Word vs. Pages: What exactly makes Word better?

The thing that really sold me on CopyWrite was the ability to attach notes to specific chapters and to the document as a whole.

And its full screen mode! So simple and so great! That would be a nice addition to Pages as well.

JNK -

Alas, no template applied or seemed readily customizable and it was quicker for me to do it on MS Word than figure it out on Pages.

To be fair, any new program is going to have at least a small learning curve. You weren't proficient in Word from day one, why would you expect Pages to be any different?

Dennis wrote

The thing that really sold me on CopyWrite was the ability to attach notes to specific chapters and to the document as a whole.

That's useful. I'm not familiar with CopyWrite. Are the notes different from Comments in Word?

re: learning to use Pages

I did spend an hour this weekend with Pages and much more when I first started the trial period. I don't find it as intuitive or easy to learn as others seem to find. Even for desktop publishing lite, oddly enough, Word is easier and quicker for me with comparable results to other simple desktop publishing programs (I even prefer it to InDesign - though Word can't do Banners). After reading all the postings in this thread and others, I'm wondering if Pages and Word also cater to fundamentally different learning/working preferences & styles.

When Word 1st came out, it wasn't that great and I still remember the day when I realized Word could finally do more of what I needed and I switched from WordPerfect. This is only the 1st version of Pages and without something basic such as endnotes, it's not going to be fully functional for me and so not worth the time to become proficient with it as a word processor. But I'll keep checking back with subsequent versions. (In fact, I'm wondering if it will be more cost efficient to buy this first version of Pages and then just pay for upgrades compared to possibly buying a complete later version.)

I still think there's the compatibility issue. If most of one's work world uses PCs and Word, then it is easier to do the same. This weekend I unexpectedly did a lot of word processing - and the only printers available were connected to PCs. I couldn't connect them to my iBook or work wirelessly. I burned my Word docs to CD and worked off of the PCs Word program. I also ended up downloading templates for things like place cards that were Word compatible. I don't know if I would have been able to do this with AppleWorks or Pages. (I must say that I was very proud of being an Apple user when at a reception, my iBook, effortlessly connected to the conference center's wireless internet and saved the evening by downloading much better music from iTunes!)

I really feel that if I could just function in a purely Apple world or not have to deal with more antiquated (like from a year or two ago 🙂 non-Apple systems, Apple's included software would be phenomenal. But sometimes Apple is just too advanced and slick to work with the non-Apple hardware and software.

JNK,

I haven't used Word in a long time but, as I recall, the comments were inserted directly into the text. CopyWrite's Notes feature puts a column of notes on the page, so you don't have to scroll through a 400-page document looking for a specific note. Anyway, I don't want to hijack this thread with a protracted discussion of CopyWrite. You can download a trial version at http://www.bartastechnologies.com/products/copywrite/

Gerry,
I think you overstate Word's actual standing. WordPerfect from WordPerfect Corporation was the reigning king less than two decades ago. Word became king only after Novell bought out WordPerfect and butchered the product.
I long for the days of WordPerfect 4.2 for DOS. Now that was a truly awesome Word Processor.
🙂