Self-updating textfield in Pages 6.2

I'm new with using Pages, and testing it for writing a spec for a small software project.

As the spec should be a frequently kept up-to-date document, I would like to have a textfield on the front page that says "Last edited dd.mm". If this text could be made to auto-update, for example on every save or just generally, this would be a major boon.

What I've found so far is that I can insert the current date from the menu - but that does not update the text without selecting it and clicking "Set to today" afaik. An option is to show the revision number, if that is somehow more possible.

The closest thing I could find was this post, which said it wasn't possible after 2014, with the latest update in 2016, v.5.6. Is there a way to accomplish this in Pages 6.2?

Solution 1:

This solution requires Numbers but the date changes on opening.

• In Numbers create a single cell table
• Then enter the following formula: "Last edited: "& DAY(TODAY()) & " : " & MONTH(TODAY())
• select the table and copy
• in Pages, paste the table in the desired location setting wrap etc.
• format as desired

The day and month will update each time the document is opened. To see the last time it was opened will not be possible unless you use Quicklook or get info on macOS.

Be sure to format the data as you wish it to be displayed.

Formulas pasted from Numbers are preserved when pasted into Pages or Keynote. This work-around may be what you need until Apple re-introduces this missing feature.

The example below was made in iOS, but the same applies to macOS.