iPad Pages & PDFs

[KarenColes]

Using Pages on my iPad, I'm trying to create a "scrolling script" to use during a music performance. This script will consist of several different songs, and I now have each of them in my iPad as pdfs on separate Pages documents. I expected this to be as simple as copying one pdf song, pasting it into a new "script document," and then copying and pasting the second song immediately below it. Alas! Not so easy. I'm experiencing multiple problems, all apparently related to formatting. I realize that the pdf is being treated as a "picture," even though it contains text.

When I try to paste the second song below the first, it pastes on top of the first song (transparently, with both songs visible at once,) not below it. When I drag song #2 down, there's no page break, so the bottom half of the second song disappears. I've tried to insert a page break, and then paste the second song on the second page, but had no luck with that either. I've tried moving the cursor, thinking that this would force the second song to paste in where the cursor is located. That didn't seem to work either.

It seems like there should be a simple way to accomplish what I'd like to do.

[Stephen Hart]

Pages is a little different from some other apps in this respect. I ran into this when making a document that had lots of individual images mixed in with text. You need to set how you want images arranged.
View > Inspector > Format > Arrange

You probably want Stay on Page instead of Move with Text.

As to getting the pdfs into Pages:

Is there text or are the pdfs themselves just images?
If there's text and images, you can merely select all in Preview (command A) then copy and paste into the Pages document. You'll get both images and text. You may then have to do some formatting.

[Bob Wiswell]

I have inserted Microsoft Word pages into an Excel file as an image/picture and adjusted margins/page breaks to created a continuous flowing document. You may try this using Numbers (I think that is the name of the spreadsheet program in the Pagess package).

[Richard Serkes]

How about using Keynote and let each song be a slide. With a simple tap you can go to the next song (slide).

[Stephen Hart]

How about using Keynote and let each song be a slide. With a simple tap you can go to the next song (slide).

Nice idea Richard. If all you did was make each pdf a slide, it'd also be a great introduction to Keynote. A user might then see ways to add to the audience experience or use Keynote for other things.

BTW, there are professional music groups that use iPads or Laptops instead of paper music. They must have a good methodology worked out. In fact, try this google search: "Macbook instead of sheet music," which leads to lots of possibilities.

[KarenColes]

Stephen, I don't think that the iPad version of Pages has an Inspector, like the OS X version does. Or have I missed it? I'm trying to find a good (and simple) way for an older lady friend of mine to do this using only her iPad.

Richard, I think the idea of using Keynote is great. The problem is that it only gives you the option of a horizontal format, and the pdf music pages are all vertical. I tried a few pages in Keynote, and thought I could work around that issue by rotating the pdf image of each page (slide.) I found this to be very problematic. I followed the directions that say to tap on the image and then use 2 fingers to rotate it. This seemed to work only intermittently, and I couldn't figure out why I could get it to work a couple of times, but not consistently.

I even thought of using iBooks, but since each song is a separate pdf document, I don't think iBooks has any way to string several together to make one document including several songs.

I know a lot of musicians use iPads to view their music during performances. I've been doing it for several years myself by using Pages on my Mac, and then sending the completed "script" (via the cloud) to my iPad. But since this lady friend only has an iPad, my normal approach won't work. I guess I need to do some research to see how others accomplish it.

[KarenColes]

Addendum:

I just tried to accomplish what I'm trying to do by using Pages on my Mac. Was completely successful in about 30 seconds.
1. I pasted the pdf of song #1 on page one.
2 The cursor then automatically appeared at the bottom of the page at the end of the pdf.
3. I moved the cursor down past the page break.
4.Pasted the pdf of song #2 on page 2
etc. etc.

Very simple. If it's that easy to do with Pages and OS X, why does it have to be so complicated (i.e.. impossible) using Pages and iOS on the iPad?

[Stephen Hart]

Very simple. If it's that easy to do with Pages and OS X, why does it have to be so complicated (i.e.. impossible) using Pages and iOS on the iPad?

I'll check this out on my iPad tomorrow and see if I can come up with anything.

Apple's busy trying to get iWork for Mac to be equivalent--in features, workflows, filetypes, syncing, etc.--with iWork for iOS, and getting no end of angry attacks in the media for doing so.

[KarenColes]

Thanks, Stephen. I'll be eager to see what you come up with. To duplicate what I'm trying to do, just take any page of text (or anything, probably) and make a pdf out of it. Then, on the iPad, copy and paste it into a new blank Pages document. So far, so good. Then, try to do the same thing with a second pdf page, placing it below the first page.

I think I could almost be successful if I could figure out how to move the cursor to the space below the first pdf, following a page break. But after I paste in the first pdf, the cursor stays at the top of that pdf, and I can't get it where I want it to create the second page. There's obviously a lot I don't know about the iOS version of Pages.

[Stephen Hart]

So here's an avenue to explore.

First, you can easily move pasted in image pdfs. Just tap on it so you see the handles.

Now you want to insert a page break. I was baffled until I realized that there's a whole nother set of controls on the keyboard.
So get an insertion point to make a keyboard show, then tap the + button on the keyboard and choose Page Break.
Now you can drag your images if needed.

BTW, the way I got the pdf was to save one in iCloud, then use the + button on the main screen and then Insert from...
I was also able to copy text pages and paste them into the pages file. But if I selected an image, tapped and held, then selected Copy, no Paste option showed up in the Pages document. I'm not sure what's going on there.

Play around with that and see if it works.

Here are some Apple support documents:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3552

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3560?viewlocale=en_US