Kurt Weber

Q: Anyone put together a comprehensive list of missing features?

Any current list of missing features? After FINALLY updating to version 5 from Pages 09 I am finding that most of my projects can be done quite nicely in version 5. Knowing the missing features allows me to open 09 when needed. Here are the features I have found missing and that effect my work:

 

1. Linked text boxes. Amazing this has never been fixed. How do you do a newsletter without them?
2. Advanced search and replace options. I often put tabs in place of text in 09. Bummer.
3. Font activation of an inactive font with Font Explorer does not work. Works beautifully in 09.
4. Dynamic toolbars. The inspector window changes dynamically. Not as good as the toolbar changes. Really slows me down to have to use the inspector areas for EVERYTHING.
5. Mail merge. Will probably have to keep 09 around until it croaks for this.

 

Some brilliant additions to the new Pages:
1. Improved speed

2. Sharing works
3. Photo integration works.
4. Font Glyphs are rendered better than 09 ever achieved.
5. Alignment guides are improved.

6. Bye bye floating inspector. I don't miss it. The new inspectors are nice.

7. I like the way Paragraph styles and Character styles are done now.
8. Switching between layout and word processing with one click? Wow? No program on the market can pull this off.
9. Shapes are nicer.
10. Masks are handled better.

Posted on Aug 27, 2016 7:44 PM

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Q: Anyone put together a comprehensive list of missing features?

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  • by Tom Gewecke,Solvedanswer

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Aug 28, 2016 6:26 AM in response to Kurt Weber
    Level 9 (79,055 points)
    Aug 28, 2016 6:26 AM in response to Kurt Weber

    The "missing features" thread is at

     

    Pages 5 features checklist

     

    From my perspective, the inability to tag text by language makes Pages 5 useless for any multilingual work.  Pages 4 and all serious word processors do have that feature.

  • by Kurt Weber,

    Kurt Weber Kurt Weber Aug 28, 2016 6:29 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 6 (13,964 points)
    iWork
    Aug 28, 2016 6:29 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Thanks Tom. Bilingual writing is important to me also. Strangely, Pages does well if each paragraph is in a different language. Mixed language in one paragraph messes it up.

  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Aug 28, 2016 8:21 AM in response to Kurt Weber
    Level 9 (79,055 points)
    Aug 28, 2016 8:21 AM in response to Kurt Weber

    Kurt Weber wrote:

     

    Strangely, Pages does well if each paragraph is in a different language. Mixed language in one paragraph messes it up.

     

    You are right, in some circumstances the "automatic" detection feature can be a substitute for tagging.  They really need to have a language variable in character styles like Pages 4 does, at the very least.

     

    I forgot to note that on the plus side, Arabic/Hebrew is now supported (not the case in Pages 4).

  • by PeterBreis0807,Helpful

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Aug 28, 2016 10:44 AM in response to Kurt Weber
    Level 8 (35,551 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 28, 2016 10:44 AM in response to Kurt Weber

    Things I like in Pages 5 are the much improved drawing tools and the cross linking of tables, which got sneaked in somewhere along the way.

     

    I do have to question the following though:

     

    1. Improved speed. Simply not true and easily tested. Pages rapidly starts dragging the chain with even moderate number of objects. Many people post typing problems after a while and I tested adding objects in Pages 5 bringing a tanked up Mac Pro to a beachball spinning grinding halt with a number that Pages '09 breezes through. The interface is hardly fast for most operations, in fact there are a lot of what used to be one click options buried down deep in obscure locations up to 8 levels out of sight. If they even exist! If you could possibly find them with all the right "contextual" ducks miraculously lined up for you.

     

    2. Sharing works. With whom? You can't even exchange with someone on a slightly older OSX version let alone other App or PC (the online version being even slower, clumsier and more deficient than the desktop version. And there are problems with non-Apple server/mail clients. The iOS version is great for a mobile App but still lacks a lot of the features that are in the desktop Apps, which was supposedly the reason why we had to change, even though Pages '09 worked with sharing until Apple put a stop to it.

