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Why is Pages so lame?

Man...! I get these forever-pinwheels ..the spell checker is like 20yrs behind Grammarly. (buy them Apple!)


I just need to pop out 1-2 paragraph letters a few times a week. It is something I dread. Is there another app that you use? Thanks.


Jim


(Grammarly corrected even the spelling of its name and added the second r in this note)

iMac 27″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Dec 6, 2021 10:44 AM

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Posted on Dec 6, 2021 1:12 PM

Apple is not competing with other vendors for a leadership word processing application, and the product is free. There's a recipe for lame… Just because you have a Mac does not require you to use Pages, especially if it works against you.


There are several word processing applications available for Mac in either the traditional word processing input or using markdown syntax to generate Word compatible output. Some are single-purchase, and others are subscription. Not one of them will open previous Pages documents. There are the Nisus products, Mellel, and other word processing applications in the Mac App Store. They have free trials from the vendor's website. Find one that meets your requirements. Pay particular attention to what the supported output formats are, as you don't want another proprietary document format that no one supports.


Launch the Mac App Store and in its search field enter word processing

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Dec 6, 2021 1:12 PM in response to Jim Cancil

Apple is not competing with other vendors for a leadership word processing application, and the product is free. There's a recipe for lame… Just because you have a Mac does not require you to use Pages, especially if it works against you.


There are several word processing applications available for Mac in either the traditional word processing input or using markdown syntax to generate Word compatible output. Some are single-purchase, and others are subscription. Not one of them will open previous Pages documents. There are the Nisus products, Mellel, and other word processing applications in the Mac App Store. They have free trials from the vendor's website. Find one that meets your requirements. Pay particular attention to what the supported output formats are, as you don't want another proprietary document format that no one supports.


Launch the Mac App Store and in its search field enter word processing

Dec 6, 2021 1:24 PM in response to Jim Cancil

You’re on El Capitan OS X 10.11 per the footer here, and beachballs can point to software or hardware problems.


That far back, beachballs can be a symptom of a failing hard disk drive, too.


If you’d like to check for some of the usual causes of beachballs, please download and run EtreCheck and share the report to the clipboard. Then open a new reply here, and press the button in the reply toolbar that looks like a printed page (additional text; text attachment) to get a text input box big enough to paste the hardware and software configuration report here.


From that configuration report, we can also determine if there are macOS software upgrades available, or maybe options for other changes. You’re way back…



Dec 7, 2021 6:17 AM in response to VikingOSX

Viking... Of course, you are right. It's 'free' ...yet bundled in what I have come to believe 'within a premium package' since my first use in the 1980s. It has not always been an easy ride, both due to the offerings and my limitations.


(I choose Mac 'because it was the easy one! ...~8 various models functioning at the moment, three in retirement)


I ran my business for ~40yrs and needed many workarounds. I think my workaround for this, 'making a simple letter document', is to do it in Gmail first ...then copy/paste it into Pages. Grammarly has already corrected (free version) ~6 typos and spelling in this reply.


I am not a big sports fan, but I believe I would shout at the TV if the best team in the league played a midfielder on crutches.


Cheers. Jim

Dec 7, 2021 6:39 AM in response to Jim Cancil

Jim Cancil wrote:

I am not a big sports fan, but I believe I would shout at the TV if the best team in the league played a midfielder on crutches.

Sports analogies are of limited utility where technology is concerned.


Apple's free applications have generally been rather basic. This means they are generally easy to learn to use and work fine for lots of people. It also leaves open the market for third parties to create more powerful and/or more specialized applications. Preview is not Acrobat, Photos is not Photoshop and Pages is not Word.

Dec 7, 2021 6:45 AM in response to MrHoffman

That's a nice gizmo, Hoffman... (it cleared the Mac, not me) I still have stacks of disks for 'Disk Dr' ..'Norton Utilities, etc. for my Classic II and Bondi Blue. I used a lot of those types of things 'in the day. As one who works with my eyes and hands rather than my brain, things that require 'process understanding' has always been difficult. Thanks for the reply.


Jim

Why is Pages so lame?

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