- Using Pages on the iPad
- How To Transfer Documents via iTunes Sync
- Create a New Document and Start Typing
- The Pages Command and Menu Icons
The Pages Command and Menu Icons
Pages is chock full of powerful word processing features and commands, the majority of which are available from the command and menu icons, and the toolbar, located at the top of the Pages mains screen.
In the upper-left corner is the My Documents icon. Upon tapping this icon, the document you’re working on is automatically saved, and you return to a screen that allows you to manage, send, retrieve, or organize the Pages documents currently stored on your iPad.
To the immediate right of the My Documents icon is the Undo icon. It’s used for undoing the last thing you did.
At the top center of the screen is your document’s title/filename. To change the title/filename, tap the My Documents button. A new screen, displaying a large thumbnail of the document (shown in Figure 7), is visible. Tap on the current filename under the thumbnail that’s displayed (the default is “Blank”). Enter any new filename for the document. Tap the Done key to save your new filename.
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Figure 7 Create a filename or rename your document.
Going back to the main Pages screen, four command and menu icons are located in the upper-right corner of the screen. The circle with the “i” icon is used to modify or customize your document’s Style and Layout. When you tap this icon, a window appears. At the top of this window are three headings: Style, List, and Layout (as shown in Figure 8).
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Figure 8 Create customized numbered or bulleted lists within a document.
Tap the Style icon (shown in Figure 9) to adjust the type styles and fonts within your document. You can type using bold, italic, underlined, or strikethrough. However, any combination, such as bold and italic, is possible. You can also select to enter a title, subtitle, heading 1, heading 2, subheading 1, subheading 2, or normal body text, etc.
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Figure 9 Use the Style icon to adjust your fonts, type style, and font size.
At the very bottom of the Style window is a Text Options sub-menu option. Tap this to access a separate Text Options window. From here, it’s possible to adjust the type size, font color, and font. You’ll have about 50 fonts to choose from, including standard text fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, and Verdana.
Now, go back to the circular icon with the “i” and tap the List icon. This allows you to customize how bulleted lists are displayed within your document, plus you can indent text using the right and left arrow keys located under the List heading.
Tap the Layout icon (shown in Figure 10) to adjust your document’s alignment (setting it to left-justified, right-justified, centered, or left/right-justified). You can also easily adjust the number of columns in your document (to between one and four), as well as the line spacing.
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Figure 10 Select the justification and spacing for your document.
Moving back up to the command and menu icons located in the top-right of the Pages main screen, you see the Image icon. Tapping this icon opens up a separate window that allows you to add Media (photos), Tables, Charts, or Shapes to your document. If you tap the Media icon at the top of this window (shown in Figure 11), you can quickly import any photo that’s stored on your iPad from the built-in Photos app. You can then custom-size and rotate the photo within your document using your fingers, plus add effects, such as a drop shadow.
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Figure 11 Adding photos to your document is easy on the iPad.
Use the Tables icon at the top of this window to create custom-formatted tables within your document. Once placed in your document, a table can be resized using your fingers. Tap on the Charts icon (shown in Figure 12) to add a chart (which can be fully customized) within your document. Once the chart is placed in your document, you can resize and position it, plus tap the chart itself to customize it.
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Figure 12 You can also add charts and graphs into any document.
Tapping the Shapes icon allows you to import a variety of different graphic shapes into your document, which can also be fully customized, resized, rotated, and positioned with precision within your text.
The wrench icon located at the very top of the main Pages screen opens up a separate Tools window (shown in Figure 13), which gives you a tremendous amount of control over the layout, design, and formatting of your document.
Use the Find command to quickly search your document for a keyword or phrase and jump to that point within the document itself.
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Figure 13 Use the options within the Tools window to further customize your document.
The Go to Help command sends you to the online-based tutorials and help documents available for Pages on Apple’s website. Your iPad must be able to connect to the web to use this feature.
Use the Document Setup feature to customize the margins within a document, as well as add headers and footers. When you tap this command, a new Document Setup screen appears (shown in Figure 14). Use your fingers to adjust the margins, or tap on the various areas of the screen to make changes that will impact your entire document. Tap Done to return to the main Pages screen.
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Figure 14 From this Document Setup screen, you can easily adjust a document’s margins.
Also from the Tools window, you can turn on or off the auto word count feature, edge guides (which is useful when adding graphics or photos to your document), and the app’s built-in spell checker.
When you tap the right-most icon located at the top of the main Pages screen, all of the menu and command icons displayed at the top of the screen disappear, giving you more on-screen real estate to view and edit your document. You can make these command and menu icons reappear simply by tapping the top of the screen at any time.
Some of the features and functions available from the menus are also available on the main Pages screen’s toolbar while you’re typing (as shown in Figure 15). Located below the command and menu icons at the top of the screen are toolbars and a ruler, from which you can adjust many of the options found within the Style window and Document Setup screen. However, to save on-screen real estate, you can opt to remove the tool bar while you’re writing.
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Figure 15 Many commands are available to you directly from Pages toolbar at the top of the screen.
Many More Features and Functions
The Pages app is loaded with additional features and functions that give you maximum control over your word processing. The documents you create using Pages for iPad can easily be as professional-looking and well-formatted as any document you’d create on your Mac or PC using Pages for Mac or Microsoft Word on a PC or Mac.