Keyboard shortcuts, templates, and collaboration reference for Apple Pages.
| Group | Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Bold / italic / underline | ⌘ + B / ⌘ + I / ⌘ + U |
| Format | Copy / paste style | ⌥ + ⌘ + C / ⌥ + ⌘ + V |
| Format | Paste and match style | ⌥ + ⇧ + ⌘ + V |
| Format | Increase / decrease font size | ⌘ + + / ⌘ + - |
| Format | Show fonts panel | ⌘ + T |
| Format | Align left / centre / right / justify | ⌘ + { / ⌘ + | / ⌘ + } / ⌥ + ⌘ + | |
| Insert | Insert page break | fn + ⌘ + Return |
| Insert | Insert line break (same paragraph) | ⇧ + Return |
| Insert | Insert link | ⌘ + K |
| Insert | Insert comment | ⇧ + ⌘ + K |
| Insert | Insert footnote | ⌥ + ⌘ + F |
| View | Show / hide invisibles | ⇧ + ⌘ + I |
| View | Show / hide rulers | ⌘ + R |
| View | Show / hide word count | ⇧ + ⌘ + W |
| View | Zoom in / out | ⌘ + > / ⌘ + < |
| View | Toggle the Format sidebar | ⌥ + ⌘ + I |
| Edit | Find / find and replace | ⌘ + F / ⌥ + ⌘ + F |
| Edit | Select the current paragraph | Triple-click |
| Objects | Lock / unlock selection | ⌘ + L / ⌥ + ⌘ + L |
| Objects | Group / ungroup | ⌥ + ⌘ + G / ⌥ + ⇧ + ⌘ + G |
| Objects | Constrain proportions while resizing | ⇧ + drag |
| Feature | Word processing | Page layout |
|---|---|---|
| Body text | Yes — continuous flow | None; text boxes only |
| Pages added | Automatically as you type | Manually |
| Table of contents | Yes | No |
| Linked text boxes | Yes | Yes — essential here |
| Sections | Yes | Per page |
| Best for | Reports, letters, essays, manuscripts | Newsletters, flyers, posters, brochures |
- Select an object → Format sidebar → Arrange → Object Placement.
- Move with Text (inline or floating): the object is anchored to a position in the text and moves as text reflows.
- Stay on Page: the object holds an absolute position regardless of the text. Only available in word-processing documents for floating objects.
- Text Wrap controls how body text flows around it — set this alongside placement, not instead of it.
- An image that "keeps jumping around" is almost always set to Move with Text when it should be Stay on Page.
- Select a text box → the circle at its top-left → Create Link, then click the next box.
- Overflow text flows from one box to the next automatically — this is how magazine-style articles continue across pages.
- The overflow indicator (a small triangle) means text is hidden. Link another box or enlarge the current one.
- Linked boxes stay linked when moved between pages, so you can rearrange layout without re-flowing manually.
Apply styles instead of manual formatting
Format sidebar → the style name at the top of the Text tab. Use Title, Heading, Heading 2, Body — not bold text at 18pt.
Redefine a style from an example
Format one paragraph the way you want, then click the style name → the Update button beside it. Every paragraph using that style changes at once.
Turn on the outline view
View → Show Document Outline lists every heading in a sidebar. Drag entries there to move whole sections, text and all — far safer than cut and paste.
Insert a table of contents
Insert → Table of Contents, then choose which styles it includes in the Format sidebar. It updates automatically. This only exists in word-processing documents.
Use sections for varying page setup
Insert → Section Break. Each section can have its own headers, footers, page numbering, and page orientation — that's how you get a landscape page inside a portrait report.
Save the whole thing as a template
File → Save as Template. It appears in the template chooser for every new document — the right way to standardise letterhead or report formats.
- Edit → Track Changes marks insertions and deletions with author colours, with accept/reject controls in a toolbar.
- Comments (
⇧ + ⌘ + K) thread with replies and are separate from tracked changes. - The Collaborate button shares via iCloud with view-only or edit access, optionally password-protected.
- Real-time collaboration works on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iCloud.com — including for people without Apple devices, via the browser.
- Track Changes is lost when exporting to PDF and only partly survives a Word round-trip. Resolve changes before exporting.
- File → Export To: PDF, Word, EPUB, Plain Text, Rich Text, or Pages '09.
- PDF export offers image quality settings and can include comments — check the options before sending.
- Word export is good but not perfect: expect drift in complex layouts, linked text boxes, and unusual fonts.
- EPUB export needs proper paragraph styles to produce a usable table of contents — another reason to use styles.
- Print → Save as PDF is not the same as Export to PDF; the export path preserves links and accessibility structure.
Tips
⇧ + ⌘ + I reveals spaces, tabs, and paragraph marks. Most mysterious spacing problems are a stray tab or an extra return, and this makes them visible instantly.
Select an image → Format → Instant Alpha, then drag over a colour to make it transparent. Removes a plain background without any image editor.
⌘ + L stops a logo or header image being nudged accidentally while you edit around it. Essential on templates other people will use.
File → Revert To → Browse All Versions gives a Time Machine-style history for any document saved in iCloud. Recovers work that's been overwritten.
Right-click selected text for Translate, and images in Pages support Live Text — you can select and copy words out of a photo directly.
Apple templates use placeholder text and media — click once to select the whole block and replace it. Dragging an image onto a media placeholder auto-fits and crops it.
Gotchas
- Pages opens and exports
.docx, but repeated round-tripping degrades a document. Agree on one format for a shared workflow. - Fonts that exist on your Mac may not exist on their PC, causing reflow. Stick to widely available fonts for shared files.
- Complex Word features — advanced fields, macros, some numbering schemes — do not survive the conversion.
- Send PDF whenever the recipient only needs to read it. It's the only format that looks identical everywhere.
- Pages files are a package format; a
.pagesfile sent to a Windows user is generally unusable without conversion.
- Converting word processing → page layout is irreversible, and it discards the table of contents.
- Page layout documents cannot have a table of contents at all — if you need one, you're in the wrong mode.
- iCloud collaboration requires the document to live in iCloud Drive; a local file can't be shared live.
- The iPhone and iPad versions are capable but omit some features, notably parts of the styles and section handling.
- Pages is free on all current Apple devices and works in any browser at icloud.com/pages, including for Windows users.