Pages: How to Make ALL Periods in Document Bigger? :)

Maybe spend less time on MacRumors and more time writing your essay.

You could create a new style (it is important to make this a character style, not paragraph style) which is the same as body text and just set the font size to something bigger. Than hit CMD + F and go to "Advanced". Insert:

Find: .
Replace: .
Style: your new style with bigger font size.

Replace All.

HappyDude20 said:

I'm writing an essay tonight, suppose to be like 7 pages. I'm at about 7 right now, however i've always been one to go...above and beyond.

I know how to do it in microsoft word, however would love to just do it in Pages.

I'd like to find all the "." in the document, which are sized 12 and secretly make them like size 15, or 17...whatever doesn't look too obvious.

In Microsoft word this usually adds me like an extra page, depending how much i've got written down...anyways,

help?

Click to expand...

Here's some advice from a professor. Don't do this. It's obvious. It makes you look like a skunk.

Instead, go back to the *middle* of your essay and pick out an argument you make. Now add one or more pieces of evidence to back this argument up. Be as specific as possible.

With apologies to the professor, the period trick works mainly by increasing the line height rather than adding extra width to each line. In fact, if you don't have a period on each line (perhaps your writing skills have expanded beyond subject-verb-object sentences with the occasional article), you'll end up having different line heights in a paragraph. That, along with the larger periods will be a visual clue to the professor that something is not right. I'd recommend tweaking the line height for your documents. Bumping one or two lines off each page with this technique might get you an extra page without being too noticeable.

HappyDude20 said:

I really don't think its noticeable. Especially being I don't exagerrate this. If my font size is 12, i won't go past....15. This usually gets me like half a page extra once having written 6 pages. Not too noticeable and looks like wrote just that bit extra.

I'd still like to do a comparison between before and after period font size changes...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've included a photo of where i'm stuck in pages; can't seem to figure out how to edit the font size..

Click to expand...

Seriously, do you think professors grade by how long your paper looks? Maybe they grade by weight? Even if the professor doesn't notice the padding (and we use word processors too you know, so we know what padded text looks like) he or she is going to read the paper, and notice that your argument is skimpy.

News flash: we talk about this all the time. Sometimes we even show each other examples of the ridiculous lengths students go to pad their essays. We hold them up, mock them to each other, roll our eyes, and then give them average or worse grades, not just because of the subterfuge, but because an essay written with the objective of stretching an exhausted argument over the finish line is certainly going to be a piece of sh*t.

We know, believe it or not, because we're not actually brain-dead or so behind the times we don't know what a 12 point font with double-spaced lines looks like. You don't think it's noticeable, but how many pages of 12 point font with double-spaced lines have you looked at? I've looked at, literally, tens of thousands, in the course of my paper-grading, dissertation writing, article publishing, etc. WE KNOW YOUR'E DOING IT. If you don't get confronted, it's because the professor chose to quietly sneer at you and lose a little respect rather than bother mousing about such a stupid demeaning thing.


Instead of learning tricks, seriously, learn how to re-read, revise, and strengthen your argument--an actually useful real world skill.

More bad ideas for padding: adding another paragraph at the end, adding sentences to the end with big overarching themes like "in all human history..." "when mankind reaches for the stars..." etc.

HappyDude20 said:

2 things:

I love in the end how you mention "mankind reaching for the stars..."
I was going over some old essays i'd written years ago and noticed stuff like that. It was great to see how I used to write and the progress my writing skills had achieved since.

Secondly, why do people assume my paper sucks?
I've always gotten A papers. If there's one thing i'm comfortable doing for a class its an essay. So much so that this semester i've put essays off till the last week they're due, knowing i'd crank a good one out. Admittedly the paper would be better if I had started weeks in advance allowing me to take it to a writing center and review, revise, redraft, revise, review, reprint, etc etc etc...But I honestly can't remember the last time i've gotten anything less than an "A" on an essay at University.

I originally asked for the period quick tip as a way to hit my 9 page barrier mark, just in case. For years now I always add 2 pages to whatever is requested from a student. My essay tomorrow is only 7, however 9 would be "A" material. Concerning the quick period tip, I was hoping to get me over the mark if I was at 8 pages and decided to throw in the towel and grab some sleep.

Click to expand...

Then you don't need to resort to cheap tricks.

By the way, I didn't assume that your essays suck. But it's quite possible that were I grading your essay, and felt a little suspicious about your line spacing, I would hold it up to the light with a sheet I *knew* was double spaced, and then I *would* assume your essay sucked because I saw you trying to pad.

As for the word-processing question, why bother fiddling with the periods? All you really want to do is add a tiny bit more than double-spacing to the lines, so just go into the text inspector and set it to 2.1 or 2.2 instead of 2.

Interesting trick, I'm glad all my students are required to submit their work to me digitally. I simply set a word requirement and look at the word counts. This also makes it much easier to catch things like plagiarism, it's amazing how many times I'll cut and paste sections (not cited) into google and get exact matches...

HappyDude, ergdegdeg already answered your question. But, as I already pointed out, and as nastebu has echoed, changing your line spacing by 5 or 10% will be a much better solution than enlarging periods.

@ nastebu, since some people will always use these tricks perhaps occasionally encouraging this sort of behavior will bring a spot of brightness to your day as you catch yet another student playing games.