iWork 05: The Missing Manual
In order to perform its page layout wizardry, Pages views the various elements you can incorporate into your textpictures, movies, text boxes, shapes , tables, and chartsas objects . Pages approaches objects in two ways:
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In-line objects behave like a text character in a line of text. If you add more text to your document in front of this kind of object, it gets pushed along with the text, always remaining tied to the words next to it. You'll find in-line objects a good choice for text boxes containing a short quote that needs to stay connected to the surrounding text, for example (see Figure 4-6).
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Fixed objects are standalone entities. Instead of being tied to the document's text, they're bolted into the page at a specific spot. Most people prefer fixed objects when they're adding pictures or charts to a page layout. Adding text to the page doesn't affect the objects' placement, and you can drag and resize these kinds of objects to precisely position them on the page (Figure 4-7).
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When you insert a fixed object on a text-filled page you can determine whether the text flows under the object, over the object, or wraps around itflowing around the object so the text neither overlaps the picture nor is hidden by it (see Section 4.3.7).
Since fixed objects are separate items, you can stack them in layers just like you could arrange paper snapshots on a scrapbook page. One picture is on top, overlapping portions of other pictures beneath . Besides shifting the position of each object, you can also shift its layermoving it in front of or behind other objects that it overlaps.
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In-line objects always remain on the same layer as the text in which they're embedded. When you adjust the arrangement of layers in your document, you can move fixed objects in front of or behind the text layer.
Unlike scrapbooking with paper snapshots, Pages also lets you adjust the opacity of each object, so you can see through to the objects in layers below (see Section 4.4.7).
You control an object's fixed or in-line status when you add it to the page, but you can convert it from fixed to in-line or vice versa at any time (see Section 4.2.2.3).
After you place objects on the page, you can crop, resize, rotate, and layer them on top of one another. You can add shadows, adjust their opacity, or group several objects together in order to reposition them simultaneously . For the full story on object manipulation, see Working with Objects on Section 4.3.
4.2.1. Meet the Media Browser
Pages provides a shortcut to your entire photo, music, and movie collections via the Media Browser. You can access all your photos (or other graphics) stored in iPhoto, your music (or other sound files) stored in iTunes, and the movies stored in your Movies folder. If you're just going to print out your documents, you don't need to add sounds and movies. But if you're designing documents for people to view onscreen, Pages helps you add features that let your viewers start and stop the playback of movies, narration, or music.
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In the toolbar, click the Media button or choose View
The upper pane displays playlists, albums, or folders, and the lower pane displays songs, photos, or movies.
Note: For more on how to create and store files in iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie, check out iPhoto 5: The Missing Manual; iPod and iTunes: The Missing Manual ; and iMovie HD: The Missing Manual .
Drag a photo from the Media Browser window into the document if you want to put it into the document. When you add a photo to a Pages document, Pages copies the pictureit becomes part of the document file. That way, if you move that Pages document to another computer, Pages displays all the pictures you've added.
When you drag a sound file into your document, it shows up as a loudspeaker icon. Double-click it to play; single-click to stop.
Drag a movie into your document and it looks just like a still picturedisplaying the first frame of the movie. Again, double-click to play; click to stop.
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Tip: If you include music or movie files in a Pages document, the program normally doesn't duplicate those files in the document. Instead, due to the large size of music or movie files, Pages links to those files on your hard disk.If you need to be able to view the document on another computer, you must either transfer copies of those linked files along with your Pages document, or, when saving the Pages document, click the flippy triangle next to the Save field and turn on the checkbox labeled "Copy audio and movies into document." This move insures that all your media files are included in the Pages documentand it can also ensure that that Pages document file is going to be mighty big, possibly too big to email or even fit on a CD.Once you set it, Pages retains this saving preference in the Save dialog boxso be sure to turn off that checkbox if you normally use your documents on just your own computer.
