How to Use Reading View in Apple Pages, Numbers, and Keynote
Whether you’re using Apple Pages, Numbers, or Keynote applications, you may want to hide the editing tools as you review a document, and you can do this thanks to a handy reading view feature available in each of the Apple iWork suite apps.
Apple’s Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps work in a very similar way since they’re all part of the iWork productivity suite that’s available for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS devices. When you’re accessing files from these apps on your iPhone or iPad, it’s pretty easy to accidentally edit the document because of the small touch screen. Fortunately, Apple has provided an optional reading mode for the iOS and iPadOS versions of their iWork apps to avoid this issue altogether. Let’s take a look at how this feature works and how you can use it.
How to Use Reading View in Apple Pages App
The following steps are applicable to both the iPhone and iPad since the iOS and iPadOS versions of the Pages app are identical in terms of how it works. Here’s what you need to do:
- First, launch the Pages app on your iPhone or iPad. Upon launch, you’ll see the recent Pages documents you’ve worked on. You can select the document that you want to read from here or use the “Browse” menu if it’s not a recent file.
- Now, if you see a bunch of tools at the top of your screen, it means that you’re viewing the document in editing mode. Just tap on the reading view icon which is located at the top-right corner of the menu.
- You’ll now be switched to the reading view. You’ll no longer see any tools or any indicators on top of the document that you’re viewing. But, you can always access the editing menu by tapping on “Edit”.
There you go, as you can see it is really easy to switch to reading view in the Pages app.
How to Use Reading View in Apple Numbers App
Although the steps you need to follow for the Numbers app are exactly the same as above, we’ll be covering them separately since a lot of users seem to skip the sub-headings. So, without further ado, let’s take a look:
- Launch the Numbers app on your iOS/iPadOS device, tap on the document that you want to view from Recents, or use the Browse menu to locate the file.
- Once opened, you’ll find all the editing tools that the Numbers app has to offer. At the top-right corner of your screen, you’ll notice the Reading View icon. Tap on it.
- Now, you’ll enter the reading view within the app with no editing tools or unnecessary indicators appearing on your screen.
If you want to go back to the editing mode, you can simply tap on the “Edit” option within the app.
How to Use Reading View in Apple Keynote App
Moving on to the last iWork productivity app, we have Keynote which is a presentation app. Let’s check out what you need to do:
- Launching the Keynote app on your iPhone will show you all the recent files that you worked on. You can use this menu to select and open the Keynote file that you want to view. Or, you can use the Browse menu if it’s not a recent presentation.
- Upon opening the file, you’ll see the presentation slides on the left pane and the editing tools at the top. Here, tap on the reading view icon located at the top-right corner.
- You’re now in the reading view where you won’t be able to see any of your editing tools.
To make any changes to the presentation, you’ll need to re-enter editing mode by tapping on the “Edit” option at the top-right corner of the menu.
As you can see, it’s really simple to switch between the reading view and editing modes regardless of whether you’re using Apple Pages, Keynote, or Numbers apps. Since the steps are pretty much the same across all the apps, you should have no trouble getting a hang of it.
If you own a Mac, it’s worth pointing out that the macOS version of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps don’t have this particular reading view option from what we’ve checked. We assume this is because people don’t usually misclick and accidentally edit their documents on a non-touchscreen device like the Mac. Regardless, it’d still be a nice feature to have for those who may need it.
This is sort of like Reader View in Safari, except of course it’s in the iWork suite apps.
We hope you were able to finally stop making accidental edits to your documents when you simply want to review them by using the reading view on Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. How often were you making these accidental changes? Do these mistakes happen when you use the macOS version of the apps as well? Share your experiences and don’t forget to leave your valuable feedback in the comments section down below.
