Making Greeting Cards in Pages

Question

I am very frustrated. I am so used to Page Maker and the way it worked. I was able to make greeting cards with it. I seem to not be able to do it with Pages. In Page Maker I divided the document in two. I could print a card on the top half as well as the bottom half. I used guidelines to divide the document in half both horizontally as well as vertically. I would insert my graphic on the right side and be able to move it around where I wanted it. I would also put a text box on the right side and center that as well. For the life of me I cannot get it to do that with Pages. I divided the document in half with guidelines but cannot get my graphic to go on the right side nor can I move it around. My text goes all over the place. I cannot center it on the right side. I am so used to being able to move my graphics and text around. Is there any way I can do in Pages what I used to do in Page Maker? What am I doing wrong? I sure do miss Page Maker.

Answer 1

Hi Roberta,
Don't let your frustration wear you down. Pages works great for greeting cards. It seems from your discussion that you're producing either tent or book fold cards. Neither is a problem.
First for your text. I recommend using the Layout view from the view menu. then click somewhere off the page (but still in the Pages window) so that the text cursor is no longer visible. Once that is done click the Objects icon in the tool bar and select Text. You will notice that a text box shows up on your page with the cursor blinking inside. Open the Inspector and click on the third icon from the left at the top of the inspector. This is the Wrap Inspector. Click in your text box to make sure it is selected, then click "fixed on page" in the inspector. You can then move the text box anywhere on the page you wish (by dragging) and you can rotate and resize it any way you want using commands in the various inspector panels.
Inserting images is similar. Simply click on the insert menu, and click on choose. Then find the image you want and click on insert. Bingo, the image is on the page. Select the image by clicking anywhere on it and then go to the inspector and make sure "fixed on page" is selected in the Wrap Inspector.
You can do the same basic operations as many times as you like and once each object is "fixed on page" you can move it or reorient it at will. Another poster in this group advised reading the manual and practicing. I entirely agree and think you will find Pages to be rather straight forward to work with.
One other thing you may want to consider is creating a template of your cards to save time each time you want to create a new one. The manual (or help system) provides excellent guidance on template creation and saving.
Andy H.