UP TO SPEED Plan Ahead |
Having Pages' assortment of document templates at your fingertips is a boon for the hurried, the harried, or the creatively challenged. But even before you choose a template, run through some of the basics of document setup to ensure that your end product comes out the way you want it to. What paper size will you print on? Will it be a vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape) layout? Will the document be folded, printed on both sides of the sheet, or bound? Is it going to require page numbers , sections, or a table of contents? Keep these requirements in mind as you choose your template and make adjustments using Page Setup, the Document Inspector, and the Layout Inspector before you begin entering text and inserting pictures. If you plan to share your Pages document electronically with others who don't have Pagesby exporting in Word format and emailing, for exampleyou should be aware of some of the pitfalls you may encounter during the file translation process. See Chapter 6 to help prepare for the best possible transfer. |
4.2.2. Inserting Fixed and In-line Objects
After you decide what to insert in your document, the next question is how: as a fixed or an in-line object. Fixed objects are glued to a spot on the page (though you can move them later) while the text flows around or over them, whereas in-line objects are attached to the text and flow along with it.
4.2.2.1. Inline objects
Think of in-line objects like another character or word in a sentence . In-line objects enter the page at the insertion pointjust like a typed character.
To create an in-line object, drag a picture, for example, from the Media Browser (or from a folder) into your Pages document. As you drag across the page margin, notice a blue outline that appears around the edges of the page. (If you drop the picture at this point, it becomes a fixed object.) Continue to drag into a column of text, press
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Note: If you're experimenting with inserting in-line objects into a template document, you first have to replace the placeholder text with some real text. Copy some text from another document and paste it into the placeholder to give yourself something to work with.
The picture appears at the chosen point in your text, sized just wide enough to fill the column if it's a large picture. Click the image to display its selection handles. In-line objects have only three active selection handles: the black ones on the bottom, right, and bottom-right corner. Drag any of the active handles to resize the image.
You can also add an in-line object by first placing your insertion point at the spot you want it to appear, and choosing Insert
4.2.2.2. Fixed objects
Fixed objects are married to a spot on the page instead of within a line of text. To add a fixed object, drag the image or file into your Pages document and drop it as soon as the blue outline appears around the edges of the pagethen drag it into position. All eight selection handles are active on fixed objectsdrag any of the handles to resize the picture.
Note: Pages does its best to recognize picture, movie and sound files and always adds them as fixed objects whether you drop them in a column of text or on the document border. If you'd rather see one of these as an inline object, press
You can also add fixed objects using the Insert menu. First click the margin of the document, so you no longer see a blinking insertion point, choose Insert
4.2.2.3. Converting object style
After you insert an object in your document, you can change it from an in-line to a fixed object, or vice versa. Choose View
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4.2.3. Inserting Media
The Media Browser is a quick and easy way to insert pictures in your documentbut not the only way. The Media Browser shows only those pictures stored in iPhoto. If you don't use iPhoto, you can drag photos from other photo-organizing softwaresuch as from Extensis Portfolio or Photoshop's file browseror directly from a folder. Pages can handle any QuickTime-supported format, including JPEG, TIF, GIF, PSD, PICT, EPS, PDF, and lots more.
Likewise, you can drag sound or movie files directly from a folder into your document. Pages can work with any QuickTime or iTunes-supported file type, including MOV, Flash, MP3, MP4, AAC, AIFF, and others. If you open a movie in iMovie, you can also drag individual clips from iMovie into your Pages document. (Incidentally, you can also drag movies from the Media Browser window into an open iMovie project's clip shelf or timeline.)
You can also use Pages' menus to insert media. Choose Insert
4.2.4. Inserting Shapes
Pages supplies a collection of lines, arrows, and geometrical shapes you can add to your document as objects. You can use shapes as graphic elements or as containers for text.
Place your insertion point at the place you want to insert a shape as an in-line object, or click the margin of the document so the insertion point disappears, in order to insert a shape as a fixed object. Choose Insert
Pages inserts your chosen shape in the document with its selection handles showing, ready for you to resize itand if it's a fixed object, reposition it.
