Q: What is still missing in latest Pages 5.5

Styles drawer is gone.

Comments on multiple parts of the same sentence is gone (i.e. I can't highlight "the dog ran," make a comment, and then highlight just "dog." It goes straight back to my comment about "the dog ran.").

Changeable background color on full screen mode is gone

Highlighting contiguous text is gone.

Oh, and my new favorite...KNOWING WHAT PAGE YOU ARE ON is gone. UGH. How 2005 is that, Apple??

Are you concerned that Apple will withdraw support for Pages '09 at some point? I am. The corporation seems uninterested in its legacy users. I have a huge number of critical documents that can't be abandoned in '09. In fact I still have Claris Works and early Apple Works I can only open with TextWrangler now, all formatting gone. To avert the unhappy possibility of a future Pages version being unable to work with Pages '09, I am looking for work-arounds now, even if I have to convert many gigs of documents to searchable pdfs with Automator and start my word processing work flows from scratch, accepting Pages 5.xx and its limitations. As stupid-ified as it is for the cartoon generation, its still a pleasure compared to WORD. If anyone feels secure that Pages '09 will be alive for a long time, please let me know why you think so and I'll let my anxieties go. Until then, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

In Fall 2013, when Apple released Pages for IOS v2, Pages v5, and updated Pages for iWork beta to be compatible with the other two — that was Apple sending their users notice that they were done with Pages ’09. Though Pages ’09 continues to work for the most part (Share documents to email is now broken) on Yosemite, there is no assurance, or Apple consideration, that any future operating system release will not break it.

As with ClarisWorks/AppleWorks documents, one also needs an active Pages '08/'09 migration strategy to MS Office document formats. This will provide forward document compatibilities and alternative application choice. There are AppleScript solutions available in the Pages community that allow bulk Pages '09 to MS Word document migration.

ClarisWorks/AppleWorks documents can be opened in the free LibreOffice, itself an MS Office replacement suite.

MS Word is what it is — all the functionality that is missing, or better implemented, or easier found help — than offered by Pages v5. There is a reason that internally, Apple uses Office for Mac 2011 — no lost productivity, or document compatibility issues. Hitching your future document plans to Pages v5, is in my opinion, a revisit of Apple's history of Office suite abandonment, and islands of incompatible documents.

NRoitman wrote:

 

even if I have to convert many gigs of documents to searchable pdfs

I think pdf would not be a good choice, unless all you are ever going to need the docs for is to read them.  As VikingOSX said, Word format is the way to go.  RTF might have made sense at one time, but Pages can no longer read or produce it.

Now children I want you to do an assignment:

"Pages can no longer…"

Keep it less than 100 pages. Due Monday.

Peter

Pages v5 does grocery lists reasonably well.

Thanks for at your complete and satisfying response. All my documents are suitable for archiving as PDFs so I'll skip the transfer step. I very much appreciate the suggestions for alternative word processors and the insight on WORD as what seems to have achieved a universal standard status. Now that you helped me reason this through it makes sense. I suppose Apple as a software company is in retreat and is being like a nice girlfriend, breaking the news slowly to all of us who have been so attached. As the song goes, breaking up is hard to do. Its just that it takes so many hours to research and implement these changes When you are your own low skilled IT person it's more than disappointing. It's a giant waste of time. Thanks again. N

VikingOSX wrote:

 

Pages v5 does grocery lists reasonably well.

That nothing else can read, including other Mac users who are not on Yosemite.

Peter

(I understand this is off topic for this forum. Please don't be too harsh. If I knew how  or where to tangentialize, hyperlink a term and paste a portion of a previous response for inclusion, I would.)

Regarding this:

"There are AppleScript solutions available in the Pages community that allow bulk Pages '09 to MS Word document migration."

I looked around, nothing is Yosemite specific and I am not quite ready for losing my applescript cherry. Any thoughts about iWork Converter

( http://tyorex.com/iWorkConverter/ )? I'd be happy to pay someone for their work, being a chronic newbie. I know how to use a refrigerator too, and can't fix either. one.

iWorkConverter has a trial, fully functional download. You might try this on a folder of mixed sample documents to evaluate the conversion quality. I get nervous when a developer brush-strokes OS X compatibility with OS X 10.6+. There is no mention of Yosemite compatibility.

My concern is that if you drag and drop mixed Pages '09 v4.3, and Pages v5 (whatever version) documents, will the application then default to using the installed Pages v5 version to directly convert the Pages '09 v4.3 documents into Pages v5 format — before exporting them to Word?

As you probably have read by now, Pages v5 has over 100 fewer features than Pages '09. Documents from the latter application, whose content is not supported by Pages v5 (and later) — will have that content undone/filtered out during the translation into Pages v5 document format. This can ruin the original Pages ’09 document, as well as generate Word documents without the original content intention.

Unfortunately, Pages (any version) does not generate a document that contains the version of Pages that created it. It stores the default application path as "Applications:Pages.app," even when the document was created by Pages ’09 v4.3 located in /Applications/iWork '09 folder.

Rather than pay someone for their converter, take a look at the many AppleScripts Yvan Koenig has on his Box.com account, especially in the "for_iWork" folder (the last folder on the first page). There is also a "for_iWork'09" folder. Most are for doing batch conversions & all are free.

Sometimes his account is out of bandwidth. If you have any problems please post back & I'll see if I have the files already or I will contact Yvan & get the specific ones you need & post them on my Box.com account.

Peggy, the latest Pages to Doc conversion script that I found on Yvan's site is this one:

public_yk ▸ for_iWork'09 ▸ for_Pages09 ▸ batch_Pages2Doc.zip.

This script does not have support for Pages v5 (any release), and fails to produce any Word files when run on Mavericks, or Yosemite — where Pages v5+ is installed and launched by default. It will prompt for a folder of Pages documents, run Pages v5.22/v5.5.1, and tell you that it is complete — but nothing is written into the default ~/Documents/wasPages_now_doc folder.

Yvan has not updated this script to understand that Pages v5 cannot save in any Word format as did Pages '09. It must export, and the specific string to identify Microsoft Word format has changed. The script also opens every document in the specified folder without closing them — a very cluttered situation at best.

This is the reasoning behind my previous suggestion to Nroitman to evaluate that third-party iWork Converter.

Makes sense. I refuse to use Pages 5 of any variety & am sticking with iWork '09.

Ibid. Makes sense.

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