Word vs. Pages: What exactly makes Word better?

I have never used Pages and I primarily use Word on Windows (but have used it on Mac). Some features that I use in Word that Pages may not have (and you're in a better position than I to judge) might be:

• revisioning & comments for collaborative editing
  
• footnotes/endnotes
• automated table of contents and indexing
• OLE links with Excel and PowerPoint to automatically update graphs/figures etc

Whether these features are importyant to you is another matter. If they're not, then Word isn't 'better' than Pages, only different.

To review Pages, I recently imported a Word document (a report from a professional project) and started editing it.

I think that Pages is an extraordinary good application. I am a Word guru in every respect, and struggled with AppleWorks, but had no problems with Pages. And when not knowing what to do, the Help texts got me on my way.

Word (I use Word 2000) has more features than Pages, and with the features the both share, Word often has more tweaking options. If you need these options, then Word might be better. But often, I am struggling more with Word, and making the document as I want it to be is often a real pain.

Word has its (team) changes and revisions history. This is a great feature if your documents are created and/or reviewed by more than one person. It can be emulated using a special "review" style (or a different style per reviewer) in Pages for new and/or changed text. But the Word feature also strikes out deleted text, which is not easy to emulate.

Basic paragraph lay-outing is much better in Pages than in Word... once you know how it works! In Word, one must define a style using a dialog window with a zillion settings and buttons. In Pages you lay-out a paragraph, select it, and apply the lay-out to a style. That's really easy. What I like about Pages is the indication that a paragraph has been changed since the last style was applied. When this is the case, a symbol is added to the style name in the styles pane (if you have it open). This is something that Word will not do. Word has the ability to define borders for a paragraph. I like underlined headings, so I use this a lot. But in Pages I could not find how to do it.

Table editing is better in Word, especially the definition of borders and border styles. Also table commands have no short cut keys in Pages. Tables tend to be inserted objects in Pages and are sometimes treated as such: when you make the font of a style larger, and this style is used in a table, the table cells will not automatically adjust to fit the new text size. This must be done by hand (well, I discovered a work around). I use tables a lot for structuring information. Maybe it can be emulated with proper style definitions, but I do not have a background in page lay-out techniques. Still, the tables in Pages are adequate enough for me.

Pages has columns, sections, headers and footers, footnotes, "page X from Y" with automated X and Y substitution and table of contents functions. Word adds endnotes, indexes, and various types of cross references. Pages benefits from the great OS-X font rendering and print-2-PDF functionality, both lacking in Word.

My conclusion is that I can use Pages for 98% of my professional reporting. The only thing I really miss is the cross reference functionality of Word. It is not required, but certainly nice to have.

If you are looking for a catch-all end-all be-all reason for word being better than pages (although 'better' is relative) then try maturity

Word has been out for decades, features added and enhancements ever step of the way, as well as inconsistencies and closed formats. Pages has been here for a less than a year. It is also a part of a very small suite (only Keynote so far) and it is going through growing pains.

I don't defend the iWork programs for their quirks and failures, but I do recognize them for the first attempt they are. Alread I see a lack of coherence between the products within the iwork suite and am building a rather complete description of where I think it should go in the future. (I don't plan on making it public but will present it to Apple and a few close developers.)

For now, though, Word will remain the five hundred pound gorilla in the word processing field. There are alternatives but for compatability and editing/revision features, Word has it. In many ways, though, it's features have been eclipsed by it's bloated behavior and rather one-sided formats used internally.

I couldn't live without Word's revision marks, but I agree that they are far from intuitive to use. It is the easiest way to show exactly what has changed in a document from one version to the next. If you send a 50 page document for review to someone, and then get it back with just the words "I made some small changes", you will spend a long time finding what those "small changes" were, unless revision marks are used.

Using OLE for pictures seems fairly pointless to me, but there may be reasons for it. However, it is a nice feature when you embed for example an Excel sheet and a graph in a presentation or a Word document.

A longer list of features in Word that lack in Pages is:

Visual Basic macros,
Revision Marks,
Org Charts,
Linked and Embedded Objects,
Mail Merge,
US Barcode printing
Master documents,
Grammar Checks,
Applescript ⚠,
Japanese furigana and Vertical Script,
Sorted tables
Table formulas
Word art
Drop Cap
AutoSave
Dictionary
Native Save of RTF and Doc
Split window
Autocorrect (initial double caps, teh, …)
Clever caps formatting (upper case of first letter in the sentences).

