Macbook Pro 11.7.10 Pages WON'T show the template icons when opened

When I open up Pages, a list of previous task opens up INSTEAD of the icons for the many different templates within Pages. I also tried it on my desktop Monterey 12.7.6 and the same thing; no templates but instead a random list of previous items done in the past. I've tried going to Preferences>general>show template choose, but nothing changes. Please help, I've got work to do!