Setting a background on Pages 2

[sharifi14]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to set a plain background colour for a page on Pages 2, as I'd like to cover my first page with a solid background. I'm sure it's staring me in the face but it isn't very obvious!

Cheers for your help,

Alex.

 

[Deepdale]

... I'd like to cover my first page with a solid background

You are right in that it is far from intuitive. I attended a Pages workshop at Apple and had that same question for the presenter, who seemed mystified that a user would actually want to do that. His eventual answer was that one had to use the "shapes' option and then drag the color of choice over the page and then save that as a template for future use.

 

[sharifi14]

I think setting a solid background colour is a completely natural thing to do, why Apple didn't include it in the first place is beyond me! I'm sure even Publisher has that option! Ah well, something for Apple to work on for Pages 3.

Thanks for your help Deepdale, if anyone else has this same problem, I'd recommend doing this:

1) Select 'Objects' button, then 'Shapes', then on the square
2) Drag it into any corner
3) Expand the corners until it fits the page
4) Ctrl+Click on the expanded square and click 'Send to Back'
5) Change the colours, etc, in the Inspector
6) Select the expanded square, then go 'Arrange' from the menu bar and select 'Lock' (shortcut Mac+L)

Just so you all know, I don't want anyone to be as baffled as I was!

 

[Deepdale]

Just so you all know, I don't want anyone to be as baffled as I was!

Thanks for your very helpful outline ... hopefully, Apple employees will look at it to end their bewilderment. I do agree that Apple has work ahead to simplify that option in the next Pages version. It is so straightforward to do in Word ... not everyone prefers a white background.

 

[steve_hill4]

Well, trying this for the first time, I find margins to be a problem. Removing these completely, you then have headers and footers to get around. Therefore I more than agree it is something Apple needs to sort out in 3.