How to get back to the top of the document — or an internet page.

In an open Pages document, especially a long one, a longread or even a book, you are often stuck in somewhere in the middle when you want to get back to the top.

Instead of swiping your Touchpad endlessly or clicking your mouse, press the Command key (marked cmd) and tap on the UP arrow in the bottom right end of the keyboard. Your cursor will jump back right up to the beginning of the document.

The same works when you are on an internet page with a long text. lick in the body of the page, press Command and then tap the UP arrow. This will bring you to the beginning to the internet page.

The same works when you want to go right to the end of the page, for example to read Terms and Conditions. Press Command and tap the DOWN arrow. 

Insert image keyboard shortcut.

The keyboad shortcut to insert a photo or any other graphic image is

Command+Shift+V

I want to recommend it because, first, it is easy to remember. Everybody knows the copy-paste shortcut -

Command+V. 

Inserting an object can be seen as a kind of copy-pasting.

Secondly, there may be numerous situations when using the shortcut is more efficient than drag-and-drop.

For example, when you’ve collected or created dozens of images to illustrate your project, you would put them in a folder within another folder put away in a project folder.

Instead of rummaging through the folders to find the image and then dragging and dropping the image, you type Command+Shift+V and the Insert dialogue window opens. In this window, you find the folder and choose the image from previews. Click Insert and the image will appear in your document.

If you are more comfortable with using menus, look for Choose... at the end of Insert menu.

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook' (2012). Follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages, like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook and add me to your circles on Google+.

Where is the Command key?

In case you are confused about what is the Command key on an Apple Mac, here's where it is:

Command key adds additional functionality to keyboard shortcuts in much the same way as the Control key does in Windows.

There are two Command keys on a standard Apple Mac keyboard. If you've learned to touch-type, use the right one when you type letters on the left-hand side of the keyboard, and vice versa. If you don't touch-type and you are a right-hander, use the key on the left. If you are a left-hander and don't touch-type, use the key on the right. 

Where is the copyright sign on the keyboard?

If you decide that your text or photo needs copyright protection, you may want to add the  ‘copyrighted material’ symbol to it with your personal name or the name of your business.

The symbol sits on the same key as the letter ‘g’ on British and American QWERTY keyboards. Press Option and type ‘g’, you will get the ‘c’ inside a circle — ©. On the French AZERTY layout the sign is with letter ‘c’. Press Option and type ‘c’.

Registered (®) sign is Option+R on both QWERTY and AZERTY layouts.

Copyright (©), registered (®), trade mark (™) and a number of other letter-like signs are also in the Character palette. Under Edit menu choose Special characters and when the character palette opens go to Symbols >  Letterlike Symbols. Find the sign you want, click on it and drag to your document. It inserts in text like a letter. 

Characters from the pallette work with TextEdit too: access the Character palette via Edit > Special characters.

Where is the Command Key on a Mac?

On Macs, the main key that adds functionality to key strokes is called the Command key even though it's not marked as such on the Mac keyboard.

Hence the confusion among beginners and switchers from Windows, where the corresponding key is Control.

Even experienced mac users sometimes get confused when they see or hear 'Command' mentioned. Some call it 'the apple key' after the Apple icon shown on the key together with a squiggly rectangle.

In Windows you press Control and type S to save a document. On a Mac you press Command and type S. Most other standard keyboard operations are a combination of Command and one of the letters of the keyboard, for example, Command+P - to print, Command+Z - to undo.

If you touch-type, I suggest using the thumb of your left hand to press Command: move it slightly away from the Space bar, press and then type the letter of the shortcut.

The Control key is also present on Mac keyboards but it is not used as widely as in Windows.

Wikipedia has an article Table of Keyboard Shortcuts that shows which shortcuts on a Mac correspond to which in Windows. In iWork, a list of available shortcuts is under the Help menu.

If you want to use the Command icon ⌘ in your document, go to the Edit menu and slide down to  Special Characters. When the character palette opens, click on Symbols > Technical Symbols and drag the icon from there to your document.

Where is the Euro sign on keyboards.

