath it so I press Enter twice. Which produces this:

User uploaded file


As you can see there are three pilcrows of which one is highlighted in green, which is where I want the bold title to be. However, because the pilcrow is highlighted the whole line is highlighted, so as soon as I start typing this erases an entire line of whitespace between my two blocks of text:

User uploaded file

At which point I have to reinsert my line whitespace after I am done typing the title (and remembering to press command + B again so the bold formatting iasn't attributed to the next line as well.)


Now, why bother preemptively creating my whitespace, why not just press Enter once above the paragraph I want my title to be and start typing? That produces this result:

User uploaded file

As you can see the pilcrow (and as a result the whole line, just like in the other example) is still selected. HOWEVER, when I start typing now, not only will the line I just created be deleted, I receive the same formatting as the paragraph below, and the bold I had just selected disappears (note the red box selection, the text is reset to "Default*" from "Default*" in the previous picture). Obviously this is due to the paragraph break/pilcrow being selected with the text, which is exactly the problem here.

User uploaded file

Just to emphasize what I mean I changed the formatting of the paragraph below to green 14pt text, and started typing with the pilcrow selected after pressing command + B:

User uploaded file

You clearly see that it just copies over whatever formatting I have in the text below.


The issue here is that when changing to bold/italic/underline at the start of a line that contains no text (either via keyboard shortcuts or by pressing the B/I/U buttons in the menu to the right, Pages selects the line WITH the paragraph break . I have never seen this behavior in neither Word nor Open/LibreOffice, surely this is not working as intended. As Tim stated, this severely interferes with workflow and is quite honestly infuriating as the only workaround is to press an arrow button or manually click somewhere so the pilcrow becomes unselected, and I can then type my text without having an entire line erased.


I would like to re-emphasize that this happens irrespectively of using keyboard shortcuts, manually pressing the buttons in the menu to the right, or going through Format > Font > Bold/Italic/Underline and so on.

Feb 12, 2017 4:57 PM in response to efeins

"...my cat walked across my keyboard and somehow hit the exact combo of keys to make the formatting problems happen"


Possible, but seems unlikely.


The keystroke combination to 'Define as Placeholder Text' requires some text to be selected, then the three modifier keys control, option and command to be pressed and held then the t key to be pressed.


When text defined as placeholder text is clicked on, the display shows the text on an orange background, but the background does not include the paragraph beak before the text or does it include the paragraph break after the text:

User uploaded file

Keystrokes to produce above text:

w, o, r, d, return

command-B, w, o, r, d, return,

command-B, w, o, r, d, return,

return,

w, o, r, d, return


Select last 'word'

go Format > Advanced > Define as Placeholder Text


Click on last "word"


Typing 'number' (not followed by return) then changed the screen to this:

User uploaded file


Note that none of the paragraph breaks were disturbed.



Regards,

Barry

Feb 12, 2017 9:12 AM in response to timbarooni

I'm in Pages 5.6.2 OSX 10.10.5


I made an account here just to say that I've had the same issue for MONTHS but I fixed it today.


In my case, I knew it was something that accidentally got toggled on, because the issue started after my cat walked across my keyboard and somehow hit the exact combo of keys to make the formatting problems happen. It's been driving me crazy.


To fix it, I went to "Format" at the top of the screen, then "Advanced," and un-checked "Define as placeholder text"


Suddenly everything is back to normal and I can't even replicate the old issue.


I really hope this helps. I'm not super tech-savvy and I have no idea how to explain why it worked.

Apr 28, 2016 6:48 PM in response to timbarooni

Hi Tim,


I've not been able to reproduce your results. Perhaps a step by step description of the actions you take and the results on the screen would make it clearer.


From what I can see in your posted image, you have Invisibles set to "Hide invisibles", and the pilcrow character is showing only because it is selected.

If you start typing without moving the insertion point, your first character will replace the selected text (the 'invisible' pilcrow), and subsequent characters will be inserted following the first. If the formatting control is embedded in that paragraph end marker, then it will be lost when the character is replaced, and formatting will revert to what it was above that in the document.


BTW, there's no carat ( ^ ) in your post.


Detailed keystroke by keystroke description, please.


Regards,

Barry

May 7, 2016 2:23 AM in response to Barry

Hi,

I also have a similar problem in 5.6.1. I does it all the time for me but it took me a little to reproduce in a document. I am trying to write exam style questions for my study group and I like to have different lines in different character styles. I use the command B/I/U to change the style. Opening a document and proceeding in a normal fashion does not cause any issue. So I created something like this:


Q1.

Why is the sky blue?


Answer

I have no idea


Notes

etc. (this notes section is written in a different font).


If I keep working on the document in a linear fashion there are no issues. I figured out where the problem comes it. I tried to add text at the beginning of the document which starts with bold + italic text. I press the return key twice to create space. I then, for example, press command B and then command I to return to normal text. At that point the highlighted P thingo (? pilcrow) appears (I normally hid invisibles) and when I try to type it keeps defaulting back to the bold/italics text. This can be avoided by not pressing the return key and just typing next to the original text but I find it frequently happens when you are trying to add something in the middle of the document. You change the character style, the P thingo appears (highlighted) and when you type it keeps defaulting back the surrounding text. The only way to avoid this happening is to either click somewhere blank on the screen or to press the back arrow but this doesn't always work and I have to then highlight the text and change it to the style I want. It is really annoying. It seems that the program is ignoring the change that you want and defaults back to the surrounding text.

Aug 23, 2016 2:44 PM in response to apple ryno

People are not accurately describing what they are doing, but there are clues in the results they get.


For example hing9841 complains that the change from italic isn't happening and the Pilcrow appears on the line below and then disappears.


My strong guess is that hing9841 is not using the Pages keyboard shortcut for changing italic, which is command i, but instead using command shift i, which is the Word, InDesign, Quark XPress shortcut.

command shift i hides and unhides invisibles in Pages. Then because hing9841 is not getting the result they expect he/she is doing it a second time, hence the appearing and vanishing of the normally invisible Pilcrow.


Similarly I suspect the actual layout is not what people say it is and is probably not a clean return without other characters (I'm guessing there maybe a formatted space in there somewhere). Since no-one thinks to post a screen grab with the invisibles showing so we can see, what they have exactly done remains a mystery.


Peter

Pages: Changing to bold or italic deletes empty line

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