Create, Open, and Save Documents with Pages

By Mark L. Chambers from MacBook All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Whether you need a simple letter, a stunning brochure, or a multipage newsletter, Pages ’09, part of the iWork suite of applications, can handle the job with ease — and you’ll be surprised at how simple it is to use.

Create a new Pages document

Every visual masterpiece starts somewhere, and with Pages, the first stop in creating your document is the Template Chooser window. To create a new Pages document from scratch, follow these steps:

Click the Launchpad icon in the Dock.

The iWork installation program offers to add a Pages icon to your Dock. If you’ll be using Pages often, it’s a good idea to use this option!
Click the Pages icon.

Pages displays the Template Chooser window.
Click the type of document you want to create in the list to the left. The thumbnails on the right are updated with templates that match your choice.
Click the template that most closely matches your needs.
Click Choose to open a new document by using the template you selected.

Open an existing Pages document

Of course, you can always open a Pages document from a Finder window — just double-click the document icon. (Lion’s All My Files location in the Finder window sidebar makes it easy to track down a document.) However, you can also open a Pages document from within the program. Follow these steps:

Launch Pages as I described in the previous section.
Press Command+O to display the Open dialog.

The Open dialog operates much the same as a Finder window in icon, list, or column view mode.
Click the desired drive in the Devices list at the left of the dialog and then click folders and subfolders until you’ve located the Pages document.

Alternatively, you can use the Search box at the top-right corner of the Open dialog to locate the document. Click in the Search box and type a portion (or all) of the filename; then click Filename Contains in the pop-up menu that appears.
Double-click the filename to load it.

If you want to open a Pages document that you’ve edited in the recent past, things get even easier! Just click File→Open Recent and you can open the document with a single click from the submenu that appears.

Save your Pages document

Although Pages fully supports Lion’s new Auto Save feature, you may feel the need to manually save your work after you finish it (or if you need to take a break while designing.) Follow these steps to save a document:

Press Command+S.

If you’re saving a document that hasn’t yet been saved, the familiar Save As sheet appears.
Type a filename for your new document.
Click the Where pop-up menu and choose a location to save the document.

Alternatively, click the button sporting the down arrow to expand the Save As sheet. This allows you to navigate to a different location, or to create a new folder to store this Pages project.
Click Save.

You can create a version of a Pages document by clicking File→Save a Version. To revert the current document to an older version, click File→Revert to Saved. Pages gives you the option of reverting to the last saved version, or you can click Older Version to browse multiple versions of the document and choose one of those to revert.