NB: just checked it for the current Mac OS, it still works (July 2019)

Make of it what you will, but on the French AZERTY keyboard, the Euro is an option for the Dollar. 

And there is a slight difference in the position of the Euro sign in QWERTY keyboard layouts.

In US Qwerty layout, press Option+Shift and type 2:

⌥+⇧+2 = €

In British English Qwerty, just press Option and type 2:

⌥+2 = €

In AZERTY (France) layout, the Euro sign is on the same key as the Dollar sign on the right of the top letter row. Press Option and type Dollar:

⌥+$ = €

On British Qwerty, the dollar is Shift+4 and the pound is Shift+3. However, on US Qwerty, there is no pound at Shift+3. You have to type Option+3.

Why this confusion? Originally, keyboard layouts were developed for typewriters in 1880s and computer keyboards simply adopted the already existing layouts adding new signs as options. 

It's nobody's fault if € or @ are used today more frequently than § paragraph sign. Has anyone used § lately?

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mas OSX Cookbook' (2012). Follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages, like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook and add me to your circles on Google+.

Zoom In and Zoom Out Shortcuts

Some web documents are set in such small text (font) size that even with healthy eyes it's quite a strain to read them.

A quick way to enlarge the text is to use Zoom In shortcut:

Command+

To make the text smaller type Command- (minus)

This shortcut also works in Preview – very useful for reading PDF documents, books for example, that are typeset in too small font size.

The Rest Is Practice: Why Learn Touch-typing

Left index finger goes on F.

First, you see typos as soon as you make them, and are able to correct them more efficiently, without having to stop typing and going through the typed text again. Second, and more exciting, you will soon notice that when you touch-type you can think as you write. After a while you also discover that you can type-write or type-retype much faster. Then, you can also perform many computer operations through keyboard shortcuts – save, select, copy-paste, etc., also without looking down. 

зфпуы - рщц ещ ьфлу сщщгкув щк сщдщгк сщвув увпуы шт ф ьфпфяштуб икщсргку щк ищщл -

The text above was supposed to be in English,  I just forgot to switch language mode from Russian to English – and carried on typing while looking at the keyboard and not at the screen. What a nuisance and a punishment for not concentrating. And not remembering to stick to touch-type. When you've mastered touch-typing, you can type without looking at the keyboard, your fingers find the necessary keys all on their own. Much like you tie your shoelaces or press on pedals in the car without looking down.

Why is it important to learn touch-typing (blind typing)?

With so much around us operated through keyboards, it may be considered a basic life skill. At first you may find that touch-typing slows you down, but the more you practice the more you find it liberating to see the text as it appears on screen.

Here is how to start. First, learn the 'home' position of your hands. F and J keys on a QWERTY layout usually have little knobs studs – that's where your left and right index fingers should rest in the basic position. Move left finger to the right to type G and right finger to the left to type H. On QWERTY put the little finger of your left hand on A and the little finger of your right hand on ;. Thumbs should rest on the Space Bar. If a word finishes with a letter in the left-hand segment of the keyboard, hit space with your right thumb, if it's on the right, use your left thumb.

From here learn where all other keys are, relative to the basic position. Start with the basic position and progress to all-fingers touch-typing.

The rest is practice.

There are numerous courses and resources on the web to learn touch typing. Have a look at this BBC animated site, designed primarily for youngsters, but content-wise good for anyone.

Quick Scrolling

Scrolling down a long document or a web-age can be annoying no matter how good is your mouse.

Here is a different technique I've discovered recently:

Press Option (Alt) and click in the vertical scroll bar, roughly where you want to go in the document, near the end or near the middle. You'll jump straight there. Without Option pressed clicking in the scroll bar will move you just one page. Using Option lets you jump much faster.

Another efficient method of skimming through a long document is using Command+F function - search. It works within Pages (opens search window), but it also works in most browsers. In Safari a little search window opens at the top, in Firefox at the bottom. Type in a key word, something you're looking for, and then click 'Next' or 'Previous'.

How to Type Various Dashes and Hyphens

In ordinary day-to-day scribbling you may not need to go beyond the usual horizontal dash-hyphen at the right of the top row on your keyboard. For a more formal presentation, such as a letter to be printed out and sent by post or attached to an email, you may want to consider using 'proper' hyphens and dashes. If you write professionally, it may be the house-style requirement.

