iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Modifying Object Styles

Besides arranging objects’ size and placement on the page, you can also adjust the way each object looks by adjusting its various properties. Object properties include things like background color or image, line color and style, reflections, drop shadows, and object opacity. The Format Bar, Graphic Inspector, and Color Picker are your command centers for making these adjustments.

Tip

If your object-styling goes awry and you wind up with an object painted with garish colors and egregious effects, you can reset its styles by choosing Format → “Reapply Defaults to Selection”. (The exact title of the command changes according to what’s selected: Text Box, Shape, Image, and so on.) Pages reverts the object to the document’s standard style, as defined by the template you used to create the document. See Chapter 10 (Defining Object Styles) for details about setting default object properties.

Filling with Colors, Gradients, and Images

Pages provides the Graphic Inspector to control objects’ colors—both their fill (interior color), and their stroke (outline color and border). The Graphic Inspector also lets you add a shadow or reflection to an object and adjust the object’s opacity. Tools to adjust these settings also pop up in the Format Bar when you select an object.

You can add a fill color to any shape, text box, table cell, or chart element. Select one of these objects and choose a color from the Fill pop-up button in the Format Bar. Or, for literally millions of ...