See the latest activity in a shared document in Pages on Mac
You can easily get updates on what’s happened in a shared document. The activity list captures when anyone you’ve invited to your document does any of the following:
Makes edits, including adding, editing, resizing, moving, and pasting (but not style changes).
Adds comments and replies to comments.
Joins a collaborative document for the first time.
Manages the document, like changing the password or restoring a document.
You can also get notifications about different activities.
View activity in a shared document
You can view a list of activities for a shared document, so you can see what’s happened since the last time you visited the document.
In a shared document, do one of the following:
Choose View > Show Activity Pane (from the View menu at the top of your screen).
If you don’t see this option, you may need to exit a mode or close a sidebar.
Click
in the toolbar, then click the Show All Activity button.A detailed list of changes appears in a sidebar. The most recent edits and comments appear first. Activities related to people joining or managing the file are listed at the bottom.
Do any of the following in the Activity sidebar on the left side of the screen:
Click the disclosure arrow see more detailed changes, such as edits made by one participant in several different places.
Click a highlighted activity to show where the change was made and to mark all new updates as read.
Tip: To see a quick activity summary when you open a shared document, click
in the toolbar, then view recent updates under Latest Activity. If nothing has changed since your last visit, a message lets you know that you’re all caught up.To close the Activity sidebar, do one of the following:
Click
, then click the Hide All Activity button.Select View > Hide Activity Pane.
Drag the right edge of the Activity sidebar to the left until it disappears.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
The activity list includes activities made in the document within at least the last 30 days, including your own. It highlights only the latest activities by others.
Newly added participants can see the entire collaboration history in the activity list (going back at least 30 days).
In a public document (a document with access set to “Anyone with the link” and permission set to “Can make changes”), participants marked “Guest” in the activity list and in notifications haven’t signed in to iCloud.
Any comments attributed to “Somebody” were made by participants who made their comments and then opted out of the document.
See participants at work in the document
You can see what participants in a shared document are doing in real time. In the document, each participant appears as a cursor or highlight in a specific color, which matches the color next to their name in the participant list.
To see what participants are doing in real time:
In a shared document, click
in the toolbar.Do any of the following:
Follow someone’s edits: In the participant list, click on a participant’s name to jump to where they are working in the document.
Show or hide activity (cursors or selections in different colors): Click Activity Settings below the participant list, then select or deselect the checkbox next to “Show participant cursors.” You can also choose View > Show Participant Cursors or View > Hide Participant Cursors (from the View menu at the top of your screen).
A number next to indicates how many participants (not including you) have the document open.
Manage activity notifications
When you collaborate on a shared document, you can choose to be notified when someone joins, edits, or comments on the document.
In a shared document, do one of the following:
Choose File > Activity Settings (from the File menu at the top of your screen).
Click
in the toolbar, then click Activity Settings.
Turn notifications on or off to see when someone joins, edits, or comments.
You can also show or hide participant cursors and activity highlights.
Click Done.
If you aren’t getting notifications, you may need to allow notifications for the Pages app:
macOS Ventura 13 or later: Choose Apple menu
> System Settings, click Notifications. (You may need to scroll down.) Click Pages on the right, then turn on Allow notifications.macOS 12 or earlier: Choose Apple menu
> System Preferences, click Notifications & Focus, then click Notifications. Click Pages in the list on the left, then turn on Allow Notifications.