Which is better: Pages or Word for Mac?

one thing i don't like is that you have to export to other type in order to share your work... you'll be full of the same documents in differents extensions.

I, and many others, like it a lot. Much depends on what you are currently using. I have used AppleWorks for years & have found the move to Pages mostly painless. It still is a version 1 application, but feels like it will "mature" into a very good program.

Why is it one or the other?

Word is my everyday workhorse, especially in an office that is 99% Windows. Sorry, Apple Marketing, Pages CANNOT open any Word document - trust me. I've been kicking the tires of Pages for a few weeks, and I like it - it's a great addition to my toolbox. It opens most Word documents handily, making it nice for preparing documents to bring into InDesign. And I've created some nice one-off newsletters with it. It's more like Microsoft Publisher, and that's kind of how I view it.

What I WOULD like is a "PDFMaker" ability for Pages, to generate Acrobat 6 or 7, with support for layers, PDF/X standards, creation of bookmarks, comments, etc.. (No, Mac OS X's "Save As PDF" is not the same.) While it's probably incumbent upon Adobe to provide that, if the PDFMaker API's or frameworks are open, Apple could turn Pages into a sophisticated PDF authoring application - kind of like a "InDesign lite" (or "InDesign Elements").

Bottom line - give Pages the 30-day workout. If you rarely or infrequently encounter Word documents, it might fit the bill. In a corporate setting, I wouldn't count on it being my only word processor.

Try it out. You'll love it.

With Pages, you can create good looking documents very easily.
Implementing pictures or pdfs is really easy and it actually works! Placing a pdf into microsoft word converts it into some kind of picture. Therefore ruining the ability to scale it. (At least Office X. Don't know about Office 2004)
The same applies to Keynote vs. Powerpoint.

But if you're working in an office environment, you might not get around MS Office. Pages handles .doc files fairly well, yet there is no doubt that Ms Office/Ms Office is more reliable than Pages/Office. Neither does iWork have something similar to Excel, nor all those redundant, ultimately useless and super complicated MS Word features.

Use Word when sharing a lot of work with other people.

Use Pages and Keynote to make your life easier, create really good looking presentations, show off in front of PC users.

I've been using Office X so far and after testing Pages+Keynote for 30 days, I'm seriously thinking about purchasing it.

Hi Dominique,
Would you like to follow me in french?
Word est un traitement de texte tres complet avec un correcteur d'orthographe en plusieurs langues. Il est indispensable pour pouvoir entrer les paroles des chansons dans l'illustration d'iTunes, ce que Pages ne fait pas. Pages est aussi plus lent a reagir lorsque tu effaces. Pages ne vas pas chercher les adresses dans le carnet d'adresses, ce qui est tres dommage pour une application Apple. Enfin, Pages ne te permet pas de decoller un mot du bord droit de la marge avec une tabulation pour signer de notre nom par exemple comme nous le faisons en France. Cependant je m'en sers souvent et beaucoup plus que de Word comme si cela pouvait l'aider a s'ameliorer, c'est un traitement de texte tres jeune, et surtout il est a un prix tres raisonnable.

I don't think that Pages is a Word equivalent. I do find Pages to be very useful, and I think that it is a tremendous value for its price. I use it daily, and am constantly impressed.

But, for simple word processing, I still favor Word - chiefly because of its superior spell check functions.

Essentially, anything with graphics or stylized text goes to Pages. Basic word docs, still go to Word, I don't think that was the market that Apple was chasing with Pages.

I see a place for both Pages and Word. I use Word 2004 for opening documents sent to me, because nobody I know has Pages, and for complex editable documents to send to others. I use Pages for personal documents, for creating basic editable documents to send, and for creating complex documents that can be sent as PDF. I prefer Pages because its documents look better, but still need Word 2004 for maximum compatibility with others -- especially Windows users. Pages also comes in handy for opening AppleWorks documents, as some people send me documents in the AppleWorks .cwk format.

To be honest, I was suspicious too about the question if Pages could compete with my daily work load in Word. After using it now for everything, from invoicing to a complex Information Architecture concept, I have to admit that Pages has superseded Word. Here is why:



- It is much more intuitive and has a high grade of usability. The user experience is advanced over Word

- It finally offers intuitive handling of styles. This is the first time I can actually *define and apply styles without them getting into the way with every step I do, a big improvement over Word

- I don't have to dig through a thousand windows and tabs to make one typographic function work with another one

- In my testing, I achieved up to 75% quicker results in the same timeframe, mostly through improved usability. I could concentrate on thinking and didn't have to look for things buried in a preference pane



I am not John Grisham and I am not an accountant. I don't intend to use Pages to write a legal document with a thousand annotations.



For everything else, I fail to see what exactly it is that would make Word more advanced than Pages, other than us users being too comfortable to improve our work flow, stubbornly sticking with our worn out shoes.



After an initial setup time to get used working with it, I haven't found a single thing I couldn't do with Pages.

One thing I wish I could find in Pages is an auto-format utility -- for example, if I begin typing a numbered list it will automatically continue the list without me having to manually turn on numeric list formatting in the Inspector.

Doma,
Pages is a very handy programme and cheap, much cheaper than Publisher. Word is virtually a world wide standard but I've occasionally had problems when entering doc files from one program into another. If you need spreadsheet, presentation and drawing application then instead of lashing out on Office, try Neo Office. It seems to handle the native Microsoft (apologise for swearing) files well, or at least at the standard I require. If you are a statistician, accountant or mathematician, I don't know.
Pages works but I would prefer In Design, anybody like to buy me it for Christmas? Hope this helps and does not add to your or my confusion

I don't particularly like all the MS auto-features... You save 2 seconds because Word turns on numbering by itself. Then you spend 5 min trying to turn it off again!!!

how do I export a Pages document to a computer using Windows?

Dag

File -> export -> select .doc

Dag de bondt,

you may find your question gets answered more quickly if you start a new thread. They can get lost in the noise of a longer thread.

To answer the question, though... try exporting as a word document. File/Export

If the windows user who is supposed to get the file doesn't have windows, and they are not going to edit the document, export *** a pdf file.

Gerry.