Edit master slide not available

Hi Wilf,

The Project Proposal template opens as a Word Processing document. It has no master pages. Master pages apply only to Page Layout documents.

See Barry's link to the Pages User Guide for Mac:

Please tell us your overall aim, and perhaps we can help.

Regards,

Ian.

Hi Wilf,

"Master pages" appears to be a newer feature then my version of Pages.

You may find what you need here: Create and use master pages in Pages on Mac - Apple Support

The link is to the current Pages User Guide for Mac online document, withe the 'Create and use master pages article open.

Regards,

Barry

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the green tick and your feedback!

In Pages 10, we need to do some detective work to find out if a Pages document was created from a Word Processing template or a Page Layout Template.

If Menu > File shows 'Convert to Word Processing', we can be sure that the document is Page Layout.

If Menu > File shows 'Convert to Page Layout', we can be sure that the document is Word Processing.

• A Word Processing document has a Body Text layer. If we add new content, it automatically adds a new page as a page becomes full. It automatically deletes a page if we delete content and the extra page is not needed.
• A Page Layout document has no Body Text layer. All text must be contained in objects such as Text Boxes, Shapes or tables. When a page is full, we must insert a page for any extra content.

wilfwilson wrote:

I was trying to get rid of a blue line at the top of the page in the Proposals template but no matter what I did I couldn't select it which led me to believe that it was on a master page.

I am not sure what that blue line is. I was able to select it with a double click:

It seems to some kind of break. Don't delete it or it will spoil the layout.

It won't print, so ignore it.

Other blue lines are Shapes in the Section Master (not the same as a Master Page).

Follow Barry's advice: Menu > Arrange > Section Masters > Make Master Objects Selectable

Then you can select a background object (It will show yellow dots when selected). Press delete if you don't want it.

Save your work often so that you can do Menu > File > Revert To

Better, Save As...(press the option key when using the File Menu. Duplicate will change to Save As... and give it a new name).

When all is good, delete the redundant versions.

Happy Paging, and please call back with questions!

Ian.

Hi Wilf,

Keynote has "slides"

Pages has "pages" (as noted in the menu in your screen shot.

Unless Apple has changed this part of the game, you'll need to look for and select a menu item similar to the one below before getting to Edit Master Pages.

Regards,

Barry

Hi Andrew,

The 'blue line' is the leader to Page break, identified by the 'page' icon.

It forces text after the break onto the next page of the document.

The image has been set to Stay on Page, so it is not affected by the break as it is not placed as part of the text string runung through the body of the document.

When the blue line is visible, you should also be seeing the dots (spaces) between words, and the pilcrow character (return) seen in the screen shot above.

To not see them, go to the View menu and choose Hide invisibles.

Regards,

Barry

Hi Andrew,

There's no Project Proposal template in my (older) version of Pages, but the Invoice Template in that version has that same blue line and Company Name motif.

And, s can be seen in the image below, it is selectable:

Those yellow dots, showing the line as 'selected, are not the usual handles—white filled boxes, or xs if the object is locked—but pressing delete while the line shows those round yellow handles resulted in it being deleted:

Command-Z (aka the 'Oops!' key) put it back, and let me do some further exploring.

In the Arrange menu > Section Masters, I noticed "Make Master Objects Selectable" was checked.

I selected that item to toggle the checkmark off, when back to the document, and clicked on the line.

No action. The line remained unselected,

Back to the menu, toggled the item back on.

Back to the document, clicked on the line, and the two yellow dots appeared again.

Inserted a page break in the text of the template to force a new page. As expected, this "Master Object" appeared on the next page—expected behaviour for a Master object, as was the reverse: Deleted from the first page, the object also disappeared from the second page.

So it would appear that the line is a "Master Object", selectable and editable when that ability is set in Arrange > Section Masters > Make Master Objects Selectable.

Please do some exploration to determine whether that is also true of the Project Proposal template in Pages 10.

Regards,

Barry