The three common types are as follows:

-    Hyphen, it's on the QWERTY keyboard to the right of the zero.
–   Longer, called n-dash. To type, press Option (Alt) key and type hyphen.
— Still longer, called m-dash. To type, press Option+Shift key and type hyphen.

Don't type two hyphens (--) to represent a long dash, it looks untidy and amateurish.

If you edit copy and want to replace short hyphens for longer dashes, open the search window (Command+F). In the search space at the top type Space+Hyphen+Space (not the words – just hit the space bar, then hyphen key, then space bar again!). In the Replace window below type Space+Option/Hyphen+Space. Then replace all or one by one.

Here is what the Oxford English Dictionary says:

dash – a horizontal stroke in writing or printing to mark a pause or break in sense, or to represent omitted letters or words.
hyphen – the sign (-) used to join words to indicate that they have a combined meaning or that they are linked in the grammar of a sentence (as in pick-me-up, rock-forming), to indicate the division of a word at the end of a line, or to indicate a missing or implied element (as in short- and long-term).

On the various and often confusing rules and styles on hyphens and dashes read an extensive article on wikipedia.

Read also 'Editing Large Texts: the Many Uses of Command+F Function'

Shortcut for Highlighting Text (The Many Uses of the Shift Key)

Highlight text word by word

Double click the word to highlight (select) it, triple-click to select the paragraph. Everybody knows this. 


But what if you want to select just a few words or a phrase? For example, to link a word or several words, the title of a book or an article to a page on the internet or to another page in your document? Dragging the cursor over a couple of words may be annoying if you are in a hurry.  


Here is a keyboard shortcut to select text character by character from cursor:

press Shift (⇧) and then a keyboard arrow - right to select to the right, left - to the left of the cursor. 

Now, here is a neat one. To select text word by word:

press together Shift and Option (Alt, ⌥) keys and hit keyboard arrows.

With this shortcut you can quickly highlight several words.

And then there is another one - for highlighting text to the end or the beginning of the line:

Command (⌘) + Shift + right/left arrow.

Typing the right arrow will highlight all text to the end of the line, typing the left arrow will highlight all text to the beginning of the line. Press and hold Command and Shift, then type left and right arrows - you will have the whole line highlighted.


Those who remember type-writers know that the main purpose of the Shift key was to to switch register to capital letters or type some punctuation marks. It does much more on modern computers. Combinations of Shift/Option/Command give you access to a variety of special symbols and foreign letters and accent marks. Pressing Shift while restarting your Mac is one of the most useful troubleshooting techniques - Safe Boot.
  
Jump-selecting word by word, line to line is described in the iWork user's guide and the list of keyboard shortcuts sits under Help menu. Trouble is, it's not often clear why or when you may need a particular shortcut. It's worth making a note of any frequently repeated operation specific to your work, and then to find out if there is a useful shortcut for it. 

Undo-Redo Shortcut: Zap To And Fro

Redo shortcut

A while ago I blogged about the Undo function - and shortcut - as the most important operation when working on any project, text or design, and more generally, in anything you do in life. It only makes good sense always to check if there is a good escape clause, a solid back-up system or the red stop-button.

Undo shortcut

The undo option is available across all Mac applications under Edit menu and the keyboard shortcut is Command+Z. It is easy to master it. I mostly use the left thumb to press Command and the middle finger to type Z, in the bottom left of the QWERTY keyboard. Of course it depends on one's typing skill and habits. Occasionally I glide down the keyboard with my right ring-finger and it naturally stops on the right-hand Command key, then glide down one row on the keyboard with the left ring-finger and it stops on the Z key.

But of course, the reverse option, Redo, is also very useful. Zapping to and fro between the current and previous versions of your project you can quickly evaluate the work in progress, self approve, or get approval from the supervisor (or client) looking over your shoulder - or discard changes. On the keyboard you just add Shift (⇧) to the combination: Command+Shift+Z. I got used to doing it this way: left-thumb Command, then let my little finger find Shift, after which the middle finger naturally places itself on the Z*.

