Highlight text and/or text blocks

Question

Highlight text and/or text blocks

Is it just me, or is this common, or worse, the new "normal" for the Pages app.

Suddenly I can't highlight a block of text. I can select "ALL" the text with "Command A," and delete it all, but I cannot select (highlight) one character, a block of charters, or a word or block of text. The cursor gets placed where I tried to highlight, but the highlight vanishes.

I can of course delete by back spacing, but I cannot select anything other than "All."

I also can't find a typical Pages preference file to delete as a possible fix. The iWork.Pages.plist file I did find and delete apparently trashed Pages so badly that I had to uninstall it completely and reinstall Pages. The new re-installed version of Pages behaves exactly the same, so a reinstall didn't fix anything.

I also didn't find anything in the preferences that seem to be the cause, and in any case, I have made no changes to the Pages preferences prior to this problem suddenly occurring.

I hope this isn't a feature Apple has built into Pages.

Any thoughts and/or suggestions?

Thanks.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on May 18, 2016 4:25 PM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

124,700 points

May 18, 2016 5:11 PM in response to Loren Latker1

What specific version of Pages and OS X are you using?

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Answer 2

May 18, 2016 10:32 PM in response to VikingOSX

OS X 10.11.5

Pages 5.6.2

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Answer 3

Barry

Level 9

60,047 points

May 18, 2016 11:18 PM in response to Loren Latker1

Hi Loren,

"but I cannot select (highlight) one character, a block of charters, or a word or block of text."

Single click to place the insertion point, then drag right or left to select a single character or several contiguous characters.

Double click on a word to select a single word.

Triple click to select a whole paragraph.

Press and hold shift-option, and tap the right arrow key to add a single word to the selection. (explore shift-option and each of the other arrow keys as well).

When I first read this, I thought you were referring to applying a background colour to text, so I did some exploring. It's there, but not as convenient as it was in Pages '09, where the was accessed via a button in the bar above the work area. In Pages 5, backgrond fill is in the format panel, and a layer or two down.

Here, "consecteture" was selected (double click) in the top line, and the font colour changed to brown using the colour well (Black) just below the font and size selections in the Text Format panel. After selecting "nonummy", I clicked the gear beside tht colour well, chose "advanced" from the menu that opened, then clicked on the colour wheel just above the open palette in the image above to view a wider selection of colours, and chose a bright green to highlight this word.

The red paragraph (triple click to select) used the red fill from the open palette—too dark to provide sufficient contrast with the black type, so there was a trip to the Type colour well to change the type to white.

Below that is the phrase "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet," selected and ready for colour or a style to be applied. To select this, I placed the insertion point immediately left of the L of Lorem, pressed and held shift-option, then tapped the right arrow key five times.

These selection processes are a pretty close match to those in Pages '09, and may even go back to AppleWorks. Memory say yes, but doubt says 'You haven't opened AppleWorks for a few years now. Memory may need refreshing."

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 4

May 19, 2016 12:57 AM in response to Barry

Hi Barry,

Well, your answer is somewhat helpful.

A single click and drag to highlight a character, word, block of text, sentence or paragraph, does highlight, until the mouse button is released. As soon as the button is released the highlighting goes away. With Pages in the past -- and with other applications -- whatever I selected was highlighted, and stayed highlighted when the mouse button was release. Not now.

Per your suggestion I double clicked and triple clicked the mouse button. Either selects just one word. I can't select just a character nor multiple words, sentences or paragraphs. A control + single click gets a pull down menu and one word highlighted as well. Shift + a single click highlights a large block of text, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how much, or which text. In some cases shift + click will select just one character. Holding the shift and moving the mouse can extend the amount of text selected, but again, I can't predict how much or what will be selected. It seems to vary by line and paragraph.

Option and/or Command + a single click are no different than just a single click. Either + a double/triple click highlights just one word, nothing more nor less.

At this point I don't care about background colors. I'd just like Pages to work like it used too.