Tip: You can draw a shape directly in your document as a fixed object. Hold down the Option key, click the Objects button in the toolbar, select Shape from the pop-up menu, and then pick a shape from the submenu. Let go of the Option key. Your cursor changes to a crosshair shape. Drag starting at one corner of the object. Pages draws the object and displays the object's width and height measurements as you drag.Hold the Shift key as you drag, to constrain the shape to a perfect circle, square, equilateral triangle, and so on. Hold the Option key as you drag to position the shape's center at the spot you click. Hold both keys as you drag to both center and constrain the shape.
Note: Pages makes a considerable demand on your computer's processor as you manipulate objects on screen, resulting in a significant drag lag even on fast machines. When resizing a shape, for example, drag the selection handle and be patient while Pages catches up to your cursor.
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4.2.4.1. The line shapes
The first three shapes are variations on that paragon of one-dimensionality: the line. You can choose a plain line, an arrow, or a double-headed arrow. After you insert a line in your document, it sports one selection handle at each end. Drag one of the handles to change the line's length or angle. Hold the Shift key while you drag to constrain the angle to exactly 45 increments .
WORKAROUND WORKSHOP Where's the Clip Art? |
If you're an AppleWorks, PrintShop, Microsoft Office, or Publisher veteran, you may be surprised to discover Pages doesn't include a clip art library. Apple obviously saved some money by not licensing clip art for Pages, but the program can use any clip art you already have or can find. Here are some sources:
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Open the Graphic Inspector and use the Stroke pop-up menus to adjust the line's thickness, color, and stroke (solid, dashed, or none). Use the Endpoints pop-up menus to choose various arrow and endpoint styles for the line. (The arrow and double arrow shapes in the menu are merely lines with preconfigured end points.)
4.2.4.2. The geometric shapes
Basic geometric shapes are next in the Shapes lineup. Choose from a rectangle, rounded rectangle, oval (or circle), triangle, right triangle, and diamond. Pages inserts these shapes in their most regular forms: squares, circle, equilateral triangle, right isosceles triangle, and square diamond. Hold the Shift key while you drag a selection handle to preserve these proportions while you resize.
4.2.4.3. The arrow shapes
Pages provides two big fat arrow shapessingle or double-headed. Instead of being lines with arrow heads, like those produced by the line tool, these are shapes that can have an outline stroke and a color, gradient, or image fill just like the other geometric shapes. You can adjust the size of the arrow head and the width of the line by using the round selection handle inside the arrow head.
4.2.4.4. The quote bubble and text inside shapes
The final choice in the shape menu is specially designed for comic book producers : the quote bubble. An oval with a triangle tacked on the side, the quote bubble is really made to be a text container, though you can add text inside any of the shapes (except the lines). After you insert the bubble in your document, double-click it and the insertion point appears inside. Enter text and format it using the Text Inspector, the Font panel, and the Format menu (as described in Chapter 1). If you enter more text than will fit, a plus sign (+) clipping indicator appears at the bottom of the shape. To reveal the rest of the text, resize the shape by selecting it and dragging one of its selection handles. (See Section 4.2.5.2 for more on formatting text inside a shape.)
4.2.5. Making Text Boxes or Sidebars
Text boxes, callouts, pull quotes, and sidebars are common elements of page layout design. Pages' Insert
Text boxes are useful for highlighting or isolating some text from the rest of your document. Sidebars usually hold a paragraph or several paragraphs that are related to, but not really part of, the flow of the main text. Sidebars can stand alone as a little chapter or chunk of information. This book, for example, uses sidebars to hold these kinds of digressions.
Callouts or pull quotes highlight an important point in the main text. Since they relate directly to part of the text, they need to be placed near the relevant text. Magazine articles often have pull quotes to add visual interest to the page by breaking up the columns of plain text.
