Where is the "insert" function as on Word?

Question

Sorry, everybody. I feel like a moron. I have always used PCs with Word. I made the switch in November and decided to give Pages a shot. I'm trying to type onto a pre-existing document with spaces for answers and whatnot. As I try to type my answers into these spaces, the new text pushes the old text along, and messes with the overall look of the page. In Word, I merely tapped the "insert" key on the keyboard and you could choose to delete existing text or space as you typed. How can I manage to accomplish this in Pages? The answering may be staring me in the face, but I'm just not seeing it. Any help would really alleviate this headache.

Answer 1

Hi LHH,
Welcome to Apple Discussions and the Pages '08 forum.
No surprise that the feature can't be found; it doesn't exist in Pages. Like AppleWorks before it, Pages is always in "Insert" mode (as opposed to "Replace" mode). One possible reason for that choice was the use from the beginning of proportional type on the Mac. Using proportional type, a character for character replacement will also change the position of words following the replacement.
There are a couple of techniques that will approximate the "Replace" mode.
Select the text to be replaced, then type the replacement text. Things will jump leftward as the first character typed replaces the whole selection, but moves back into place as you continue.
If you're setting up the original document, and leaving spaces in which to enter text, you can use single cell tables inserted as inline objects to receive the typed in text.
I've done only once-over tests on these suggestions, and offer them only as possibilities.
Regards,
Barry