Add and edit cell content

You can add content to table cells in several ways. You can type new content, copy and paste content from somewhere else, or let Pages complete patterns for you with autofill. You can always edit or clear a cell after you add content to it.

Note: If you can’t add content to a table, make sure it’s unlocked. Click the table, then choose Arrange > Unlock (from the Arrange menu at the top of your screen).

Add content to cells

See Format dates, currency, and other data types to learn how to set specific data formats for cells.

You can also add an object to a table cell, create a link in a table cell, and insert an equation in a table cell.

Wrap text to fit in a cell

If a cell isn’t wide enough to display all the text in the cell, you can wrap the text so it appears on multiple lines in the cell.

Clear content from a range of cells

  1. Select one or more cells.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Remove the content but preserve the cells’ data format, text style, and cell style: Press Delete.

    • Remove all data, formatting, and styling: Choose Edit > Clear All (from the Edit menu at the top of your screen).

Autofill cells

You can quickly fill cells, or a row or column, with the same formula, data, or a logical sequence of data—for example, a series of numbers, letters, or dates.

Do any of the following:

Autofilling doesn’t establish an ongoing relationship among cells in the group. After autofilling, you can change the cells independently of each other.

When you autofill cells, any formulas that refer to those cells are updated automatically to use the new value.

Turn autocomplete suggestions off or on

As you type in a cell, Pages can show a list of autocomplete suggestions. This list includes any text previously entered in that column, but not header or footer text. Autocomplete is on by default, but you can turn it off or on at any time.

  1. Choose Pages > Preferences (from the Pages menu at the top of your screen).

  2. Click General at the top of the preferences window.

  3. In the Editing section, select or deselect “Show suggestions when editing table cells.”

Add an object to a table cell

You can paste objects—including images, lines, shapes, and text boxes—into table cells. You can also add text to a cell that already has an object.

Note: To paste text with an object, the object must first be set to Move with Text, and the text wrap for the object set to Inline with Text (which makes it an inline object). For information about adding inline objects to text, see Place objects with text.

  1. Select an object (image, line, shape, or text box) in your document (or another document), or text that contains an inline object, then choose Edit > Cut or Edit > Copy (cut removes it from its original location).

  2. Double-click the cell where you want to add the object (it can be a cell that already has text).

  3. If the cell already has content, click again where you want to paste the content, then choose Edit > Paste.

When you paste a movie in a cell, only the poster image shows—the movie doesn’t play. However, the movie properties are retained so that if you copy and paste the movie elsewhere, it will play in its new location.

To remove an object from a cell, place the insertion point in the cell to the right of the object, then press Delete on your keyboard.

Show a table cell’s row and column

You can temporarily highlight a cell’s row and column in blue as you move the pointer over a table. In a large table, this can help you identify column and row references for specific cells.

Copy or move table cells

When you copy a table cell, or move a cell’s data to a new location in the table, all of the cell’s properties are also copied or moved, including its data format, fill, border, and comments.

  1. Select the cells you want to copy or move.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Move the data: After selecting the cells, click and hold the selection until the cells appear to rise off the table, then drag them to another location in the table. Existing data is replaced by the new data.

    • Paste and overwrite existing content: Choose Edit > Copy (from the Edit menu at the top of your screen). Select the top-left cell where you want to paste the data (or select an area of the same dimensions as the cells you’re pasting), then choose Edit > Paste.

      If your data range contains formulas but you want to paste only the results, choose Paste Formula Results.

      Note: Before pasting, be sure to select just one cell, or select an area of the same dimensions as the cells you’re pasting.

    • Paste without overwriting: Choose Edit > Copy, select the destination cells, then choose Insert > Copied Rows or Insert > Copied Columns (from the Insert menu at the top of your screen). New rows or columns are added for the copied cells.

    • Paste a cell style: Choose Format > Copy Style (from the Format menu at the top of your screen). Select the cells where you want to paste the style, then choose Format > Paste Style.

    • Paste cell contents without its style: Choose Edit > Copy, select the cells where you want to paste, then choose Edit > Paste and Match Style. The pasted cells adopt the formatting of the new location.

    • Paste outside of an existing table to create a new table: Drag the cells outside the table. A new table is created with the pasted cells.

If you copy a range of cells that include hidden data (either hidden or filtered), the hidden data is also copied. If you paste to a range of cells with a matching arrangement of hidden cells, the hidden data is also pasted. Otherwise, the hidden content isn’t pasted.

See alsoFormat dates, currency, and other data typesResize table rows and columnsLink to a webpageMerge or unmerge table cells