I'll have to convert to and use Word (ugh)!

A bit better than before, but not much.

Thanks,

Loren

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Answer 5

VikingOSX

Level 10

124,700 points

May 19, 2016 1:02 PM in response to Loren Latker1

Does this inability to select text blocks reoccur after a reboot? Are you using a recent Apple mouse, or non-Apple solution, including a keyboard with built-in trackpad?

I suggest you perform a Safe Boot that will hose out (replaceable) System caches, rebuild related databases (including Fonts), and verify your boot drive.

Shutdown the Mac Pro (not Restart).
Power button and then immediately press and hold the shift key until you see the traditional horizontal boot progress. This will be slower using Safe Boot mode.
At the login screen, verify that Safe Boot appears in the upper right corner of the screen.
After your password is entered, press and hold the shift key again, before you click the right arrow to continue login. Continue pressing the shift key until your Desktop icons appear.
Launch Pages, and the same document. Test selecting your document text, and releasing the pointing device to see if the selection sticks. Different document. Same test. Any improvements?
Reboot normally.
Step 4 again. Any improvements?

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Answer 6

May 19, 2016 1:23 PM in response to VikingOSX

I'm using a WACOM Intous 5 Touch pen tablet with WACOM 3 button mouse. I fired up an Apple wireless mouse and Voila!, problem gone.

There hasn't been a WACOM update since 10.11.5 came out, so I'll let WACOM support know of the issue so it can be address.

Good call. Should have thought of it myself.

Thanks!

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Answer 7

Aug 5, 2016 6:21 PM in response to Loren Latker1

Loren, any luck? I just got the Intros Pro and noticed the same issue. Using Wacom Control Panel 6.3.17-5.

It will respect double click (tap) to select a word but triple and quadruple click do nothing more.

Thanks!

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Answer 8

Aug 16, 2016 2:55 AM in response to Loren Latker1

Anyone managed to fix this? It makes Pages unusable at the moment. I've tried the safe boot process mentioned but this made no difference.

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Answer 9

hfvd

Level 1

13 points

Aug 27, 2016 3:15 AM in response to betterontap

Hi Loren, when I use the shift key pressed down and drag, I can select a specific block of text.

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Answer 10

Sep 23, 2016 5:03 PM in response to VikingOSX

I have been having the same problem on my 2009 Mac desktop (OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6) for quite some time. The Safe Boot seems to have taken care of the problem. Thank you!

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Answer 11

jynk

Level 1

42 points

Sep 26, 2016 4:44 AM in response to apfelfrau

same issue here since macOS sierra update with wacom pro.

In pages i can drag select text but as soon as i release the selected is 'de-selected'
In any app triple click does nothing.

using the latest drivers for the intuos pro. If you made any progress would be good to know.

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Answer 12

jynk

Level 1

42 points

Sep 26, 2016 4:46 AM in response to Loren Latker1

Did the problem go from the tablet ?

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Answer 13

Sep 28, 2016 4:45 AM in response to jynk

I had the same problem when using a wacom intuous pro with the latest drivers. I found rolling the driver back a version sorted it out. Try 6.3.15-3.

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Answer 14

jynk

Level 1

42 points

Sep 28, 2016 6:40 AM in response to generatorpost

thanks - that fixed the triple click to select block items.

Oddly i still can't drag and select text in pages. As soon as i let go it deselects.

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Answer 15

VikingOSX

Level 10

124,700 points

Sep 28, 2016 7:21 AM in response to Loren Latker1

Intuos could give a flying rat's ___ if their input devices work correctly with Pages. You cannot realistically expect underlying product, or configuration changes in Pages, or OS X/macOS Sierra to correct this Intuos incompatibility issue.

Use a real mouse or trackpad (Apple product, or non-Intuos brand) that demonstrates compatibility with Pages. My favored Pages input device is the Apple Magic Mouse II, because I can finesse small selections with it by slightly rolling my finger in either direction for single character selection.

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