how to translate from english to german in pages

Select the text that you want to translate and press ctrl+click on it. This presents a secondary menu with the option to translate the content. Select that menu entry, at which time you can then release the keys. You end up with this:

Where it may be initially in Italian (what!), so change that to German as I have shown above. The translation occurs, and then you have different options, depending on where you want that German translation. I chose Replace… and here is the resulting Pages content with the English text replaced by the German translation:

This is a new feature introduced in macOS Monterey.

Basic instructions are pretty simple:

Control-click in the text you want to translate.

In the pop-up menu that appears, choose the language you want to translate that text to.

More here: Translate on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

Regards,

Barry

If you do not have macOS Monterey and Pages v12.1, your option to translate your Pages document comes in the form of uploading an exported Word .docx, or PDF to Google Translate, and then downloading the resultant translated document. Files must be under 10 MB and PDF documents must be 300 pages or less. Set the translated language to German before the upload.

Note that if you upload a PDF, the translation will be in a PDF, and you will not be able to make changes to that content without an extra cost PDF Editor — unless you have access to MS Word 16.31 or later, which can open a PDF and convert it to Word .docx. Then you can get it back into Pages just by opening that .docx.

Common sense about not uploading business confidential or personal privacy content to Google.

"… yet nothing else occurs when I click to have the translation take effect."

Did you press and hold the control key, then click the selected text, then release the control key?

Regards,

Barry

You do not need a Google account to access that web-facing Translate page, though I did mention that sensitive content should not be sent there. Agree.

You are welcome.