After some practice these two keyboard operations become as easy as tying one's shoelaces**.

Important Update: Current versions of iWork/Pages allow Undo past the last save, while not a long time ago it was only possible to repeatedly undo your changes until the point when the document was saved. Unfortunately, it made redundant my second argument against building Auto-Save option into Pages.
 

Where to find buttons, Command and Shift icons on your Mac:

Red Button (⨀) - in Character Palette>Symbols>Mathematical Symbols. This switch-off button is also there: ⌽

Command symbol (⌘) - Character Palette>Symbols>Technical symbols

Shift (⇧) - Character Palette>Symbols>Arrows

They are not images, but text-like symbols. Drag and drop into your document. Enlarge and make a screenshot to turn them into clipart.

If you don't have Character Palette in the main screen menu, activate it in System Preferences>International>Input Menu.

And listen to Stephen Fry's programme on the QWERTY keyboard layout. (Letter I was placed near numbers 7 and 8 to make it easy to type 1871 - the year it was developed!)

*  This works when you type with all ten fingers, thumbs mainly for hitting the space bar,  four left fingers on ASDF and four right fingers on JKL;  There are courses for touch typing (blind typing), but anyone can teach themselves how to do it. See, for example this BBC page.

**   Is this comparison out of date? I see many young people walking around with shoelaces just tucked inside their shoes. A few cautious enquiries led me to believe that quite often they don't know how to tie laces.


A reader's testimonial on the 'Undo' post: THANKS, IT WORKED!!!!!! all my words are back!!!

Keyboard shortcuts on this blog

Do many of us remember - or want to remember - the time before mouse? We used to do everything with just the keyboard, didn't we? There was an ad that had stuck in my memory from the seventies when the mouse first appeared: 'If you can point a finger, you can type'. Well, we've come the full round and re-learn the importance of keyboard.

Here is the list of my blogposts about various shortcuts I find particularly useful in Pages. A long list of shortcuts sits under Pages Help menu. And another comprehensive list of shortcuts is in System Preferences>International>Input Menu.



The usefulness of most shortcuts is self-evident, for example Command+S - Save. With many others it is not clear why you might need them and where they could be useful. That's why I scribbled notes about the ones I particularly liked while working in Pages.


Click on the label (tag) iWork Pages keyboard shortcuts or useful shortcuts to see all articles on this topic.

My top Pages shortcut: the undo
Health and Efficiency: three serious reasons to work with both hands
Look after your hands: useful shortcuts
Undo-Redo Shortcut: Zap To And Fro
How to design folders (about send backwards/bring forwards shortcuts)
Keyboard shortcuts: Hide and show invisibles and layout
Screenshots in Mac OS
What to do when picture wrapping pushes caption out of the text box - about Bring to Front shortcut
How to empty Trash (wastebasket) with locked files
Rose cover: simple tricks with photos
Mac-mouse equivalent of the 'right-click'
Colour Palette shortcut
'Up folder' shortcut on Macs
Valentine's clipart and graphics - uses for Command+D, Send to back and Screenshot key-shorts.
Use Preview to update repeated formats - how to use define as media placeholder short, select all, open file and open a selection of files.
Skip to my Lou: how to select random files

Say No to Autosave

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mas OSX Cookbook' (2012)

Follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages  

Like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook 

and add me to your circles on Google+ 

Apple blossom photos by ©A.Anichkin/Rendezvous Media

Where is the Command symbol?

Where are the technical symbols you see on the keyboard, but cannot type?

They may not be of much use in ordinary work with text and graphics, but when writing something technical it's nice to be able to illustrate it with keyboard symbols. For instance, the distinctly Apple Mac Command symbol.






Technical symbols as well as many other useful mini-images, arrows, telephone icons, zodiac signs, chess pieces sit in the
Character palette. To access it go to

System Preferences> International>Input Menu
Check Character Palette for input method
Check Show Character Palette in menu bar

Open the Character palette>Symbols>Technical Symbols. Here you will see various squiggles, arrows, broken lines etc - the ones that are marked on your keyboard. Drag the symbol you need from there into your text and operate with it in the same way as you would with letters - change size, colour and font variations.

