CAN'T DRAG PREVIEW PDF FILES TO BLANK PAGES DOCUMENT

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CAN'T DRAG PREVIEW PDF FILES TO BLANK PAGES DOCUMENT

There are four pages to a PDF file which came to me via email. I wish to insert personal information into the blank spaces.

In the past I've been able to drag a saved pdf from Documents in Finder onto a blank new Pages document. Resize it and insert my information. Slide their printed text of the page to one side, leaving only my information on the Pages document. That information is then printed to the original PDF document.

Now all I get is a message The file “Nerve Conduction Aug/Sep (dragged).pdf” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file.

Surely there has to be a file - for it to be named, saved and able to be seen in it's folder.

How can I solve this? I have a medical examination coming up, and the printed answers are so much neater than illegible hand writing. Any assistance would be much appreciated.

For this post I tried to CHOOSE A DIFFERENT DEVICE. Mine isn't on the list. I have a Mac Desktop 2011 21.5" O.S. High Sierra

Posted on Aug 2, 2019 11:20 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Community+ 2024

Level 10

116,825 points

Aug 3, 2019 3:28 AM in response to LoobyfromLismore

Neither Pages v8.0, or v8.1 on either High Sierra or Mojave, will permit you to drag and drop a thumbnail from Preview directly into it. Drag the thumbnail to the Desktop and then into the Pages document. Your only other option is to select the thumbnail in Preview, copy it to the clipboard, then in Pages apply paste. Pages only supports and displays a single page PDF object.

If you were using the free Skim (v1.5.2) PDF viewer, it would allow you to directly drag and drop a PDF thumbnail into either Pages version above.

You can provide direct feedback to the Pages product team from your application menu.

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Answer 2

Barry

Level 9

59,951 points

Aug 3, 2019 12:11 AM in response to LoobyfromLismore

"For this post I tried to CHOOSE A DIFFERENT DEVICE. Mine isn't on the list. I have a Mac Desktop 2011 21.5" O.S. High Sierra"

Your "Mac Desktop" will be an iMac, a Mac Pro, or a Mac mini. Which isn't particularly important to this question. The more important info is the OS X or macOS version (which you've provided) and the Pages version you are using (see Numbers menu>About Numbers).

I'm guessing, Pages 8.1, as this is the only version about which I recall similar questions being asked.

Others, running a similar set up, may have a more direct answer to your question (I'm using OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan, and Pages 5.6.2, which does accept drag and dropped pdf objects.

While waiting for a better reply, you could try this:

Place the insertion point where you wan the image.

Go Insert (menu) > Choose…(bottom item on the menu list).

Navigate o the folder where your pdf file is saved, and choose the file.

Click the Insert button at the bottom of the dialogue.

Results below are a pdf file created from your question title, saved from Preview as a pdf file, then placed into the Pages document using Drag & Drop (top image) and Insert > Choose (bottom image).

Both images have been selected to show the handles at the corners of the image. Text before and after the images is from a random text generator.

Regards,

Barry

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Answer 3

Aug 5, 2019 4:13 PM in response to Barry

Thank you, Barry. Your advice helped and gave me hope after much frustration. I did have El Capitan and did not have this issue, but after the upgrade to High Sierra, the ease of this task changed. You are correct. I do have Pages 8.1. Somehow, there was a blue frame line when I clicked the file. Events took over till this morning, and carefully I attempted the task again. I found it easier to place the PDF onto Desktop, then drop and drag. Taking more care, to avoid the blue frame box, I enlarged the image and placement till it matched the original.

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Answer 4

Aug 5, 2019 4:21 PM in response to VikingOSX

VikingOSX. I appreciate your assistance. I wasn't aware, with the change in OS, changes would be made to the operation of Pages. Thank you for that as I was getting to the stage of thinking ''it's me'''. Because of other more immediate commitments, I delayed working on the issue till this morning. Dragging the thumbnail to the Desktop then into the Pages document worked a treat - placing it in the centre - I was able to position it and enlarge it to perfectly match the original - and all that without getting a Blue Frame around the image. Brilliant. Thank you. I did attempt to download SKIM but had problems in opening the application, despite changing Security and Privacy settings.

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Answer 5

Aug 5, 2019 4:59 PM in response to LoobyfromLismore

Applications that are downloaded outside of the Mac App Store need a one-time ritual to verify they are secure. Once the ritual is done, they will launch normally.

Right-click on the Skim application in your Applications folder and choose Open from the secondary menu. This will either pop a progress bar that is verifying the application, or a dialog informing that it an appilcation from an unknown developer. Click the Open button on that dialog. Eventually, Skim will open, and you can just quit it. That is the ritual and the next time you want to run Skim, you double, or single click it depending on where it is launched.

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CAN'T DRAG PREVIEW PDF FILES TO BLANK PAGES DOCUMENT

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