How do I change all red text to blue?

If you have applied the same colour in a lot of places in a document and want to change them all at once, you can run the following AppleScripts.

First you want to know the code of the colour you have. Put the cursor in a coloured word and run this script in Applications > AppleScript > Script Editor.

tell application "Pages"
 tell front document
  set S to selection
  tell body text
   set C to color of character before S
   display dialog (((item 1 of C) as text) & ", " & ((item 2 of C) as text) & ", " & ((item 3 of C) as text))
  end tell
 end tell
end tell

Then run the following AppleScript, after you have changed the example colours to the ones you found running the previous script:

tell application "Pages"
 repeat with achar in characters of body text of front document
  if color of achar = {53355, 23, 54} then
   set color of achar to {23, 54, 53355}
  end if
 end repeat
end tell

How do I use an image to fill text?

There is no built in way of doing it, but if you have some time it is possible using Preview:

1. Insert the fill picture to Pages.
2. Create a text box with the text you want. Use black text.
3. Copy the text box.
4. Open Preview and select File > New from Clipboard.
5. Save the image as jpeg (to get rid of the transparency of the background).
6. Copy the image from Preview.
7. Paste it into Pages.
8. Position the fill image behind the pasted picture.
9. Use Format > Instant Alpha to make the text transparent, and the image will be visible through it.

Where are the templates stored? Where are the example pictures?

The template images are well hidden in the Pages application package. Right-click on it and select Show Package Contents. Go to Resources > Templates. Each of the template is a package in itself. Right-click on each and select show Package contents, and you will be able to find the pictures. You can copy them from there, but do not remove them, or you will destroy the templates.

If you create templates yourself, they will by default be stored in your home directory: ~/Library/Application Support/iWork/Pages/Templates/My Templates.

Why were Pages documents directories and not files?

Before Pages '09, Pages files were "packages" instead of files. There were some good reasons for that, but also a lot of inconveniences.

MacOS X is full of "packages" which in fact are directories.

Almost all MacOS X applications, including iTunes, Adobe Photoshop and NeoOffice are all packages. This makes it easy for developers to add and remove components and to see what files are included and what can be changed and needs to be improved. It also makes it easy to include a lot of information, which otherwise might have been spread over many files.

The main applications of MS Office 2004 are not based on packages. MS Office contains thousands of files. iWork '08 contains only 3 visible files: Keynote, Numbers and Pages.

So much for applications. But why use packages for documents?

The same reason. It is simpler. One can easily open the package of a Pages file and see what it contains if needed. If a picture does not display correctly, one can open the package and verify that the image file is there and that it works.


The drawback is that the files are difficult to attach to mails using webmail. But it takes just a right click to zip the file, and then it becomes both small and easy to attach.

How can I set the Multilingual dictionary as default?

You create a new template, change the language of all the styles to "All", save the template, and in the Preferences, choose this template as default for new documents.

Where is the "Multilingual" spelling dictionary?

When TextEdit's spelling module talks about a "multilingual" dictionary, Pages' spelling module simply says "All". To use it, go to the Inspector > T (for Text) > More and choose "All" as language.

How do I remove words from the spelling dictionary?

If you accidentally add a word to the spelling dictionary, you can remove it by opening the spelling dialogue (Edit > Spelling > Spelling...), typing the word, and clicking on the "Forget" button.

How do I change the default font?

If you are not happy with the default font in Pages' templates, you can correct it by changing the styles in the template and saving it. Then go to Preferences and select the changed template as default for new documents.

Is there a Pages Viewer for Windows?

No.

If you only have a Pages document and a Windows PC, it is very difficult to see the Pages document as the author intended it. You have only two options:

1. Get a Mac with Pages, or call the original creator of the document and have the Pages document saved in a format that can be read on Windows. That usually means Word or PDF. If you want to edit the document on Windows, only Word or RTF formats work. RTF files with images and tables are not supported.

2. If the file was saved as a package, you can look at the files inside the Pages document directory and try to make something out of the different pictures and xml files that are there. You may at least get an idea what the document is about. If the author set the checkbox "Include preview in document", when the file was originally saved, this may work out reasonably well.

If you want to see what the Windows user will see in a Pages document you can control-click on the file in the Finder and Show Package contents.



You will see the included images and other files in their directory structure. If you clicked the checkbox "Include preview in document" when you saved the file, you will even get a PDF file with all the text and some very compressed pictures in the QuickLook folder.



Anyhow, there is currently only one application that can open Pages files, and that is Pages.

(The situation is the same for Numbers and Keynote documents. There is no available reader for Windows.)

How do I make Pages autosave my documents?

With the new Mac OS X, Lion, released in July 2011, Pages '09 automatically saves all open documents using Auto Save and Versions. The basic functionality is very easy: open the document, edit, close. That's it. To use Versions and the more advanced functionality, it is a good idea to have a look at Apple's description of the functionality.

However, the autosave functionality is not problem free. There have been reports of people who have lost some data. The data is not autosaved continuously, but at regular intervals, and if you crash your machine between those intervals, text will obviously be lost.

For older versions, there was a problem, which is described below:

Pages '09 before Mac OS X Lion could not automatically save documents, so if you had typed for 5 hours without saving and there is a power failure, you would have lost all your work.

The safest way to handle this is to press ⌘-S to save the document manually as often as possible.

For those who do not trust themselves to remember this, there are a few Applescripts to do this at Apple's discussion forums, for example here and here.

How do I use a VCS with Pages?

The following was written before Pages '09, when Pages files were "packages" and not real files. The problem is probably gone with Pages '09 or later.

The problem with using Concurrent Versions System (CVS), Subversion or another version control systems with Pages, is not only that Pages "files" in fact are directories in the disguise of packages. The problem is that Pages erases the content of the directories at each save. The VCS usually saves control data in the subdirectory (package), but it is all wiped out when you save - something that makes the whole process moot.

For Subversion, there is a script available to solve it.

SVK is also said to handle Pages' directory structure.

Apart from that, a solution is to store the files as zip files - something which of course is not very convenient.