Well I am certainly not an apple genius, but with a suggestion from DW the issue did get solved. She reminded me that sometime when I sent her emails with and attachment she could not download or read them in her gmail. Eureka! I sent myself an email with pdf attachments to my gmail acct. Works perfectly. I have the option of storing the docs in google drive, icloud or most importantly offline in chrome so I can access on the road without internet.
I am now happy again with apple, but I sure was not last nite. Why I cannot download into pages I don't know or even care.