I was fairly unhappy with Apple about some of the features they removed in the new version of Pages—text-box linking, for example—but here’s a trick that’s been added instead, and I think it’s pretty cool. Under Pages ’09, you could define character, list, and paragraph styles, but with Pages 5, you can define object styles, too. So you can use this to format one of the images in your document, save your changes as a style, and then apply that style to other images, without having to edit borders and shadows for each one individually. Also, you can keep a bunch of different object styles in your document if you need to, and that’ll save you a ton of time in formatting.
To try it out, let’s start with a simple object. I’m using just a shape here, but these rules apply to any sort of images you add. So here’s my circle:
I’m going to go in and make some weird changes to it, so I’ve added a border, changed its color, and put a reflection below it.
Wow, that’s, like…the ugliest circle ever known to man.
Anyway, if I want to save those changes as a style and apply them to any subsequent shapes I create, I’ll click on the circle first to select it. Then I’ll pick the "Style" tab in the Format inspector and click the arrow (as indicated below) to move to the blank page of styles.
If you don't see this anywhere on your screen, click the "Format" button on your toolbar.
When I do so, I’ll see a plus button that will save whatever changes I’ve made to my selected object as a style.
After I’ve done that, I can create a new object…
…and once I click to select it, all I’ve gotta do is click on my saved style to apply the exact same changes.
Hey, now my circle's got an ugly friend!
Unattractive shapes aside, this is a really great way to save yourself some headaches if you're formatting a large number of images within Pages. Some might say it's…a stylish way to do that. Right? Right?
I may need a laugh track to boost my self-esteem.