Pages Formatting

[fjs08]

Hi,
Is there an easy way to format my work in Pages. I was typing a letter from my office. At the top I wanted to center my business name, address, city and state in 3 lines one under the other. It seems as if it double spaces by default. When I started to type, if I type until the end of the line, the word wrap single spaces, but the only way I could get my name and address to single space was to highlight all of it and use the Inspector, click Text Inspector and use the line slide bar to shrink the spacing between lines. Just simply clicking the Single, Double, etc spacing option didn't seem to do anything?
Any thoughts anyone??

Thanks,

Frank

 

[Jason_Bryan]

I think I understand what you are trying to do. If you want to start a new line you can press Shift-Return. This will give you a single line spacing. If you just press Return it will double space because you are starting a new paragraph.

 

[kgarner]

It all has to do with the style. Each pargraph can have style (font, line spacing, etc.) this includes the space before and after a paragraph. If you change the text to a different style that doesn't have the space before/after then it will work okay.

It is a little bit backwards to the way we think about it, but that is because most everybody just uses space and tab and return to get the look they want and do it all over again when they decide to format it differently. They don't understand the style/formatting options in most word processors, which can be a real time saver.

 

[fjs08]

At first I thought that Pages was a bit strange, but the more I play with it, the more I like it.

Crossed an article in PC Mag tonite that gave iWork '05 rave reviews.

Frank

 

[blackpeter]

Pages is great. The only thing I don't like about the app is the icon.

 

[chameeeleon]

I assume you're talking about this review, and while I wouldn't exactly call it "raving" (read the iMac G5 review for that), the reviewers were very understanding of what Apple was trying to do (slowly build an AppleWorks successor, not deliver the two-hand punch right away), and didn't automatically do the "Word can do this and Pages can't!" bit. What I was shocked to read (my copy arrives tomorrow) was in Macworld's preview of Pages that there is no way to delete/reorder Pages, which (as they pointed out) is amazing consider Keynote's slide-browser simplicity, and the fact the two apps were made by the same team. I can only hope this feature will be added before Pages 2 next January - I can't last a whole year without this in what I'll be using as a page layout app.
And I'm not crazy about the icon either, but it's growing on me and it goes very well with Keynote (which has a fantastic icon for version 2). Still, I didn't really want another generic stack of pages icon for the app either. Hopefully Pages 2 also brings a nicer icon (speaking of which - why are the iApp icons either never changed or only slightly altered? A different picture for iPhoto, or a different instrument for Garageband would've been cool, and made it easy to tell who was using what).

 

[pyrotoaster]

At first I thought that Pages was a bit strange, but the more I play with it, the more I like it.

I totally get what you're saying. The more time I spend in pages, the more intuitive it seems. The styles drawer is just fantastic, and can make things just a breeze. The ability to just drag in objects that sit independently of the text area and manipulate them around the text as necessary is just elegantly implemented (even if it does remind me a bit of AppleWorks' Drawing setup).
I'm already using Pages over both TextEdit and Word for Mac, and I really can't wait for 2.0 (well I guess I can wait a year ).

 

[fjs08]

>>I assume you're talking about this review, and while I wouldn't exactly call it "raving"<<

Coming from the PC world. I hadn't heard that the Spreadsheet was going to be called "Cells???"

As for the icon, I kinda like the little ink bottle. It says "simplicity but elegant." Like Pages!!

Frank

 

[chameeeleon]

I hadn't heard that the Spreadsheet was going to be called "Cells???"

I think it was just a rumour.

 

[Bear]

Pages is great. The only thing I don't like about the app is the icon.

I actually kinda like the icon. Then again, I do seems to have some jars of ink and some nice glass pens that get dipped into the jars.

 

[Bear]

...

Coming from the PC world. I hadn't heard that the Spreadsheet was going to be called "Cells???"

...

That is the rumor. Personaly I prefer that it be called Sheets. Cells implies it might be like the Appleworks spreadsheet which only supports one sheet per file. Sheets implies it might be more like Excel which lets you have multiple spreadsheets in one file. A great way to keep related information together.

 

[fjs08]

Sheets is cool. I could live with that easily. Now we need an icon to send Apple

 

[macfreek57]

i don't have iWork

could someone post pics of the icons? i'd be interested to know what they look like

thanks

 

[Bear]

could someone post pics of the icons? i'd be interested to know what they look like

thanks

Go to the Apple page for Pages - it's partway down in the middle of the screen next to the section titled Streamlined yet Powerful Word Processing.

