Cannot select text after updating Pages on Mac

Submitted by Howard on Thursday, September 21, 2017.

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macOS & Mac Apps

Hello. I updated Pages on my Mac last night, and found that I can no longer select text. This is, needless to say, a real problem.
Be warned before updating!
I've written to accessibility@apple.com, but I'm not hopeful that there's an easy solution.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is there some way to go back to an earlier version of Pages? (No, I don't have a Time Machine backup -- foolishly.)
Sorry to have such a frantic posting as my first on this site, but I wanted to warn others, and I'm not sure what to do next.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much.
Howard

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Can still select, but no audible feedback

Issue: After upgrading to Pages version 6.3, VO no longer announces text as it is being selected..

Steps to replicate the issue:
1. Open a Pages document containing text.
2. Move VO focus to the document and interact with the text you wish to select.
3. Hold down the shift key and use the arrow keys to attempt to select the desired text.

Expected result: Text will be selected, and VO will announce the text as it is being selected.
Actual result: Text is selected, but VO does not announce the text as it is being selected..

Troubleshooting steps attempted:
1. Reboot
2. Toggle VO.
3. Change voice from Alex to Fred.
4. Try all levels of VO verbosity and punctuation.

Workaround:
1. Move cursor to the start of the text you wish to select, then use standard text-selection keystrokes to select by character, word, line, etc.
2. Press VO+F6 to force VO to announce the selected text.

System: MacBook Air mid 2013, macOS 10.12.6, Pages version 6.3 (5046).
Reported to accessibility@apple.com on 21September2017

Thanks for the workaround

So, it was selecting text, but VoiceOver wasn't announcing it. That's great to know. Until there's an update that fixes this, the workaround will save my bacon. Thanks so much.
Howard

I've had this problem too.

I've tried selecting text in several different Pages documents as well. Using VO F-6 is the only way to find out what has been selected. In my view, this is a serious bug. I use Pages on a daily basis. Currently, editing can be much harder. I'm shocked this bug wasn't caught.

I am also having this issue in Numbers and Keynote

Just an FYI: I tried selecting text in a Numbers 4.3 spreadsheet cell and in a Keynote 7.3 slide and encountered the same behavior as in Pages 6.3. That is, the text is actually selected but VO does not provide audible feedback during the selection process.

I can also confirm this and

I can also confirm this and have reported this to Apple.

If a tree falls in the forest ...

If some text is selected, but VoiceOver doesn't report it, does it make a difference?
Of course it does. To say that text is being selected, but not announced, is, at least to this blind user, a distinction without a difference.
I'm surprised to see such a basic error cropping up in a routine update. And I hope it is fixed soon.

Thank you for reporting

Thank you for reporting this to Apple, I am surprised that this was not caught by the team... I also use Pages on a daily basis, and this bug would have serious consequences for my work, so I am glad someone reported it both to Apple and on here!

Also, thank you for the work-around :)