     

    3. Photo integration works. So excited that two much degraded Apps work together, (poorly) and Pages '09 (but better with iPhoto and Aperture) doesn't, only because Apple made it so it doesn't. And I haven't been able to add my own totally flexible folders of media to the Media Browser as I can in Pages '09.

     

    4. Font Glyphs are rendered better than 09 ever achieved. That may be due to OSX changes rather than Pages.

     

    5. Alignment Guides are improved. How?

     

    6. Bye bye floating inspector. The Inspector in Pages '09 is much more compact, logical, comprehensive and can be hidden with one keyboard command. There is only one for all the documents open. Pages 5's uninformative sidebar (took users ages just to find the hidden settings "at your fingertips") eats up massive amounts of screen Real Estate for EVERY SINGLE Document! Bizarre.

     

    7. I like the way Paragraph styles and Character styles are done now. Really? They lack the detail of Pages '09 where you could choose what to keep and exclude in Character styles, and Paragraph Styles keep List options in Pages '09, which Pages 5 doesn't. Pages 5 Lists are in fact a disaster.

     

    8. Switching between layout and word processing with one click? Wow? Pity the Layout mode in Pages 5 is so awful. All Apple has done is destroy the default layer when switching along with everything in it, when switching from WP to Layout. Switching back doesn't bring back what was deleted. Who wants to link Textboxes anyway?

     

    9. Shapes are nicer. They are exactly the same except copying object Styles for some reason doesn't copy the TextWrap which is perpetually on by default. The drawing tools have improved with the addition of the Boolean operations which I like very much. Except Connecting Lines are badly handled and crude in Pages 5 leaving ugly gaps at the joins. The UI for Image Styles is a plus but lacks names for subtle/invisible differences and inexplicably doesn't keep all properties, rendering it half baked.

     

    10. Masks are handled better. How? Pretty much the same as Pages '09. Both have problems with choosing between overall masked objects and the mask itself, plus Pages 5 keeps losing the placeholder setting when first image is dropped on the shape.

     

    That leaves well over 100 things dropped in Pages 5, mostly biggies, and unlikely ever to see the light of day.

     

    In practice, I am reminded daily of how badly Pages 5 performs. Just putting together what will be a pdf Travel Guide in Pages and I stuck with Pages 5 as long as I could because of the drawings but after (only) 14 pages and watching the spinning beachball after every edit, I have switched back to Pages '09 and keep Pages 5 open only for any extra drawings as needed.

     

    I am getting a strong whiff of The Emperors New Trousers. The one where people install a new version of OSX and swear blindly that it "runs faster", having tested nothing, and ignoring that practically every new version of any OS usually does run slower because of greater overhead and features, and requires faster hardware just to keep up.

     

    Peter

  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Aug 28, 2016 9:29 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 7 (20,618 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 28, 2016 9:29 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Let's not forget that Pages '09 v4.3 could copy/paste vector shapes into Preview as PDF, and no release of Pages v5 can do that (arrives as 72 dpi png).

  • by Kurt Weber,

    Kurt Weber Kurt Weber Aug 28, 2016 10:50 AM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 6 (13,964 points)
    iWork
    Aug 28, 2016 10:50 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

    Tell us how you REALLY feel, Peter. Lol.

     

    I have not worked in 5 long enough to experience your frustration. Basic documents and layouts have been no problem so far.

     

    Maybe I will do the word processing in 5 and my layouts in 4. 5 Renders glyphs better than 4. Glyphs show but sit strangely in the text boxes in 4.

     

    I was distressed with version 5, too. Only now am I actually trying it. Some of the basic tools missing slow my workflow down, others I can live without.

     

    Kurt

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Aug 28, 2016 12:19 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 8 (35,551 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 28, 2016 12:19 PM in response to VikingOSX

    Pages '09 can copy and paste to pdf Viking.

     

    It isn't the OS clipboard that's the problem, it's the sh!itty programming in Pages 5.

     

    Peter

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Aug 28, 2016 1:08 PM in response to Kurt Weber
    Level 8 (35,551 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 28, 2016 1:08 PM in response to Kurt Weber

    Kurt

     

    You will let us know when you have your first document that you can't open?

     

    My son is studying psychology and is into his 3rd year.