 

[Jason_Bryan]

Icons

 

[johnnyjibbs]

Pages' icon is not one of my favourites, but at least it's a bit different. Regarding iLife app icons always staying the same - this is for consistency - if GarageBand changed to, say, a violin, or a piano, it wouldn't be immediately recognised as GarageBand, especially as version 2 is not that different to version 1. And iDVD seems to have been granted a new icon (which I'm still coming to terms with, although I think is more functional than the old one).

I would have thought that if they had forgotten to add a "delete' or "rearrange page" option, they would add it soon. Maybe in the next few days, if the iMovie update is anything to go by.

I'm still waiting for my copy of Pages too...

 

[kwajo.com]

Pages' icon is not one of my favourites, but at least it's a bit different.

WHAT?! why doesn't anyone like the icon?! I think it is my favorite apple icon ever. it's classic, modern and elegant, what more could you want?

 

[kgarner]

The only problem i have witht he icon is that it is all rather dark. If they had used a lighter color for the pen or something I think it would be great. As for the program itself, I love it. It is by no means a Word killer, but I (and I think most people) never use all the advanced features of Word anyway. And it is much better at layout than Word. I have to use Word to format some documents at work and simply adding pictures and placing them where I want them is an immense challenge with Word. Anything more than about two pictures in close proximity adn it starts rearranging them for me. Sorry for the side-rant there. I love Pages! Woot!

 

[dav]

What I was shocked to read (my copy arrives tomorrow) was in Macworld's preview of Pages that there is no way to delete/reorder Pages, which (as they pointed out) is amazing consider Keynote's slide-browser simplicity, and the fact the two apps were made by the same team.

Amen. This is the fatal flaw of pages to me. I can't even see how to delete a page once I added it! (Besides deleting EVERY single object on it)

 

[bousozoku]

Amen. This is the fatal flaw of pages to me. I can't even see how to delete a page once I added it! (Besides deleting EVERY single object on it)

It's still primarily a word processor, no matter how fancy.

Hopefully, they'll add a mode later to make it work more like a desktop publishing application. I would certainly like that.

For now, it's pretty nice, especially with all the easy layout changes.

 

[chameeeleon]

I got iWork tonight, and while I think Pages really does deliver on making great looking documents, once you stray too far from the templates you run into a mess. It also feels very sluggish at times, and (as I expected) I have troubles dealing with no way to reorder/delete pages. This isn't to say I won't be using it - I am just eagerly awaiting iWork '06 already, lol. And as for the PC Mag review - there's another column up now about how iWork is the most influential release of Macworld because it might force Microsoft to rethink their software design. Fat chance!
Their iLife review was mostly positive too, and (although now I'm still waiting for iLife's arrival, hopefully on Monday) I can agree with most of their ratings (although I would have expected a 5 for iPhoto, and am a little bitter about this whole "Picasa" thing). iLife '04 seemed to be centered on Garageband, '05 on a big iPhoto overhaul, here's to hoping that '06 brings a much-needed complete rethinking of iMovie. As the review says, titles and effects just feel dated. Then again, after using Final Cut Express, it's hard to go back. But I digress. This is an iWork thread.

 

[fjs08]

I think we all have to feel very positive about Apple's approach here. They are definitely looking to the future when they aren't dependent on Microsoft products. I for one think they can do it. iWork is a nice start and I'm confident it will blossom. Maybe sooner than an annual update too. And has anyone been able to view the Tiger screenshots on the sites mentioned here in MacRumors. I keep getting strange messages about bandwith when I try???

Frank

 

[andiwm2003]

is pages slow?

hi,

i played with pages at the apple store yesterday. i had the feeling everything was slow and a little bit sluggish.

but on the other hand i tried it on a mac mini 256mb, an imac 1.8 512mb and a powermac 2.5 3gb and there seemed to be the same speed on all machines.
since its unimaginable that pages is as sluggish on the powermac as on the mini there must be something else wrong with their setup.

so how fast is pages when you move around a picture and have text float around it?

andi

 

[chameeeleon]

In response to speed - definitely not as fast as it should be. I was shocked too when I first started moving stuff around, there is very noticeable lag, and it makes me feel like my computer needed an upgrade (it's a G5, I can't imagine how G3 users must feel). Hopefully the first patch will drastically improve performance.