Self-updating textfield in Pages 6.2

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I'm new with using Pages, and testing it for writing a spec for a small software project.

As the spec should be a frequently kept up-to-date document, I would like to have a textfield on the front page that says "Last edited dd.mm". If this text could be made to auto-update, for example on every save or just generally, this would be a major boon.

What I've found so far is that I can insert the current date from the menu – but that does not update the text without selecting it and clicking "Set to today" afaik. An option is to show the revision number, if that is somehow more possible.

The closest thing I could find was this post, which said it wasn't possible after 2014, with the latest update in 2016, v.5.6. Is there a way to accomplish this in Pages 6.2?

Best Answer

This solution requires Numbers but the date changes on opening.

In Numbers create a single cell table
Then enter the following formula: "Last edited: "& DAY(TODAY()) & " : " & MONTH(TODAY())
select the table and copy
in Pages, paste the table in the desired location setting wrap etc.
format as desired

The day and month will update each time the document is opened. To see the last time it was opened will not be possible unless you use Quicklook or get info on macOS.

Be sure to format the data as you wish it to be displayed.

Formulas pasted from Numbers are preserved when pasted into Pages or Keynote. This work-around may be what you need until Apple re-introduces this missing feature.

The example below was made in iOS, but the same applies to macOS.

Related Solutions

Insert images into Pages document using AppleScript

Here's an example that works.

set thisImage to choose file with prompt "Select an image"
tell application "Pages"
  tell (make new document)
      tell body text
          make new paragraph at end with data "another paragraph" with properties {paragraph style:"Body"}
          make new image at after last paragraph with properties {image data:thisImage}
      end tell
  end tell
end tell

Inserting a Horizontal Space Character

It's possible to this easily outside of a table cell. To do this,

insert a tab between the two text, and then
add a tab mark on the ruler above.
Move the tab mark to adjust the tab width.

Doing this inside a table cell is difficult because pressing the tab key automatically advance the cursor to the next table cell. What I suggest is

create the tab outside the table cell, then
paste it inside the table cell, then
adjust the tab width.

I've snapshot to illustrate what I mean. Hope it helps. enter image description here

Best Answer

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Insert images into Pages document using AppleScript

Inserting a Horizontal Space Character

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