Using Pages on an MacBook Pro, (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013), running Catlina OS 10.15, Pages version 8.2 (6520)

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Level 1

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Using Pages on an MacBook Pro, (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013), running Catlina OS 10.15, Pages version 8.2 (6520)

Tried to Open a MS Word doc containing a page formatted for Avery 18260 address labels. The document opened in Pages, but the spacing is off and the last line of each label is truncated horizontally. I tried to create a new Pages document doing labels (the way it's done in Word) but have found nothing in any of the pull down menus or Help for Pages concerning address labels.

Thus, the original, question: is it possible to do address labels, and perhaps mail merge, in Pages the way it can be done in Word?

Thanks.

Jonathan Kahnoski

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 18, 2019 1:57 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,458 points

Oct 19, 2019 12:28 PM in response to JMKAHNOSKI

The free LibreOffice has Mail/Data merge in its Writer application. You could feed it data from the Calc (spreadsheet) application. if you decide to install LibreOffice, then you will want the Apple article, Safely open apps on your Mac.

Apple completely rewrote Pages once already — six years ago. It has taken Microsoft 36 years of listening, and implementing Corporate requirements to deliver the MS Word of today. Apple will never give the Pages product team the budget, or scarce technical resources to compete with Microsoft Word, and then they would have to start charging for a product that would be too complex for the majority that are now drawn to the comparative simplicity of Pages.

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Answer 2

JMKAHNOSKI Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 19, 2019 11:06 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you for the response. Most of it is helpful, and will solve my immediate problem. I was printing address labels to identify contents of snack-sized ziplock bags, not actually for mailing labels. I hardly ever do mail merge, so I suppose I can live without it.

I can't use Word anymore since my upgrade to Catalina. Granted, my version of MS Office (all components) is several years old, but when I upgraded, the icons now have a lovely white "NO" symbol (circle with backslash through it). I can get new versions of Office but was hoping I could just use Apple's three products: Pages, Keynote and Numbers. So far, they are doing most everything I want, and in some ways are better. I prefer to not upgrade MS Office because a) the price of the downloaded suite is expensive, and b) I don't want my critical products dependent upon internet access (Office 360).

Concerning your comment that Pages isn't a Word clone, I would argue that having a full-featured Pages (including Mail Merge and better handling of footnotes and citations) wouldn't Pages merely a clone. Indeed, I would expect that, if Apple applied their famous design genius, they could make Pages BETTER than Word. One can hope.

Again, thanks for the assistance.

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,458 points

Oct 18, 2019 2:20 PM in response to JMKAHNOSKI

Pages v8.2 has no Mail merge capability, nor is it a Word clone, so stick with Word for things that Word does really well, and that Pages would only attempt to translate into its own document formats.

Avery does have downloadable templates in both Word .docx and Pages .pages formats, but that won't help you with Pages when you require Mail Merge.

The Contacts application will print labels from a unique Contact group where you have either dragged other contacts into it, or imported a spreadsheet of addresses into that Contact Group. Then you can select that contact group and print, choosing the Avery 18260 label for output within the print panel. See this Apple article on Contact printing.

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Using Pages on an MacBook Pro, (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2013), running Catlina OS 10.15, Pages version 8.2 (6520)

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