My documents in Pages are greyed out and can't open

I've had this ongoing problem as well. By accident today I stumbled upon something: It might, apparently, (in my case anyway), depend on the path you choose to get to those file. If I attempt to get to a file by first opening Pages and then clicking Open, I see a list of Pages document files, many of which are grayed out (usually those which have been copied and pasted). However. today I discovered if I first open Finder, and then attempt to go to those document files, none of them are grayed out.

I have this EXACT problem on my ipad. I saved a document as a PDFG in pages, but it shows greed out. If you open the document through Files first, then it opens find and you can read it. Don’t open from pages, open using the files folder first.

R

The File Chooser that you use when Pages first opens is not the Finder, but a Cocoa interface Framework Class (NSOpenPanel) that mimics a Finder view. It uses an application-specific list of authorized file types that can be opened, and all others are denied as light-gray icons. A true Finder window has no such file type limitation, and that is why file types restricted by Pages — appear selectable in the Finder.

PDF files are not meant to be edited, they were designed as digital paper, a way of making a faithful version of the original to read, no matter what platform you opened it on.

PDFs can contain images as well as text.

You did not scan text, you scanned a picture of the text. Those are images, not actual letters. Nothing to read except what you can do with your eyeballs. You need to Optical Character Recognise (OCR) the scan if you want it as text, and that is not 100% accurate. After you run it through OCR, you will have to clean up the errors.

The computer OCR software attempts to recognise the image and convert it to characters, but unfortunately does not get it right 100%. Depending on the quality of the original, it can be almost right, or really wrong.

Peter

Thanks for this post, it helped to resolve my problem. After a recent upgrade my iCloud icon disappeared so I was using Pages to access the iCloud. However the documents I’d loaded into the iCloud from my laptop were greyed out and inaccessible. Your post reminded me that a while ago I downloaded the ‘Files’ app and it is through this app that I can access all the files that I’ve stored in the iCloud. I can also access Pages through it, so everything is in one place.

Thanks for the explanation. I just wonder, surely I'm not the only person who has thought that a streamlined route to one's document files would be to simply load Pages from the Dock and choose open. Glad I finally discovered that's not always the case and I appreciate the interesting explanation.

What is a PDFG? A Typo? ...and you are aware this is the Pages for Mac forum?

If you open a pdf in Files it is not opening in Pages, it is probably opening in iBooks.

You don't use Pages to read PDF files, but you can include pdfs in Pages documents as basic uneditable images.

Are you aware of where you are when you are viewing things, and what exactly are you trying to achieve?

Peter

What format did you save it in?

If you go to that file in Finder what does Get Info list about the file?

Pages does not open PDFs. You will have to convert the PDF. See:

https://www.iskysoft.com/edit-pdf/pdf-to-pages-mac.html

If it is a single-page PDF, and despite the fact that it is scanned, you can drag/drop that PDF onto a new page in Pages, and it will behave as any other Pages object. You just cannot open it directly with Pages.

Thanks, VikingOSX. Your post helped me resolve this same issue.

No version of Pages on any Apple platform can open a PDF. On the Mac, you can insert a PDF into the document via the Insert menu, or you can drag/drop it onto the Pages application.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

Thank you so much, we were having the same problem with the Ipad, problem solved thanks to you!