Set ruler preferences

You can set the ruler to use different increments (points, inches, centimeters), or show the tick marks as percentages. You can also place zero at the center of the ruler, which can be useful if you’re designing a page layout document.

Word-processing documents show only a horizontal ruler by default, but you can also have them show a vertical ruler.

Set the ruler increment

When you set a unit preference for rulers in Pages, it applies to all documents. You can change the preference at any time, even if you have a document open.

Choose Pages > Preferences (from the Pages menu at the top of your computer screen), then click Rulers.
Choose an increment from the Units pop-up menu.
To show the ruler marks as a percentage of the page, select the “Display the ruler units as percentage” checkbox.

Place zero at the center of the ruler

You can place zero at the center of the ruler so that ruler units increase to the left and right.

Choose Pages > Preferences (from the Pages menu at the top of your computer screen), click Rulers, then select the “Place origin at center of ruler” checkbox.

Show the vertical ruler

Page layout documents have both horizontal and vertical rulers. You can turn on a preference for word-processing documents to also show a vertical ruler.

If no rulers are visible, click View in the toolbar, then choose Show Ruler.

Choose Pages > Preferences (from the Pages menu at the top of your computer screen), click Rulers, then select the “Enable vertical ruler for documents with body text” checkbox.