You can create text boxes with or without a frame or a background color or image. Since text boxes are objects, you can use all the object controls to rotate, layer, adjust opacity, and so on (see Section 4.3). To add a text box, follow these steps:
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Click the margin of the document so the insertion point disappears. Then choose Insert
Text (or click the toolbars Objects button and from the pop-up menu choose Text) . Pages creates a text box as a fixed object, with the insertion point blinking, ready for your text input. Begin typing.
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Click outside the text box then click back inside it in order to select the boxand then drag it into position on the page. (Alternatively, press
-Return to select the box when you're in text-entry mode.)
Drag the selection handles to resize the box. If you type more than the box can hold, a clipping indicator appears at the bottom of the box to show you that some of your text is clipped off or hidden (Figure 4-12). Resize the box to reveal the hidden text.
WORKAROUND WORKSHOP Callout Conundrum |
If you use shapes to contain text for callouts or captions, it might seem like a good idea to rotate or flip the quote bubble or the big arrow shape so that you could place it, for example, on either side of a picture. However, if you try this trick, you soon see it's better to leave the shape in its standard orientation if you add text to it. Here's why: When you enter text into a bubble that you've rotated, the bubble snaps back to its original orientation while you add text. Pages glues that text to the bubble, so when you click outside the bubble, the bubble and its text shift back to its rotated position. You can get around this rotation limitation by adding the text on top of the shape instead of inside it. Create the shape and resize, rotate, flip and flop to your heart's content. When you're satisfied with your shape, choose Insert When you've lined up the text perfectly with the object, select the text box, hold down the Shift key and also select the shape. With both items selected, join the two together by choosing Arrange |
Although Pages creates text boxes only as fixed objects, once they exist, you can change them into in-line objects, just like you can with other kinds of objects. You might find this ability useful, for example, to keep a pull quote connected to the paragraph it's pulled from, even if you add or delete text in an earlier part of the document.
If so, select the text box so its selection handles are visible and drag it close to the position you want to appear as an in-line object. Open the Wrap Inspector and click the "Moves with text" button. Pages converts the box to an in-line object and places it into your text. Drag the box and position it exactly, watching the insertion point as you drag. Drop it when you get the insertion point in the right spot.
Usually you want your main text to wrap around a pull quote. Turn on the checkbox for "Object causes wrap" in the Wrap Inspector and choose one of the wrapping styles to position the text box in the column of text (see Section 4.3.7 for more on wrapping text). Adjust the Extra Space setting using the up and down arrow button to insert more or less white space above and below the text box. (The Text Fit and the Alpha adjustment don't apply to text box objects.)
Note: Pages can automatically create a text box from copied text. Copy some text from another document or from another place in the current document. Click the margin of the document so the insertion point disappears, then choose Edit
POWER USERS' CLINIC The Missing Equation Editor |
Do you fret over the possibility that If you have AppleWorks 6, you also have a handy program for the mathematically inclined, called Equation Editor. You find it in your AppleWorks 6 folder Since these typographically impressive equations are graphic objects instead of text, you can resize, rotate, or manipulate them in other ways like any objectbut you can't edit them. If you discover an error in an equation, you have to copy it from Pages and paste it back into Equation Editor to modify itor just start over in Equation Editor. If you require more powerful equation-wrangling softwareor if you don't have AppleWorks' Equation Editoryou can purchase Equation Editor's smarter sibling: MathType. earn about its advanced capabilitiesand about how to get the most out of Equation Editorat www.mathtype.com. |
4.2.5.1. Linking text boxes
If you have more text than will fit in one text box, or want to break up a sidebar into two or more portions, Pages can link the text boxes so the text flows from one to another. Magazines use this technique as a running sidebar that occupies, for example, the right column on the right page for several pages running. Linked boxes behave as one virtual text boxif you add extra text to the first box, any displaced text flows into the next linked text box. Or, if you Select All, Pages selects the text in all the linked text boxes. You can have linked text boxes on the same page or separate them by many pages.
