Pages file saves as a PNG when I export to Word

Check again. With Pages v13.1, any dropped SVG image(s) in the Pages document will be converted to PNG when that Pages document is exported to Word. It is not exporting the Word document as a PNG.

If you chose the Export To : Images… option instead, then you will be saving that Pages document in JPEG, PNG, or TIFF as 72 ppi images in a folder named after the base document name. These images will be named docname.1.png, docname.2.png … docname.n.png.

I cannot duplicate your notion that Pages v13.1 (Ventura 13.5.2) exports to Word documents as images.

You can try booting your Mac into Safe Boot mode; again in Pages, try exporting a Word .docx document, and see if the problem of an image remains. Then reboot normally. This may or may not resolve the issue. If it does resolve in Safe Boot mode and the problem reoccurs after a normal boot, then it is something that you installed that is causing the Pages export problem.

What changed on your Mac just before this observed PNG issue?

No one else is reporting this issue in the Pages community and I cannot duplicate it on two different Macs with different operating systems, yet same Pages v13.1 application.

I have Montery 12.6.9 and Pages v13.1 still does not export to Word as images when Word is chosen in the export panel.