Show Colours inaccessible in Pages after Catalina update

[Bob Marsden]

With Catalina, I can access "Show Colours" in all applications except Pages. All the access points I've tried don't work: Menu Bar dropdown menu item; ⇧⌘C; Pages Toolbar icon ... Has anybody else experienced this?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

I assume you are running Pages 8.2.1?

Could it be hidden behind an open window, or possibly have been dragged to the very edge of your display?

C

 

[Bob Marsden]

Neither of those, but I just downloaded and started version 8.2.1 (6529) and colours appear as normal, in the positions I put them. So the problem must have been with the version that came with Catalina.

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, gald it's sorted.

Be well,

C

 

[Bob Marsden]

Whoops ... I must have fooled myself. The little box of colours, with spectrum, websafe, sliders, wheel, crayons & personal selection boxes at the bottom (on which I've just discovered, sliders work to customise them) still won't display.

Does it display normally with Pages for you?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, it shows if I click the little color wheel.

Not sure what is happening on yours.

-Do you have multiple displays?
-Check around the edges of the screen, as it may have accidentally been dragged to one of the edges.
-Could it be Sidecar - do you have an iPad closeby?

C

 

[Bob Marsden]

▶No multiple displays.
▶Because it wouldn't display I haven't dragged it anywhere. In other applications the colour box stays where I've put it for each one separately.
▶I don't have an iPad.

When I use the colour box to colour in text and background in other applications, I can copy what I've done into Pages, and it retains the values. So it must be lurking somewhere.

I can only get the restricted palette when I click on the display rectangle with Inspector/Format/Style/Text next to the colour wheel icon [and with Advanced Options/Text Background].

The colour box is is probably a System function, so I tried going to the System Library and looking under Application Support, but that was fruitless.

I tried restarting, but it made no difference (except I lost all the draft text I'd done here).

I did contact Apple about it, but don't think their Aristotelian gods have any knowledge of sublunary folk. It's baffling.

Bob

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks for the additional.

Maybe we can try deleting the Pages Container from your hidden User Library folder. You will lose any customizations for Pages, but it may reset the color palette.

-Quit the Pages application
-In Finder, hold the Option key and click Go > Library in the menu bar
-That will open the hidden User Library folder
-Open Containers, and drag com.apple.iWork.Pages to the Trash
-Open Pages - you will go through the initial setup as if you have never used it

See if that helps,

C

 

[Bob Marsden]

It worked.

But: I've accidentally changed something and now can't move things between desktop spaces. They just twang back down to the desktop I'm in.

I think it's to do with making applications open in a single desktop, but I can't remember where I go to change it back again.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Glad that fixed it.

Try  > System Preferences... > Mission Control for the other issue.

C

 

[Bob Marsden]

I've sorted it. When you hold on an application in the Dock, it gives you the options of assigning the application in All Desktops, This Desktop, or None. I didn't, and still don't, understand what 'assigning' means. I thought that if I assigned an application to None, then its files wouldn't open in any desktop. Actually, its file will open in any desktop, and I can move it to any other Desktop and it'll stay there. Assigning Stickies, Notes, or Calculator to All Desktops puts all their open files in every Desktop, which is sometimes useful to me. This Desktop means you can do the same as None, but when you close a file and reopen it, it pops up in the original Desktop. I haven't figured out why you would want this to happen, so I'll stick with the other two as convenient.

I wish that the gods of Computing would describe things operationally, because context-free abstract generalisations such as 'assigning' are uninterpretable. Operational definitions comprise specific instructions: do this, then this, and these things in this order, then this will happen. Telling people they can easily 'purge their overload', or just 'add your favourite functionality' isn't helpful unless you tell them exactly how to do it, and why they might want to.

Thanks for your help and patience with my meandering incomprehension.

Bob

 

[Martin Brown]

I wish that the gods of Computing would describe things operationally, because context-free abstract generalisations such as 'assigning' are uninterpretable. Operational definitions comprise specific instructions: do this, then this, and these things in this order, then this will happen. Telling people they can easily 'purge their overload', or just 'add your favourite functionality' isn't helpful unless you tell them exactly how to do it, and why they might want to.

Ah, for the days when a new Mac came with several beautifully produced "Manuals" that explained everything in simple English! Not so much as a page, these days. Just sink or swim. A shame, I miss those fine manuals and always had them to hand for those moments when one's mind went AWOL.