     

    I have been studying psychology all my life, with a particular bent on what people think they see and observe.

     

    There have been numerous psychology studies which demonstrate just how suggestible people are. A recent one I saw out of England was where people were asked to "test" Heinz baked beans against a supermarket home brand baked bean. Almost universally people reported the Heinz beans were superior and the other inferior, giving all sorts of detailed reasons. Both were in fact the same beans. Out of the same tin.

     

    In Australia we have a gang of stirrers called The Chaser, most famous for dressing up as Ossama Bin Laden in a diplomatic cavalcade and driving through the filthy expensive and "essential" security that shut down Sydney during an ASEAN summit. That the ASEAN security let the limo with security guys running along side through without question exposed just how much money was thrown at the illusion of "security".

     

    The Chaser had a regular "Planet America" segment where they would wander around American cities with a mike and camera and ask people to comment on some absurd question. One spectacularly successful episode they made a totally unanswerable statement, and asked for comment. The Americans asked went on at great length with their personal obsession, demonstrating they paid absolutely no attention. The only ones who immediately cottoned on to the ridiculousness of the question were some Indian students.

     

    My son is going to choose soon what he is going to specialise in and is thinking of Marketing. I suggested he gets out some of the old episodes of Chaser and study them on just how it is done.

     

    Peter

  • by Kurt Weber,

    Kurt Weber Kurt Weber Aug 28, 2016 1:23 PM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 6 (13,964 points)
    iWork
    Aug 28, 2016 1:23 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

    I am being careful with 5. I know the "index file is missing" problem. I can also export to 09 so is there really a problem?

     

    I use many programs and every single one of them has limitations. if the limitations are too frustrating I try something else. Some of Version 5's missing features WILL frustrate me and others...who cares. I lamented the end of Appleworks, too but finally tossed it into computer limbo. I see the end of 09 so I am being proactive. I will use 09 until it finally fails...unless something better appears.

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Aug 28, 2016 2:56 PM in response to Kurt Weber
    Level 8 (35,551 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 28, 2016 2:56 PM in response to Kurt Weber

    The index file is missing is just you trying to open the extremely incompatible and unparseable Pages 5 document with Pages '09.

     

    Pages '09 may run on all the OSes back to Snow Leopard, but Pages 5.6.2 can only scrape by on El Capitan, not what I'd call as keeping up with everybody.

     

    Exactly how are you being careful?

     

    If you know how to anticipate your file not being openable before it happens, we'd love to know the trick. Also what to do with the damaged Pages 5 files, when you can't even read the contents at that point.

     

    Since Pages 5 is so short of features and Exporting is not perfect it doesn't help to be able to Export to Pages '09 except out of total frustration.

     

    Nor do I see that topping yourself now, due to an inevitable demise, is being proactive.

     

    If somebody tries to palm off the Titanic with rearranged deckchairs and "New" & "Improved" stickers stuck all over it, I'm not buying. Especially when I see how cavalier Apple has become with everybodies' work.

     

    Peter

  • by Peggy,

    Peggy Peggy Aug 28, 2016 4:39 PM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 8 (38,720 points)
    Applications
    Aug 28, 2016 4:39 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

    iWork '09 works very well on my G4 iMac running Tiger, OS X 10.4.11. And the apps continue to work in the latest version of Mac OS.

  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Aug 28, 2016 7:48 PM in response to PeterBreis0807
    Level 7 (20,618 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 28, 2016 7:48 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

    I believe that you know what I meant, but didn't say properly.

  • by PeterBreis0807,

    PeterBreis0807 PeterBreis0807 Aug 28, 2016 10:05 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 8 (35,551 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 28, 2016 10:05 PM in response to VikingOSX

    I know what you meant, I was being pedantic for any other readers who would read that as being in the past.

     

    No reflection on you.

     

    Peter

  • by bjh333,

    bjh333 bjh333 Aug 29, 2016 1:42 AM in response to Kurt Weber
    Level 1 (25 points)
    iWork
    Aug 29, 2016 1:42 AM in response to Kurt Weber

    I just hope one thing.

    Don't kill Pages 4 and just give us "minimum update" for compatibility with new osx.

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