Pages versus Textedit

As of September 2015, the only advantage I see Pages has over TextEdit for simple documents is that you can edit its files in the cloud using any web browser and therefore a Windows system too. Do I miss something else?

If you use any Cloud service, and I gave you several, they are all on the Internet, even iCloud.

Using iCloud does not duplicate your file locally as well as on line, you will need to use Time Machine for that, and Time Machine will do a back up if you are using another Cloud service than iCloud.

Personally I do not trust iCloud any more than I do any Cloud service. They all rely on far too many extra things going right and also on someone else's remote hardware to work, and for someone else to grant you sufficient storage space when and where you need it. When that service is no longer available, neither will your files be.

This maybe helpful:

https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/digital-sharing-crash-course?pt=TB-ARTICLE-1558 4

Peter

It entirely depends on what you want from the application. They are two different applications. TextEdit youcan always try. Pages can be tried if yo download the iWork trial http://www.apple.com/iwork/download-trial/

You might need to do Software update check. Recommended is that that Pages is in 4.0.4, 4.0.5 or 4.1 version

Pages 5 can't create rtf files.

TextEdit can.

Almost anything on any platform can open and edit plain .txt and .rtf (not Pages 5 however) so if you use TextEdit you can open and edit them on iOS, Windows and Linux.

TextEdit also opens and saves in Word .doc/x, Pages only converts and exports those.

Peter

Hello Peter,

Thanks. What you say is true and yet I was right too :-) but not clear enough.

I have a Windows 7 PC and a Macbook Air. I want to edit simple texts on either machine and I want an automatic cloud backup.

What I do now is: I use Pages on the Air, saving (when connected to the internet) on the iCloud. When I am on the Windows PC, I use the web version of iCloud and of Pages to edit the document.

If I did like you say and used an .rtf document, without using Pages but using TextEdit, then I would not be able to edit it from the web iCloud on the Windows PC, where I can use Pages only (I cannot see a web based version of Textedit).

Because of this I said that Pages is the only option.

Of course you can use Windows to edit rtf files, however you cannot sync the iCloud onto a Windows PC and therefore you are limited to the apps installed in the iCloud.

The point is the file type.

.txt and .rtf are open formats so you can open them with whatever you want.

To have the files in iCloud, save them to iCloud, then Open/Save them with whatever you want on Windows, including NotePad.

TextEdit is just a means of editing the file, you don't need to have it on Windows, or anywhere else.

Also you don't need iCloud, you can use Google, Dropbox, SkyDrive, Droplr, OneDrive, Box Sync, Yahoo etc etc

Peter

Hello Peter,

Surely I can open TXT files easily - but what if I have a TXT file on iCloud and I want to open it while on Windows?

Even if I could download it, I would then lose the sync - wouldn't I?

As far as Google Drive goes: I cannot use it while offline, whereas I can use Pages while offline on a Mac, save on iCloud folder, and then sync when online. Yes, I know there is an offline mode for Google Docs, however it only works with Chrome and, most importantly, does not make a backup, that is the file only lies in the cloud, not on your computer. I would then lose backup, that is the file being physically present both on the cloud and my computer.

Of course, there is the Apple iCloud control panel for Windows 7, that might enhance your iCloud interoperability from the dark side.

See if this link helps at all

http://word-processor.pikimal.com/pages/vs/textedit-2#first-facet-summary

Hi,

As far as I can see, this Windows panel does not allow you to download files from the iCloud (except photos).