Shift from using Microsoft word to Apple pages

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Level 1

8 points

Shift from using Microsoft word to Apple pages

Hi, I've always used Microsoft word not by subscription by one–time payment. Microsoft have stopped allowing me to update my programs after something like six years, so in order to update my Word program I have to get another subscription. This seems a bit daft given that I've got Apple Pages on my computer for free. But I don't have that much experience with Pages, and sometimes I need to share documents or get/give feedback from/to other people. I also use Excel, but fairly rarely (only for my own budgeting needs). Has anyone had any experience in switching their word processing from Word to Pages? Is it easy, or messy, or - if you're sharing work professionally – to be avoided? And do documents (and spreadsheets) convert cleanly from Apple to their Microsoft counterparts without error?

I'd be really glad to hear form you if you have any experience with this!

Posted on Jul 6, 2024 8:29 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 6, 2024 9:01 AM in response to Madser

Microsoft only officially supports the current and previous two annual releases of macOS — which implies they only support the subscription Microsoft 365 or the single-purchase Office 2021 for Mac on Sonoma, Ventura, and Monterey. It doesn't matter if you made a single purchase of Office 2011 or 2016 for Mac, as Microsoft has long ago retired those products and they simply are no longer supported or compatible.

If you are on any of those three operating systems I mentioned above, Stack Social has single purchases of Office 2021 for Mac for around $30 - $35. That softens the expense and is what I used it to put that Office suite on this Mac. If you are done with Microsoft but still want a credible MS Office clone, then I suggest you try Office 2024 for Mac from SoftMaker (macOS Mojave and later). And finally, there is the free LibreOffice Suite (macOS Catalina or later).

Pages is not by any stretch of the imagination a clone of MS Word and there are a ton of features you are accustomed to in Word that are absent in Pages. The latter must translate Word documents into Pages document format when opening, or a reverse translation when exporting to Word documents. Apple does not guarantee the success of that translation process. It might be fine for personal usage, or not for sharing exported Word documents with other Word users.

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Answer 2

Madser Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 10, 2024 4:11 AM in response to VikingOSX

Hi VikingOSX,

Many thanks for your reply. It sounds like, in terms of working in a group or sharing work, using Pages when everyone else is on Word is not a viable option. I'm not so sure about purchasing things from Stack Social as I'm in Europe. I'll have to look into the LibreOffice Suite to see if it has the functions I would require (comments, track changes) and if it works offline (sometimes you want to work out of range, such as in flight). If all else fails, time to update my system. I think I'd rather wait until I need to get a new computer, though. I have no interest in paying a monthly rate to Microsoft in perpetuity.

Many thanks for taking the time for your detailed and careful response!

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Answer 3

Jul 10, 2024 7:46 AM in response to Madser

SoftMaker Office is a more faithful visual interface and clone of the current MS Office. SoftMaker is a German company, as is the Document Foundation that offers LibreOffice. If I didn't already have Office 2021 for Mac installed, I would likely be using SoftMaker's Office 2024 for Mac.

The current version (24.2.4) of LibreOffice requires macOS Catalina (10.15.*) or later. If you are on macOS Mojave (10.14.6), then the last compatible version of LibreOffice Suite is 7.5.9.2 available from the top (LibreOffice_7.5.9.2_MacOS_x86-64.dmg) of this archive listing.

LibreOffice documentation (PDF) is written with LibreOffice Writer.

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Shift from using Microsoft word to Apple pages

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