There are a lot of people who think most of them are useless, but to some they are very much needed.

Still, this doesn't make Word "better" of course - just different. There are features in Pages that aren't in Word as well.

Henning,

Your experience is your experience, my experience is my experience. I don't intend to get into a great debate over this, but you asked a question and I gave you an answer. There are some aspects of Word's functionality that works for me and my peers, that may not work for you.

YMMV etc

OK, I would like to get into this conversation.

I am one that is always trying to find a better app, a better way, and I probably lose a lot of time doing so. I did run across a quote on my PDA/ Smart Phone quest that simply said - “The P in PDA is for Personal” and I guess with everything that is the bottom line. But with that said, I would like to share what I find nicer in Pages and to me, selfish as that is, it is Personal.

I am on my 3 go around in trying to make Pages work for me - why, I am used to Word, colleagues use Word, most of my staff uses Word, and if I change, well they (my staff) would really need to also - for some things. So this week a began my switch attempt (not saying I am not ever going to use Word) to make Pages my primary app. By the way, it is this board that keeps putting the oomph in my trying.

The first day, I was like a guy trying to quit smoking. I was having fits. Things that were quick to me became slow. I am used to the formatting pallet, not the inspector - I had to keep telling myself - it’s just like Keynote - you love Keynote.

The second day I found things better, making templates and getting the styles the way I like them.

I did my first lesson/ sermon (I pastor a church) in Pages, but struggled through it. Could not get things just right. But I was learning and it was at the least getting less painful. By the third or fourth day things were humming and I was still getting better, my nicotine fits were not as pronounce. By the end of the week and 2 more lessons I was finally liking what I was using, but there were some likes and dislikes (work arounds).

So the likes - it was so so much faster on layouts. The views, the ability to move things around, and the whole WYSIWYG of the app - what you see is what you get/got. I used styles in Word, but for some reason it is just faster and cleaner in Pages.

Next, I have come to really appreciate the System wide services of spell check and such, but most of all, I have finally truly fallen in love with the power of SpellCatcher (I know add on). I have used it for 3 years for just the basic, very basic, but combined with Pages to have this system wide is really nice and something that I like (personally) better.

Pages types faster, and there is NO comparison to the handling of graphics to Word, Pages is far superior.

On the dislikes, I agree with the lack of font choice in the menu bar, also with the lack text borders and page borders, word art, and such, but for me the most frustrating thing is that (I know it may be minor to some) is screen real estate. Pages takes 1 ½ times the space. I don’t use Helvetica 12pt - too big for me in print form, I use 11pt or 10pt. But in 100% view, even with LASIK I cannot see it. You have no view choice but 100% or 125% increments. So I have to go to page width. So that is fine but the template DOES NOT REMEMBER 110%, it takes you to 121% - FRUSTRATING! Also, why do new pages start ¼ of an inch from the left of the screen? Again, that is a waste of MY space. So my biggest gripe is that templates don’t retain how you completely set them up.

I have come up with a work around - I set the document up from the template like I prefer and then just saver it as a regular document - then it remembers everything - then I just us those - not perfect, but it works better - if I can only remember to save before I start typing!

Well, enough of the rant for me, bottom line, as in everything, it is personal. I can say though that every day I like it more and more. I believe it takes one going through the withdrawals to make it though. Change is Hard! Always.

I've been using Pages a few weeks now. I am creating booklets for school use and have always used Word in the past.

Simply, Pages just looks so much better and for my work, is quicker to use. I have designed two templates for two different subjects and within these, have developed standard fonts and sizes to use for questions, headings, footnotes etc.. This kind of thing was probably possible in Word, but I never found how.

I love how easy it is to create 'call-out' boxes, and because of the standard way I have used them through all booklets, students will quickly learn why they are there. Graphics import is so flexible and much quicker than trying the same thing in Word.

I just need an excuse now to spend some time with Keynote!

Personally, if someone has never used MS Office, I'd teach them how to use Pages because it's just easier to explore and find out how to do things. But teaching someone (particularly your parents or people who aren't fast learners) the Pages UI when they've spent years learning the MS office interface isn't exactly going to be easy.

Unfortunately, yes. But it's the who got to the market first syndrome; it's why Windows is still so popular - because the IBM PC compatible was first to the market.