To use the symbols as graphic objects enlarge to a bigger font and make a screenshot (Command>Shift and type 4).

Remove white background with Instant Alpha (under Format Menu) if the object is to be used on coloured background.

Preview Drawer trick: quick way of selecting and importing photos into Pages

If you download pictures from a digital camera, they would likely go into iPhoto. To import a photo into a Pages project you just drag and drop it onto an open Pages document.

However, quite often you will have a disc, or a memory stick sent to you, or a zipped picture folder. There would be a number of photos for you to choose from. You can open them one by one - by default it will be in Preview. You don't need to put them into iPhoto or Media Browser, simply drag and drop the photo from its folder.

Now here is the neat trick number one: instead of opening pictures one by one you can open them all at once.

- Press Command and type A (for All, I presume). This selects all files in a folder.
- Press Command and type O (for Open). Preview will open all pictures in one go: they will be shown as thumbnails in the Drawer. Click on thumbnails to see the pictures and select the one you want to use in your project.

Neat trick number two: pictures may come from different sources and have different technical parametres - some files are big, some small. Go to Tools>Get Info to check DPI, file size and other data to decide if the picture suits you. Clicking on thumbnails gives data for each photo.

Neat trick number three: when you are done with selecting and checking photos, CLICK ON THE THUMBNAIL and drag the picture into your Pages document. You may find that this is much quicker and simpler than going through iPhoto or Media. And certainly easier than copy-pasting photos.

The picture here shows a batch of Easter theme flowers all opened in Preview with a Drawer showing thumbnails. The main photo is of traditional Easter catkins (pussy-willow buds starting to flower).

Photos by Francesca Bostock, published in the April issue of the Rendezvous magazine and on the Rendezvous Readers Journal blog.

Please check this previous post about using the Drawer trick in ad design:
Use Preview to update repeated formats

Colour palette shortcut

Colour palette shortcut is Command+Shift+C



When you work with colours in Pages the colour palette opens automatically. For instance, to change the colour of text you click on the colour bar in Text Inspector.


The shortcut is useful when you want to skip making several movements and clicks with the mouse. For example, when I want to check CMYK count of text (pure black comes out crisp in print, while Licorice is a bit fuzzy) I click in the text, open colour palette with the shortcut and get the information I need.

Colour palette works and opens with the same shortcut not just in Pages, but in many other Mac applications where you mainly work with text, including Mail and TextEdit.

Lists of keyboard shortcuts are under Help menu in Pages and in System Preferences>Keyboard&Mouse. Here you can customise or create your own shortcuts and also reassign a particular shortcut to a different operation. For example, my Mac came with Command+Space assigned to opening Spotlight. I reassigned it to switching between different languages as I use it more frequently.


Please read the article on why it is important to use shortcuts and not just mouse:

Health and Efficiency: three serious reasons to use shortcuts

The article contains a list of other posts about keyboard shortcuts.

Up folder shortcut on Macs

I've been working on Macs since 1991 - almost without breaks, but in several jobs I had to switch to Windows, just because that was what was in the office.

Switching from Mac to Windows and back was surprisingly uncomplicated. Although I think working on a Mac is easier - and  more enjoyable - I found the 'up folder' option in the Windows toolbar very useful. It looks like this:



and allows you to jump from the folder you are currently in straight to the bigger one - in which the first one sits. This makes it easier to navigate through a large project where files are sorted in many different folders.

It took me some time to discover that Macs have the same option, except that it's a keyboard shortcut, not a toolbar or menu option. Press Command and hit the up arrow:


It's also useful to open quickly your Home folder from the Desktop. Many Macusers don't realise that Desktop in OSX is just another folder on your machine. When you switch on your Mac and all the folders are closed, you can, instead of going through the Finder menu, just press Command and hit the up arrow.

Please read this earlier article on why it is important to use keyboard shortcuts.

How to subtract footnotes/endnotes from the word count?

A reader of this blog has asked how to set Pages to subtract footnotes/endnotes from the word count?

