Embedded Files
Introduction
These are notes from a one hour Vista Zoom session in December 2023 and replace an earlier version which was out of date.
Pages availability
Pages is free from the iPhone, iPad and Mac App Stores.
A web version is available at icloud.com which can be used on any device, including a Windows PC or Android tablet.
Pages user guides
I can only find one VoiceOver-specific user guide and it’s for Mac
The links are included here but user guides can easily be found with a Google search. I recommend preceding your search with “Apple Support” to ensure you get official Apple versions.
Interoperability
The same document can be worked on with iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC or Android device. For this purpose it’s easiest to save the document in iCloud Drive and that’s what happens by default. But you can use other cloud storage if you wish on iPhone, iPad and Mac but I haven’t spotted a way of using other cloud services when you use Pages at icloud.com.
Differences between the versions
Pages works similarly in all its versions but there are variations to compensate for or take advantage of device size and capabilities. One thing that often catches me out is that while on the iPhone, the more menu, the one with three dots, contains a full set of options including the document options, on the iPad, the document options menu, including move, rename export and print appears when you tap the document name. On reflection this makes sense since there isn’t room on the iPhone screen to display the document name.
The small screen size of the iPhone can present some challenges when working with templates that have placeholder text that you need to replace. Non-VoiceOver users may find it difficult to select the text when it is obscured by pop ups and VoiceOver users may experience bugs which seem to make it impossible to work on placeholder text in some templates.
The good news is that all the devices that can access Pages, with and without VoiceOver, are great for basic word processed documents and envelopes.
Storing Pages files
On iPhone, iPad and Mac you can store Pages documents anywhere locally on the device but then you won’t be able to access those documents on other devices.
For flexibility, it’s best to save to iCloud Drive and there’s a little history here.
On iPhone and iPad, Pages documents once had to be stored in a special Pages folder. This is no longer the case but the iCloud Drive Pages folder remains as the place where Pages documents are placed by default when created. This makes them instantly available to all your Apple devices. There is a move option which allows you to place documents where you want if you don’t want them all at the top level in the Pages folder. The Move option can be found in the three-dot More menu on iPhone and by tapping the document name on iPad. On Mac, it’s File/ Move to.You will also find Rename options in the same places which should be used to avoid all your documents being called numbered versions of the template you used to create them.
What kinds of documents can Pages create?
Pages can create ordinary “word processed” documents like letters and minutes of meetings but it can also produce “page layout” documents like attractive posters advertising events. Many blind users will probably restrict themselves to simple word processed documents and perhaps envelopes; more sophisticated page layouts are easy to create using one of the range of templates available but blind users won’t be able to assess how well the design works without sighted assistance. Having said that, there’s no reason why totally blind people can’t create attractive posters once an appropriate template has been selected or created. However, as I mentioned earlier, at the time of writing, December 2023, there do seem to be bugs for VoiceOver users that can make it impossible to work with some of the more elaborate templates on some devices. Note that the Basic templates include both blank word processing and blank page layout templates.
Creating a new Pages document on iPhone
From here on, I’ll focus on Pages on the iPhone. Pages is very similar on iPad but will obviously be easier to use on iPad by low vision users. The Mac version is laid out differently and uses traditional desktop menus as well as some toolbars. Open Pages. If it was left working on a document then you may need to use Done, back and Documents buttons near top left in order to return to the documents manager page, the screen which lets you select existing documents and create new documents.
On this screen you will find a tab bar at the bottom of the screen with 3 tabs, Recents, Shared and Browse. We’ll discuss them later.
Create a new simple word processing document
To create a new simple word processing document, use the add button near top right of the screen.
This brings up a pop-up menu with three choices, choose a template, start writing and cancel. “Choose a template ‘ offers you the standard range of templates supplied with Pages along with any you have created yourself. “Start writing” creates a new word processing document with the basic template and simply saves you the trouble of selecting that template.
Choose “start writing”; you will have a blank document on screen with a keyboard at the base of the screen and you can enter text any way you like. That’s it. Just enter your text and the document will be saved automatically for you in the iCloud Pages folder with a default name like Blank 4.
