Pages, pages, how to layout pages...

I've been fighting page layout software lately. The problem is, I used a page layout program from my old Amiga days and I sort of have an expectation on how they should work. Of course, these programs have changed since then. So far, I've tried both Scribus and Apples Pages. I'm struggling with what to me should be the simplest things, like how to change the background color of the sheet. I know it's probably easy, and I'm just obtuse, but it's getting frustrating.

I'm going to block out some time, probably tomorrow and just sit down and learn one of these programs and see if I can get a good portion of my first set of images done. I'm rapidly coming up to the deadline for my first project.

I thought I had all the images processed for the first set, but I realized I sharpened them for printing and they won't look right in a pdf. I'll have to go back and rework a good portion of these.

I either need a longer day or less things to do. I'm sure neither is going to happen.