To make a linked text box, create the first text box and type or paste text into it. Press
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You can create a chain of as many linked boxes as you require. When Pages creates a linked text box, it establishes that box's order in the chain for the flow of text. But Pages doesn't prevent you from dragging linked text boxes into any order you want within your documentthough your readers may wish it had.
You can select all the text in a series of linked text boxes to change font formatting or to copy the text to another document, for example, by placing the insertion point in any of the text boxes and pressing
If you need to move a set of linked text boxes at once, hold down the Shift key and click the other boxes in order to select the whole set. Then you can drag them to a new location in your document. However, if you need to move them very far, you'll find it more convenient to cut and paste. Select the text boxes, and then choose Edit
If you cut or copy and paste just one box of a set of linked text boxes, the resulting text box shows the contents of the box you copied, but none of the links.
4.2.5.2. Formatting text boxes
Think of text boxes as little documents within your document. And just like a word processing document, a text box can remain a modest construction of plain text, or you can dress it up and decorate it with a background color or image, borders, shadows, tables, charts, pictures, even columns (Figure 4-13).
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You can add a solid color, a gradient (a fill color that gradually blends one color into another), or an image to the background of a text box; you can also choose to add a border, a drop shadow, or adjust its opacity. The Graphic Inspector houses the controls for these functions, which behave as they do with other objects. Find all the details beginning on Section 4.4.
You can also apply paragraph background colors to individual paragraphs within a text box. If you've applied a fill color or image to the text box, the paragraph fill overrides it for the selected paragraph. Place your insertion point within a paragraph in the text box, and then open the Text Inspector's More tab. Turn on the checkbox for Paragraph Fill and click the color well to summon the Color Picker. Choose a color and adjust the Opacity slider to see the effect on your text box.
WORKAROUND WORKSHOP Raise That Cap |
Grab a magazine or book and chances are good that its articles or chapters begin with a large initial capital letter. Large initial caps appear in many different styles, but you'll most commonly see the raised cap , in which the baseline of the initial letter matches that of the first line of text, with the letter rising up above the paragraph; or the drop cap , in which the top of the initial letter lines up with the top of the first line of text, with the rest of the letter dropping three or more lines below. Pages doesn't provide an easy way to create large initial caps. You can create a large raised cap by increasing the first letter's font size, but because Pages lacks fixed paragraph line spacing, that one large character results in wider line spacing beneath the first line. The page-layout perfectionist has no choice but a somewhat convoluted workaround.
Creating drop caps in Pages is more of a problem. Because it involves creating a text box as a fixed object to house the initial capital, you should complete all your other document editing first. Otherwise, the drop cap text boxes will fall out of alignment as you edit body text that precedes them.
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You can add other objectsimages, shapes, tables, or chartswithin a text box as in-line objects. Place the insertion point in the text at the spot you want to insert the object, and choose the type of object from the Insert menu or from the Objects button's toolbar pop-up menu.
You can use fixed objects within a text box as well, but you're actually creating two or more layered objects on the page. To add a fixed object, click the margin of the document so the insertion point disappears, and then choose the type of object from the Insert menu or from the Objects button's pop-up menu in the toolbar. Resize the object and drag it into the text box. Open the Wrap Inspector, select the wrapping style, and adjust the Text Fit option if necessary (see Section 4.3.8). You can attach the object to the text boxso it moves along with it if you reposition the text boxby grouping the two objects. Select the object, hold down the Shift key, and then select the text box. With both items selected, choose Arrange
Note: When you group a text box with another object, you can no longer resize the box or edit its text. To do so, select the grouped object, choose Arrange
Note: If you've carefully situated a text box (or any fixed object) within your page layout, you can lock it down to the page so you don't inadvertently move it while you maneuver other objects on the page. Select the text box and choose Arrange
Show Rulers, select one or more paragraphs in one of the text box columns, and then use the margin and first-line indent indicators in the ruler to make the adjustments. Drag the ends of the gray bar under the ruler to adjust the gutter width (Figure 4-14).
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