Create a new word processing document using a template of your choice
To create a new word processing document starting with a template, use the add button near top right of the screen and then use “choose a template”; you will be taken to a screen showing available templates. The templates are grouped under headings so that a VoiceOver user can use the headings rotor setting to skip quickly to the group they want - but this occasionally gets stuck and you may need a three finger swipe up. The groups include “Recents” which is templates you have used recently and “Basic”, which is the best place to begin. Use one of the Basic templates, avoiding the layout templates, and then just enter your text and the document will be saved automatically for you in the iCloud Pages folder with a default name like Blank Portrait 4. The next time you create a new document using a template, the template you just chose will appear first in the Recents list.
Create and print a new envelope using a template
The simplest templates with placeholder text are probably envelopes. Use the add button at top right of the screen. Use “choose a template”; scroll down or use the rotor to locate the envelopes heading. Use any of the envelope templates. Towards the top of the screen will be the envelope with placeholder text for each of the items you can put on the envelope. Envelope templates have an area at top left of the envelope for the sender name and then the recipients name and address near the centre of the envelope.
To replace the placeholder text proceed as follows:
Envelope - final steps for non-VoiceOver users
Tap the text at top left of the envelope. This will select the entire text box. If you don’t want a sender address tap delete on the pop-up that appeared. If you do want a sender address, the pop-up can make it tricky to tap on the text, which it may mostly obscure. Tap the text, being careful to avoid the pop-up. The pop-up should disappear and you can now double tap to select and replace the text. Tap Done at top left. Now tap on the placeholder address; this isn’t in a text box so you can seelect and replace it straight away. Tap Done again and you should have your desired envelope on screen.
The envelope can now be printed using the three dot More menu on iPhone or by tapping the document name on iPad and selecting from the menu that appears.
Envelope - final steps for non-VoiceOver users
VoiceOver users should swipe right until they reach the canvas, in other words, the envelope. You should hear “Canvas, text box, Sender name, followed by a placeholder sender name and address”. Text boxes are rectangular areas containing text.
Double tap and you will select the whole text box.
Double tap again and you should hear something like “insertion point at end”. You are now editing the text contained in the text box. Turn your rotor to Edit and then swipe down until you reach select all and double tap.
You’ve selected all the text. You can replace it with text of your choice now or simply delete it with the delete key.
Locate the Done button near top left and double tap.
That’s dealt with the text in the sender text box. Now let’s move on to the address.
Swipe right and you should hear “body, followed by placeholder text and then text field”. Double tap to begin editing the text field and then use the rotor edit or text selection position to select all and then enter your replacement.
Use the Done button at top left to return to the main screen displaying the envelope.
The document will be saved automatically for you in the iCloud Pages folder with a default name like Classic Envelope 4. The next time you create a new document using a template, the template you just chose will appear first in the Recents list.
The envelope can be printed by selecting Print from the menu that appears when you double tap the More button near top right of an iPhone screen or the document name near the top of an iPad screen.
Opening a document you created previously
Open Pages and, if necessary, use back, Done or documents buttons to return to the document manager screen with the tab bar at its base.
The Recents tab will show you documents you have been working on reently and is often a good choice. The Shared tab is for documents you are working on collaboratively with others. I don’t plan to cover this here. The Browse tab lets you browse for documents on your device or any cloud services you use. Repeated use of the back button will take you back to the list of Locations which should include iCloud Drive, On My iPhone or iPad and Recently deleted.
Use one of the tabs and locate and open your document.
Pages offers a number of ways to view a document. In particular there is a reading view and an edit view. The reading view is designed to let you view a document without risk of making unintentional changes. The Edit view is the one you need to make changes to the document.
I think you will usually begin in edit view on iPhone. If you prefer to change to reading view, use the More menu and select reader view. When you are in reading view, there will be an Edit button at top right of the screen.
I think it may work the other way round on iPad and you may begin in reading view and have an Edit button at top right.When iPad Pages is in Edit mode there will be a reading view button at top right.
Formatting text
In all versions of Pages you need to use the Format button, which is a paintbrush icon near the top of the screen. This will bring up all the usual word processor formatting options, including styles, character formatting, and paragraph formatting. As with all word processors, you can select text and change the appearance of the selected text or you can make a character formatting change, for example to bold, that will affect any text you enter after the change. You may then need to change the formatting back by unselecting bold.
Paragraph format changes work a little differently; they always affect the entire paragraph that contains the insertion point so there is no need to select a whole paragraph to change its format.
