How do you hide text in Pages?

Question

How do you hide text in Pages?

The Pages user guide doesn't say anything about hiding text so that it's there, but not visible and doesn't print unless invisible characters are displayed. Is that feature not available? If not, is there a workaround?

I really want to get away from The Behemoth From Redmond and do more in Pages, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Mac mini, 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.4.8), 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM

Posted on Jan 2, 2007 9:32 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 2, 2007 12:21 PM in response to S. Edwin Collins

OK, that makes sense. I would probably keep those things in another document and copy and paste as needed.

Other ways to "solve" it is to set the text to white or 0% opacity or to a font size of 1, so no one will be able to read it. Or create them as text boxes which can cover each other completely.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 2, 2007 11:49 AM in response to S. Edwin Collins

I'm pretty sure that functionality is not available. I tried looking for it in NeoOffice as well, but could not find it there either.

I have occasionally used it myself in Word, but not often. Is there anything in particular you use it for, or could a simple comment (Insert > Comment) do the trick?

Reply

Answer 3

DennisG

Level 5

6,520 points

Jan 2, 2007 12:57 PM in response to S. Edwin Collins

I think an even better way to deal with text you'll use occasionally is with one of the programs that offers multiple clipboard bins. I've used a bunch of these programs and have settle on one called CuteClips (horrible name; great product). You can find it at: http://www.briksoftware.com/products/cuteclips/

-Dennis

Reply

Answer 4

Peggy

Level 8

41,829 points

Jan 2, 2007 2:10 PM in response to S. Edwin Collins

I've done a weekly church bulletin for years, first in AppleWorks & now in Pages. I had tried having all the regular events listed in my template but would often forget to remove what wasn't needed. I went to the copy & paste from another document method for awhile. Now, someone else makes a half-page insert with the information.

It sounds like you're re-using a document for the bulletin. Since you are used to hiding unneeded text, why not set up a template with everything needed & just delete (rather than hide) what's not needed that week? Then you won't be over-writing or permanently deleting anything as the template will remain unchanged.

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 2, 2007 2:14 PM in response to Peggy

My first impression is that that would be too much work. Using Save As keeps the bulletin updated with the latest info, announcement changes, etc. I guess I could try it for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.

Reply

Answer 6

Peggy

Level 8

41,829 points

Jan 2, 2007 6:19 PM in response to S. Edwin Collins

We all have to develop methods that work best for us. What works for me may not work for you or anyone else.

I now do a worship booklet each week, usually 12-16 half-pages, rather than the basic bulletin I did in the past. Pages has been great for this. I have templates set up for each season of the church year with placeholder text areas to drop in the collect, lessons, Prayers of the People & Eucharistic prayers. Those I keep in separate documents & drag & drop. I do the Save As… because I want to keep them for awhile in case I need to refer back to them.

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 3, 2007 6:12 AM in response to Peggy

Hmm, so you keep several templates for different times of the year. That could work for me.

Our bulletin is pretty simple, but we've talked about expanding it to something like yours. Is there any chance you could email me one of your most common templates for me to play around with?

Reply

Answer 8

Jan 3, 2007 6:20 AM in response to Peggy

I just had another thought about using a template instead of doing a Save As each week. It would probably prevent file corruption from creeping in, as just happened with last week's bulletin. Weird stuff was happening with the columns, so I had to save it as a text document, then re-establish my columns, reformat all the headings and paragraphs, etc. It was a pain!

Reply

Answer 9

Jan 2, 2007 12:11 PM in response to SermoDaturCunctis

Yes, I use it extensively. I currently publish our church bulletin in Word. We have events which occur every other week, so instead of retyping I just hide and unhide them as needed.

Reply