Q: Pages 5.0 - No mail merge?!
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Dec 28, 2013 8:57 AMby wesmith,APPLE , if you're out there...someone, maybe the spirit of Steve Jobs, or any Apple employee monitoring these message boards...please use your influence to get Apple to place Mail Merge back into iWorks. Our company really, really doesn't want to go back to using office. Word is so cluttered and dysfunctional. I can't possibly think of trying to deal with that again. I am sure that Apple realizes that to remove mail merge permanently would be throwing in the white towel on word processing for businesses. Hopefully this is just temporary.
Add Mail Merge to Pages
Add Mail Merge to Pages
Add Mail Merge to Pages
Add Mail Merge to Pages
Add Mail Merge to Pages
Add Mail Merge to Pages
Add Mail Merge to Pages
Add Mail Merge to Pages
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Dec 28, 2013 9:19 AMby jimmyc-ATL,There was another discussion with some solutions for mail-merge - third party tools:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4784104
posters suggested
http://www.falkon-ware.com/SerialMailer/ SerialMailer $29 to do mail merges for email. The posters liked it and seem to be satisfied with the results.
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Dec 28, 2013 11:19 AMby John P.,Brian1355 wrote:
I think for most people who have made comment on here - we want to buy Apple products because we like them and after all we have spent plenty of money to get the hardware. However when something like this happens we feel not only angry and frustrated but also confused. Yes we can use the 09 version but it does not feel comfortable knowing that we are not using the latest version. Returning to Windows is not an option and using Office is not what most of us want to do. We write these posts so that it is known in the media and hopefully within Apple that a lot of Apple customers are unhappy and feel offended. I say offended because creating an update that loses lots of functions is obviously going to upset people but Apple did it without any warning. It causes some problems having two versions of software for example when you click on the document to open it, it will sometimes open the new versions. So it is a messy situation that we need to complain about in the 'hope' that it comes right in the end.
I politely disagree--a free upgrade, iWork/Pages 5.0 did not cost anyone a dime nor left them with anything less than what they had to begin with (ala Pages 4.3); therefore, there remains little or no explanation for such juvinile behavior over such a minor issue when viewed in this perspective.
If using the older, mature version of iWork while Apple builds the attributes and features of the newer software is still "not an option," then crying in the proverbial soup and kvetching about it on a Discussion Board is certainly the very least mature way to handle change.
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Dec 28, 2013 7:05 PMby macmikey,John, you're right about the people who have legacy installations of iWork. But there are more than a few commenters on this topic who've been quite clear their issue of not having HAD the old version in the first place to which to resort and/or reinstall. And the absence of an install disc makes it challenging for a legacy Mac user to upgrade his iron and still expect to have all the apps he'd had before.
No one's arguing "free" isn't nice, they're just saying it's worth no more than what they paid for it if it's missing these standard inclusions. I don't normally advocate piracy, but if Apple wants to keep these customers but doesn't want to make iWork '09 free as well, that's pretty much the option I'd choose: find some BitTorrent of iWork '09 and just pull the thing. If Apple's not selling '09 anyway, it's not as if they'll lose anything for it anyway.
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Dec 29, 2013 2:21 AMby dirkt68,Well, you can still get the old iWork 09 officially via the MAS. Only thing you need to buy and download it, is a machine, running 10.7 or 10.8. MAS will then automatically ask, if you want the the last compatible version, which is 09. As the MAS versions of iWork 09 are self contained apps, you can copy them onto a 10.9 machine from there.
That should do, until they reintegrate mail merge into Pages 5.
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Dec 30, 2013 7:13 AMby stilltortoise,With this in mind, I bought iWork 09 via the App Store when I first bought my Mac a couple of years ago. I've since downloaded the new iWork 5. Will I still be able to find a disk image on my Mac of the iWork 09 suite that can be used on another Mac and if so what should I be looking for?
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Dec 30, 2013 9:59 AMby stilltortoise,The situation is that my father is looking at buying a new Mac but he does need to be able to perform mail merges. As such he will need a copy of Pages 09. If he can't buy it on disc he may need to get a copy of someone who has already purchased it i.e. me. I understand how I get Pages 09 onto a different machine, but don't understand how the licensing of this works. I had assumed Apple software can't be copied indiscrimintantly from one Mac to another.
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Dec 30, 2013 7:37 PMby PeterBreis0807,Actually it can, just make sure you get the System files as well. Apple for all its faults is not draconian with its software licensing.
http://www.freeforum101.com/iworktipsntrick/viewtopic.php?t=105&mforum=iworktips ntrick
http://www.freeforum101.com/iworktipsntrick/viewtopic.php?t=432&mforum=iworktips ntrick
Peter
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Dec 30, 2013 7:43 PMby PeterBreis0807,dirkt68 wrote:
Well, you can still get the old iWork 09 officially via the MAS. Only thing you need to buy and download it, is a machine, running 10.7 or 10.8. MAS will then automatically ask, if you want the the last compatible version, which is 09. As the MAS versions of iWork 09 are self contained apps, you can copy them onto a 10.9 machine from there.
That should do, until they reintegrate mail merge into Pages 5.
I think that is not true. You can access already purchased 'Work apps from the App Store but not buy a new copy, that is no longer available.
It is also true that running iWork'09 apps in Mavericks, with or without Pages 5 installed is problematic at best and not a simple business as usual. iCloud is screwing up any older files transfered over and there are running problems with Mavericks.
Lastly none of this addresses the problems of users who were ambushed by Apple when unknowns to them Pages 5 was installed, opened older documents and then damaged them, converting them to an incompatible format.
Peter
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Dec 31, 2013 2:08 AMby dirkt68,Peter,
If you're on 10.7.x or 10.8 you can buy the iWork 09 apps from MAS, it's just a bit obscured. You'll only see the new iWorks apps in the store first and when you click "buy", MAS will tell you, that you need 10.9 for installing and running them. It will then ask however, if you want to buy and install the last compatible version instead, which is iWork 09.
iWork 09 runs perfectly fine on 10.9. I'm using it heavily on three 10.9 machines here for business purposes. The only small bug I came across concerns indeed mail merge in Pages 4.3, where the inspector won’t work properly to insert merge fields. But you can use the „insert“ menu for that instead, where it still works fine.
As for iCloud, I personally don’t use it, as it doesn’t allow for a sufficiently complex folder structure. I use Dropbox instead. On the other hand, I didn’t come across many complaints, that it will not work correctly with iWork 09. Transfer of data between two or more Macs shouldn’t be a problem at all, as long as all machines use iWork 09. Transfer between Mac and iDevices might pose more difficulties, as opening an old iWork 09 document with the new iOS version of iWork will indeed change the file to the new format.
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Jan 6, 2014 10:32 AMby peter1948,What are you talking about John P? Most of us started to use Mac because "it just works" and we don't have the time or the inclination to faff about with different versions as you seem to suggest we do. I'm happy to pay for functionality, free but less/no use isn't what I want or need. I have a business to run and I wouldn't expect my customers to put up with such nonsene for one minute.
