How to remotely push "defaults write" settings to OS X server clients
The plists for the iWork suite are stored here:

/Users/accountname/Library/Containers/com.apple.iWork.AppName/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iWork.AppName.plist  


with AppName: Pages, Numbers or Keynote.
Note: If you browse the folder "Containers" with the Finder the "directories" com.apple.iWork.pages and com.apple.iWork.numbers look like files but are indeed folders with file extensions like valid Pages or Numbers files (which are packages itself). Just right-click open -> Show Package Contents to dive deeper.

One way is to edit the files manually with nano or PlistEdit Pro:

Just add the following to the respective plist files:

&lt;key&gt;ApplePersistence&lt;/key&gt;
&lt;false/&gt;


Another way (depending on your setup) is to ssh to the machine/account and execute:

defaults write com.apple.iWork.AppName ApplePersistence -bool no