Using styles in Pages + a few other questions

Question

Level 1

4 points

Using styles in Pages + a few other questions

Hi all

My configuration:

MacBook Air M1
MacOS Ventura
Pages 13.2

I write big documents (essays): 600+ pages in the one I just completed. They are structured: up to 4 levels of headings, dozens of chapters, footnotes, headers and footers, cross references, index, table of content, etc. There are very few images if any.

I have been using Word since the early 90's and occasionnally LibreOffice.

I need to transfer this document to a friend who has an iPad and therefore will use Pages. He will have to create another document of his own with the same layout so I created for him a template by using mine.

I am not familiar with Pages yet I could notice it improved dramatically since the last time I had a look at it.

I opened the document with Pages on my Mac and was pleased to see it's basically displayed correctly besides a couple of details.

I have a few of questions:

• How to define styles?

The chapters headings are numbered and when I create a new heading in Pages it's not numbered. If I copy a heading and paste it the number is not incremented. I tried this: I selected an existing numbered heading, in the Format sidebar I chose in the menu the option "Redefine from selection" but it was to no avail. Yet the existing numbered heading from my Word document work: I created a Table of contents which is just fine and the icing on the cake is that it's updated in real time!

I found a turn-around: I create a new chapter, I select a numbered heading, I copy the style and paste it on the new heading. It works but it's rather impractical.

In the Help the word "style" yields nothing.

• The Table of Contents in the left sidebar.

Headers are not numbered and you can't collapse and expand the chapters. It's a pity since the Table of Contents you insert in the document is correctly numbered. To me it's indispensable. Is it optional or should it be a request?

• How to insert in the page header a field displaying the name of the current chapter?

My existing headers are reproduced in Pages with some mistakes. I couldn't find how to recreate them.

• How to drag and drop?

I am an addict of the drag and drop and of the drag and duplicate features. To my surprise it doesn't work in Pages. It does in Numbers though.

TIA

Regards

Nick

MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Posted on Apr 8, 2025 5:04 PM

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Answer 1

brbo

Level 8

37,183 points

Apr 12, 2025 1:28 AM in response to Saint112

Hi Nick,

welcome to this Apple (user-to-user) Community!

Thank you for filling us in on your "big" documents and familiarity with Word and LibreOffice

Am no expert in this area, yet your post to the community deserves some response.

( I noticed it has been viewed over 80 times, yet remains without a reply.)

__________________________________________

Re: Using styles in Pages + a few other questions

First: Wondering whether or not you've already discovered the Pages User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

When I entered Styles in the search field on it's "Welcome" page.

there were quite a number of related articles shown

Eg: Intro to paragraph styles in Pages on Mac - Apple Support

Apply a paragraph style in Pages on Mac - Apple Support

Update or revert a paragraph style in Pages on Mac - Apple Support

Other articles cover table styles, chart styles, character styles, object styles, copy and paste text styles.

You can assign a shortcut key (F1—F8 on your keyboard) to a paragraph, character or list style,

then use the shortcut key to apply the style to selected text.

See: Use a keyboard shortcut to apply a text style in Pages on Mac - Apple Support

If getting your discussion under way doesn't tempt those with more expertise to join in:

Wondering if the ''how to" info. for your other questions may be readily available in the user guide.

( I have seen Pages tutorials on YouTube, yet those won't zero in on the specific info. you need}

For the differences in Pages for the iPad user : Pages User Guide for iPad - Apple Support

_____________________________________

For more info. / support / contact options etc.

There's a Pages Support website online; Pages - Official Apple Support

All the best :-)

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Answer 2

brbo

Level 8

37,183 points

Apr 12, 2025 3:57 PM in response to Saint112

Thank you for your reply ... you could teach me a thing or two!

Re: There is no dialog box where you can define styles: choose the fonts, the paragraph parameters, etc., and name them to your liking.

Am using Pages 14.0 with Ventura 13.7.5 on my Mac:

Not sure if the text tools in the sidebar can work for you on the earlier versions.

Choose Style. Then click the down arrow in the top box

In the dropdown menu that appears, choose the item you want to rename etc.

You can choose to rename etc.

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Answer 3

Saint112 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 12, 2025 2:57 AM in response to brbo

Hi brbo

Thanks for your quick response.

FYI, I bought my first Mac in 1987 (a Mac 512) and in 1988 I gave to my publisher the manuscript of my first book on diskettes. I was among the pionneers! I was using MacWrite, the ancestor of all word processors. ;-)

Question #1: styles.

I had found all the procedures described in the Guide. It means some are missing:

• There is no dialog box where you can define styles: choose the fonts, the paragraph parameters, etc., and name them to your liking. You can only first apply parameters to an existing paragraph then choose the option "Redefine from selection". So far so good, I could do with that to some extent, yet it works strangely with numbered chapter headings: when you apply the style to an existing paragraph the latter becomes a heading all right but it's not numbered. However by copying the format of an existing numbered heading and pasting it on a paragraph it's correctly formated with the number. Hence Pages integrates the styles of an imported Word document but it struggles to manage them. However when you create a table of contents not only headings are numbered as in the text but it's updated in real time (which is stunning).

Pages sure made a great leap forward: a few years ago when you imported a Word document that included chapters the headings would be converted into ordinary paragraphs and all your structure would be lost. So Pages is still in midstream in the process of becoming a full fledge word processor that can really compete with Word and LibreOffice (yet, even though LO is an unabashed plagiarism of Word, it's plagued with very irritating shortcomings).

Questions #2 & 3:

I guess I can forget about them.

Questions #4:

Even though Apple is the inventor of the drag and drop feature it's not applied to Pages (but it is in Numbers). :-(

Bottonline: I was delighted by the great progresses done by Pages but it still has to do some progress for me to use it as my word processor, not only as far as features are concerned but also user interface.

Regards

Nick

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Answer 4

Saint112 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 12, 2025 6:24 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi Tom

Thanks for your response.

I noticed that to my surprise. It's an option. For the time being my friend will "type" his text with Pages and then, if necessary, I will format it correctly with Word.

Let's hope Apple will continue upgrading Pages. It already has nice features. It's just missing a few to make really professional.

Nick

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Answer 5

Saint112 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 13, 2025 1:43 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom Gewecke wrote: Word is also available for the ipad from the app store, if that would make things easier.

Right. It's an option. He will start with Pages and, if necessary switch to Word.

Thanks for your suggestion Tom.

Nick

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Answer 6

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

120,538 points

Apr 12, 2025 5:19 AM in response to Saint112

Saint112 wrote: I need to transfer this document to a friend who has an iPad and therefore will use Pages.

Word is also available for the ipad from the app store, if that would make things easier.

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Using styles in Pages + a few other questions