why does Pages reject my font changes and revert to original font?

Question

Level 1

4 points

why does Pages reject my font changes and revert to original font?

In every writing program I've ever used, changing fonts, font size, color, etc is super straight forward. You get the cursor where you want your text to go, you select the new size or font you want, and then you start typing and that's it. If you're typing in order with your cursor at the very end of the document on Pages, it works this way too. BUT...

If you realize mid-paragraph that you want to change a font, Pages is a disaster. You set your change, and then for some reason Pages "selects" the cursor turning it blue. Then if you then start typing, Pages discards the font changes you've made and starts typing with the old font. No other writing program behaves like this. Why is this happening? Is there a setting I can change? Or is just a glaring design flaw?

Here's an example of this thing in action: Pages weird font behavior - YouTube

Many thanks to anyone who can help me solve this. I'm trying to do outlines in Pages (so lots of bold headings to add in) and it's driving me insane.

iPad Mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Dec 15, 2017 9:03 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Barry

Level 9

59,867 points

Dec 16, 2017 11:20 AM in response to brarble

Hi b'

A small adjustment to your may do the trick.

With the insertion point on the line where you will type the heading:

press command-B
then press the left arrow
Type the heading
Click or use the arrow keys to return the insertion point to the paragraph you were working on.
Carry on…

Regarding assigning an F-key to a style, see Pages Help:

Use a keyboard shortcut to apply a style

Note that if you are using a portable computer, the fn key will be part of the keystroke combination to apply the style.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 2

Barry

Level 9

59,867 points

Dec 16, 2017 9:41 AM in response to brarble

Hi b'

In the video, notice what is happening immediately before you start typing this bold heading:

You've typed the paragraph shown, then moved the insertion point to two lines before that paragraph, then went to the Text inspector and clicked B.

Note two things:

You are still in a paragraph to which the Body style applies. Body now has an asterisk attached to it: Body*. The asterisk means the Body style has been edited to include Bold among its attributes.

The return character (marked by the pilcrow—⁋ is selected (shown by the blue highlight of its background).

Your first keystroke replaces the selected character (which carried the formatting information for the paragraph it was to be the end of) with T, formatted correctly for the paragraph it is in—the one that was an empty line before the initial paragraph, and was set to the default Body(no asterisk) style.

Pages is designed to work with Styles. When yu create a table of contents, you select the styles which are to determine the content of that TOC. If you edit a Style, then ALL paragraphs that are set in that Style adopt the changes made in the Style definition.

If you want to put a heading into an existing part of a document, place the insertion point at the beginning of the heading,

then go to the Format Inspector, click the v to show the available styles, and choose a Heading style.

(I chose Heading 2)

After making the choice, check that the Pilcrow is NOT selected, and that the insertion point is at the beginning of the correct line, then type your heading:

When done, place the insertion point where you stopped typing (note that the Inspector shows you are back in the Body style—or in my case, the Default style, which has been edited, but not yet updated), and carry on typing.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 3

Dec 16, 2017 10:02 AM in response to brarble

So we can guess that you are using Pages 5 or 6?

You know you can simply set the Heading style with a function key short cut with "next paragraph style" automatically changing to the subsidiary paragraph style after you hit return?

Peter

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Answer 4

brarble Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 16, 2017 10:01 AM in response to Barry

Hey Barry, thanks so much for the extended, helpful reply. What you're saying makes total sense as a work around, but I still find it kind of baffling why Pages has things set up this way.

When I'm typing, I actually don't go over and click the bold button as I do in the video. I just hit cmd + B then keep typing. It's super fast and my hands don't have to leave the keyboard for the mouse. This is how font changes work in every other writing program I've ever used (Word, Ulysses, Final Draft, Scrivener, google docs, heck even other Apple programs like Notes, Mail, and the text box I'm typing in here in Safari behave this way).

Meanwhile in Pages, it's like you're saying. I hit cmd+bold, and then for some reason it highlights the pilcrow, so then in order to start typing in bold I then have to go grab the mouse and click nearby to "de-highlight" the pilcrow (or more likely due to decades of built up muscle memory, I just start typing like in the video and the font changes I've made vanish and it goes back to body text).

Clicking the "heading" as you suggest works, but far as I can tell there's no keyboard shortcut for the different heading options to avoid having to go click a different heading in the inspector, which is a huge slow down.

Would love to know if you or anyone else knows a keyboard shortcut for headings that I'm missing or a way to disable this baffling pilcrow highlighting that occurs.

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Answer 5

brarble Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 16, 2017 10:14 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Hey Peter, thanks for the reply. I'm in Pages 5.6.1. Haven't upgraded to High Sierra or Pages 6, but gladly would if it would change this behavior I'm encountering.

Thanks for the suggestion. I just figured out how to map a heading style to the function keys as you suggest. It's a super helpful work around, but I gotta say... I'd much rather Pages just behaved like every other writing app where you can hit cmd+b and just start typing in bold rather than having to map shortcuts, redefine heading styles, etc.

But thank you so much. This will definitely help me give this program another shot. It's so easy to use on a Mac (vs the bloated feeling port of Word) that maybe it'll be worth figuring out this whole heading style thing.

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Answer 6

brarble Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 16, 2017 1:56 PM in response to Barry

thanks so much Barry! This is hugely helpful.

Still wish Pages would behave like other programs in this regard, but it plays so nicely with OS compared to Word, that I'd like to keep using it if possible. Being able to do this will keep me from going nuts. Thank you!!

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Answer 7

Dec 16, 2017 5:50 PM in response to brarble

Specifically it is Pages 5 and 6 that do not play nice. Pages '09 is fine.

It is almost as if the new programmers Apple has employed in the last 4-5 years had never used a Mac (or anything else) before.

Peter

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Answer 8

Dec 16, 2017 6:38 PM in response to brarble

Both in macOS Sierra 10.12.6:

Peter

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Answer 9

Dec 16, 2017 6:44 PM in response to brarble

This works unless of course you want to change style mid-sentence.

Peter

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Answer 10

brarble Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 16, 2017 10:21 AM in response to brarble

Scratch that request for the keyboard shortcut. Just read Peter's post, and am all set there. But if anyone does know how to change this pilcrow highlighting behavior, I'd be much obliged...

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