how can I convert a pages file into an epub2 file?
Pages only creates epub3 files but I need an epub2 file - thank you for your help!
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Pages v12.2.1 only exports EPUB3 documents, and there is no means to change that to EPUB2 (in Pages). However…
The free LibreOffice 7.4.3 allows you to export as EPUB and offers the choice of EPUB2 or EPUB3 output. However, LibreOffice does not open Pages v5 - 12.2.1 documents, so an experiment would be to export your Pages document as Word .docx and then open the latter in LibreOffice. Apple's iBooks application also opens EPUB2 documents as I just did that with an exported EPUB2 from LibreOffice.
The free Pandoc application can convert EPUB3 to EPUB2, or Word .docx to EPUB2 or EPUB3. I have done these conversions with Pandoc this morning and both approaches appear as an EPUB2 in Apple's iBooks. I confirmed it was EPUB2 in the free SIGIL application. The EPUB2 standard does require a Title entry though.
With Pandoc in the Terminal and assuming you are in the same directory as the EPUB3 or Word document:
pandoc -s -t epub2 -o foo.epub foo_epub3.epub
pandoc -s -t epub2 -o foo.epub aword.docx
There is also the free Calibre application (requires macOS 10.15 or later) where you drag and drop an EPUB3 (or Word .docx) onto it and then choose to convert it to EPUB2 or EPUB3. The resulting EPUB2 document opens nicely in iBooks.
Microsoft Word v16.68 has no means to export any version of EPUB and relies on your finding external tools, or Word add-ins to do the job. Not a free or direct solution.