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User profile for user: hammondcheese
hammondcheese Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Editing Pages letter template

I am working with a letter template in Pages. At the bottom of the page is a placeholder for my phone, addresss, and URL. When I click/dbl-click on this, the whole thing turns orange. It doesn not allow me to select one element to edit, and I cannot figure out how to “unlock” the placeholder to allow me to keep the formatting while inserting my personal information. If I attempt to type, all the formatting for the placeholder is erased. I have searched through Help and have found no solution.

Is there a way to edit text placeholders without erasing them?

Is there a way to automatically place my personal information into these placeholders?

Is there a way to have Pages automatically set my personal information as the default for future letters?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 22, 2020 8:54 AM

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User profile for user: Barry
Barry
User level: Level 9
59,951 points

Posted on Jun 22, 2020 2:49 PM

Hi h&c,


Apparently not.


The letter template you are using is a redesign on one in the iWork '09 version of Pages, in which the header and footer boxes were fields that were automatically filled from your Contacts card, but could also be manually filled from the keyboard.


As versions of Pages from Pages 5 onward do not support mail-merge, these fields were replaces with single text boxes holding placeholder text. As you've discovered, the Placeholder text is a single block, and entering a single character dismisses the whole content of the placeholder text, including any formatting characters.


The cure is to create a new document from the supplied template, replace the placeholder text in the footer box with your own data, formatted as you wish, repeat with the sender address block at the top of the page, then Save the result as a Template with an identifiable name. Use that template for your letters. (It wll appear in the mytemplates area at the bottom of the list in the Templates Chooser.


Regards,

Barry

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Barry
Barry
User level: Level 9
59,951 points

Jun 22, 2020 2:49 PM in response to hammondcheese

Hi h&c,


Apparently not.


The letter template you are using is a redesign on one in the iWork '09 version of Pages, in which the header and footer boxes were fields that were automatically filled from your Contacts card, but could also be manually filled from the keyboard.


As versions of Pages from Pages 5 onward do not support mail-merge, these fields were replaces with single text boxes holding placeholder text. As you've discovered, the Placeholder text is a single block, and entering a single character dismisses the whole content of the placeholder text, including any formatting characters.


The cure is to create a new document from the supplied template, replace the placeholder text in the footer box with your own data, formatted as you wish, repeat with the sender address block at the top of the page, then Save the result as a Template with an identifiable name. Use that template for your letters. (It wll appear in the mytemplates area at the bottom of the list in the Templates Chooser.


Regards,

Barry

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Editing Pages letter template

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