iWork: The Missing Manual

Chapter 2. Editing Text in Pages

With Pages’ flashy arsenal of design features, it’s tempting to take the program’s mild-mannered writing tools for granted. The graphic-design flourishes certainly set Pages apart from other word-processing programs, but the gang at Apple hasn’t forgotten that, in the end, it’s words that tell the story. Beneath the program’s stylish veneer beats the heart of a full-featured word processor that can polish your prose to a squeaky-clean shine. Along the way, you can shape every aspect of your text’s visual presentation, from the sublime (subtle typography tweaks) to the ridiculous (smiley faces as bullet points? Why not!). This chapter covers everything you need to know about editing and formatting your text.

Word-Processor Text vs. Text Boxes

As you learned in the previous chapter (on Adding Pages), Pages presents your text in one of two forms. In word-processing documents, the main text flows through your document in one continuous outpouring of words. In page-layout documents, on the other hand, text shows up in independent text boxes that you can slide around your page, freestyle.

Note

In Chapter 7, you’ll learn that word-processing documents can contain both a main body of text and text boxes, in the form of callouts and sidebars (see Pull Quotes and Sidebars). For now, though, it’s simpler to think of your text as either a main body of free-flowing text or a text box.

The important thing to remember is that whether your words are a big chunk of text ...