It's pretty simple:

1. Click on your main text,
2. Select all (Command+A). Pages will select only the main text, not the footnotes, and you will see the word count for just your main text, without the footnotes.

Word count in Pages is in Document Inspector. Click on the first icon on the left in Inspector, then on the Info tab. If you need to watch the word count as you work on a document, open two Inspectors (under View menu), set one to show word count and use the second for other tasks.

There are lively discussions on the internet about word count in Pages. Switchers from Word often can’t find it in Pages. Of course, when you do, it’s easy and straightforward.
Most people don’t even need it, but for many word count is the main tool to measure their work.

The full word count for this article is 238. The Document Inspector in the picture shows word count without the reference to previous articles which I put in the footnote below.

Please read more in these previous articles on I Work in Pages:
Quick word count in Pages
Word count in Pages: use two Inspectors

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mas OSX Cookbook' (2012)

Follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages  

Like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook 

and add me to your circles on Google+

Skip to my Lou: how to select random files

How to skip files when selecting a batch to move from one folder to another? Every macuser knows how to select a group of files or objects - just drag to highlight them. Or press Shift and click on the files you want to select.

But, if you want to select random, not adjacent, files in an open folder, pressing Shift won't help - all the files in between will be selected too.

I've long been frustrated by this. Until I discovered that

pressing Command while selecting the files does the trick.

It helps, for example, when you work on a periodic or regularly updated project, a magazine or a catalogue, and want to resave current documents as templates for the next edition.

Select all (Command+A) and duplicate (Command+D). Now you have a new set of all the pages with 'copy' added in the name of the file. Copies are below the originals. To select just the copies, press Command and click on the copies. Then move them to a new folder or to the Desktop to start working on the new issue of your publication.

The same works in iPhoto. If you select several photos while pressing Shift, all the images in between will be selected too. If you press Command - only the ones you want.

I am preparing a linked list of articles about keyboard shortcuts on this blog and general Mac tricks and tips. Meanwhile please read this previous article:
Look after your hands: useful shortcuts

And, if you are a fan of folk music, watch Pete Seeger explaining how to play Skip to my Lou on banjo here.

Three easy ways to email Pages in non-iWork format

Note: this is an excerpt from a previous article on this blog.

There are several ways of sending Pages documents as email attachments. However, your correspondent should also have iWork/Pages. In many cases it makes more sense to send out Pages in non-iWork format.

Try these three easy ways of sending out Pages:

1. MAIL PDF
- command+P to open print dialogue window. Click on PDF in the bottom left corner. Choose Mail Pdf. Your Pages document automatically converts to PDF format of a mailable size and attaches to a new email message. Fill in the address and message, send. This option is preferable if your correspondent is to make comments to the document. Acrobat allows making comments on PDF documents.

2. MAIL JPEG
- open print dialogue window, click on PDF and choose Save PDF to iPhoto. Your Pages document converts to JPEG format. Then, in iPhoto click on the Mail icon and send out your JPEG. iPhoto has an option of reducing the JPEG file for fast loading.

3. PNG SCREENSHOTS.
It's a quick and fun way of sending out smaller Pages documents or documents in work, because screenshots show guides, invisibles and open Inspectors. The keyboard shortcut to make a screenshot is Command+Shift and hit 4. Cursor turns into crosshairs, drag it to select the area for a screenshot, let go of the mouse (a no-buttons macmouse) and, after a camera shutter sounds, you get a PNG file on your desktop.

If you want a screenshot of just one particular open window, document, Inspector or open folder, press Command+Shift, type 4 and then hit the Space Bar. Move the cursor over the window (it will highlight) and click to get the screenshot in PNG format.

The ease of sharing files in a networked environment is one of the main considerations for businesses and offices when they choose a productivity suite - with a word processor, presentation and spreadsheet programmes. With low cost, striking templates, ease of use and full integration with other applications which come preinstalled on Macs, iWork may be an attractive choice.

Please read other related articles on this blog:
How to send iWork Pages as email attachments
Sending out Pages documents
Quick JPEGs straight from Pages

and an overview of how teamwork can be organised around iWork/Pages:
Sharing and teamwork in iWork/Pages