For simple documents like letters, you probably won’t need to do more than a few simple formatting changes. More structured documents, such as meeting minutes or reports will benefit enormously from using Styles, which are a special kind of paragraph format. I’ll discuss styles and how you can build your own templates with your preferred styles later on.
Find and replace
Pages has the usual features to find a specified item of text and also to replace it throughout a document. This might be useful if you mistype someone’s name and want to be sure you’ve corrected every mistyping or, if you are Elon Musk it could help you remove the expletives. It has plenty of other uses, of course. You’ll locate a Find option in the More menu. This will bring up a keyboard with a search bar located above it. Type the text you want to find. VoiceOver users can swipe left and right through items in the search bar. You will find a Done button, the search text, a search options button, go up, go down, a count of the number of matches and a clear text button. The search options button, which resembles a magnifying glass reveals choices which include find & replace. Select Find & Replace and then to replace all instances of your text, locate the Replace button above the right of the keyboard and double tap and hold or triple tap and a Replace all button will appear. Double tap this and the job is done. Locate the Done button above the left of the keyboard and double tap to end your find session. If you wanted to change the matches one by one you could have single tapped the Replace button repeatedly. Non-VoiceOver users should be able to do this with their vision. Your version of the double tap and hold on the Replace button is a tap and hold gesture.
Sharing documents with others
Most non-Apple users won’t be able to handle a document in Pages format so you will need to convert it to another format in order to share it. By far the best format in which to share documents from any word processor is PDF unless you want the recipient to be able to modify the document, in which case Word format is acceptable on most systems and understood by most people.
A Pagers document can be exported to a range of formats using the More menu on iPhone and by tapping the document name on iPad. It’s File / Export To… on Mac.
The available formats include PDF, Word, plain text and RTF which is a word processor interchange format that isn’t linked to any specific word processor. RTF stands for rich text format.
Setting up a template the way you like it
It’s easy to create your own template. Templates you create appear at the end of the long list of templates when you create a new Pages document but that’s not a problem since as soon as you begin using your template it will be there at the top of the templates list in the Recents section.
Here’s how to set up a simple word processing document template. I’ll describe this for VOiceOver users. It should be easy for non-VoiceOver users to follow.
Create a new document using the Blank template.
Locate and double tap the format button.
You will hear “body” the name of the style that is applied to the main text of the document. Swipe right through the available choices of font, size, etc. and set the ones you would like the main text of your document to have. For example, you may simply want to change the font size to 14 point. You can change much more, including the properties of the default paragraph style, but let’s leave it at changing the font size for this example.
For this, swipe right until you hear “size” and then swipe right once more to hear the current size of 11 point and then swipe up until you have adjusted the size to 14 point.
Swipe to the left to return to “body” but this time you will hear “body star”; the star indicates that you are now using a modified version of the body style. Swipe right and you’ll find an update button. Double tap and the body style for your document will now have your 14 point size.
Now, on the iPhone use the More menu or on iPad use the document name to bring up a menu which includes Export.
Double tap on Export and swipe right to Pages Template and double tap.
Swipe right to find the name which will be Blank followed by a number. You can’t change that here. We’ll do that later.
Swipe right again to find the Add to Template Chooser button and double tap.
Now you will be presented with a screen showing the bottom of the templates list with your brand new template under the My Templates heading at the bottom of your screen.
Tap your template and you’ll hear “actions available” so swipe up until you hear “rename” and then double tap. Swipe right to the text field, which will be editing with the insertion point at the end. Delete the old name, which isn’t selected, and enter your preferred template name, perhaps “14 point text”.
Locate and double tap the Rename button.
Finally locate and double tap the Cancel button at top left. That sounds odd, but you are just returning to the main document manager screen.
Next time you create a document, scroll all the way down the templates list to find your new template. After that, the template will appear in the Recents at the top of the template list.
If your document is a structured document with headings, you can change the default heading and other styles in the same way and they will all be saved with your template.
Last words
There’s a whole lot more to Pages for you to discover if you need it. Styles are a vital tool for structured documents like reports but what we’ve discussed here will get you by for basic letters, envelopes and simple text documents. I’ll leave you to discover page layout documents for yourself; you might want to begin that journey experimenting with some of the page layout templates for particular document types.
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