Pages crashes. What should I do?

Just like any application on any operating system, Pages may crash on you - or "quit unexpectedly", as the politically correct term is. To some of us that happens not even once a year. To some of us it happens every time we try to edit a table or access the colour dialogue or whenever we try to save a file. Perhaps Pages will not even start. You may get confusing messages about the SFWordProcessing plugin or EXC_BAD_ACCESS or KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS or EXC_BREAKPOINT, which will invoke memories of that DOS PC you used to have 20 years ago.

These are some of the things you can do to fix or isolate the problem. You can do them in any order you like.

• In /Library/Caches (in the root of your harddisk), trash the files ending with .csstore and then restart.
• In ~/Library/Caches/ (under your home directory), trash com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist .
• In ~/Library/Preferences (under your home directory), trash com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist .
  
• Remove any third party applications like spellcatcher.
• Clean up your spelling tools.
• Open FontBook, select all fonts and then File > Validate Fonts.
• Reset the font cache.
• Use another account than your main one. If that works, you know that the problem is in your main account. In your main account try removing file by file from ~/Library until things work. Try to remove them in an intelligent way. For example: create a new folder under Preferences called "old preferences" and drag every file that was in preferences into the new folder and then restart. After the restart you can drag the files back from "old preferences" to "Preferences" one by one, until things crash. Then you have found an offending file.
• Repair permissions from Disk Utility. Also verify your disk, just in case.
• Disable Spaces, if you have it active.
  
• If you run Pages from an external drive - don't. Copy it to your harddisk and run it from there.
• If you use Toast Titanium, something strange may be happening with the DivX plugin. Try reinstalling Toast with and without the DivX plugin, and see if that improves things.
• Delete iWork and reinstall it from the installation DVD.
  
• If nothing else works, reformat the harddisk and re-install the system. Do not add any additional fonts or programs. Just start Pages. If it still crashes, you are very likely to have a hardware problem and should bring the Mac to a service provider.