Create a new document

Every Pages document begins with a template that includes placeholder text, images, and other elements. These placeholders give you an idea of what a document created with the template might look like when you use its text and object styles. You can replace the placeholder elements with your own content, delete the placeholders you don’t want, and then modify the document however you like.

Create a new document

Open Pages, then click New Document at the bottom of the dialog.
If you don’t see a dialog with a New Document button, choose File > New (from the File menu at the top of your screen).
Double-click a template to open it.
Templates are designed for either word processing (documents that are mainly text, like a letter or report) or page layout (documents with graphic elements, like a flyer or poster). Once you begin editing a document, you can’t switch to a different template.
When the new document opens, do any of the following:
- For a blank template: Begin typing.
- For a template with placeholder text and images:
  - Click placeholder text, then type your own.
  - Click in the lower-right corner of placeholder images to add an image from iPhoto or Aperture.
  - Drag an image from your Mac or a webpage onto a placeholder image or anywhere in the document.
  Tip: To undo your recent changes, choose Edit > Undo or Edit > Redo (from the Edit menu at the top of your screen).
When you’re ready to close the document, click the close button (the red circle) in the upper-left corner of the window, then type a name and choose a location for your document.
If you don’t want to keep a document you started, click Delete in the Save dialog.
If iCloud is set up on your Mac, Pages saves to iCloud by default, but you can save it to your Mac instead. You can also change the document’s location at any time.

If you want to create a copy of your document in a format other than Pages, you can export a Pages document to another format, such as Word, PDF, and ePub.

You can change a document from word processing to page layout or vice versa. For example, if you choose a word processing template such as a report, then decide that you want to move blocks of text and graphics around, you can convert the document to a page layout document that lets you layer text and objects.

Always create new documents from a specific template

You can set a preference in Pages to always open a new document in a particular template instead of from the template chooser.

Choose Pages > Preferences (from the Pages menu at the top of your screen).
Click General at the top of the preferences window, then select “Use template.”
The first time you set this preference, the Blank template is selected. If you changed this setting before, the last template you chose is selected.
Do one of the following:
- Use the currently selected template: Verify that the template you want to use is shown after “Use template” and close the preferences window.
- Choose a different template: Click the Change Template button, click a template, click Choose, then close the preferences window.

After this preference is set, if you want to open a new document with a different template, hold down the Option key, then choose File > New from Template Chooser (from the File menu at the top of your screen).