Pages as replacement for Word ?

What really irks me about this whole Pages issue is that after purchasing V.1 and V.2, for a combined total of $AU230, I find myself as the proud owner of something that just doesn't work (one of the typing lag afflicted). Apple's response here in Australia has been to revert to V.1 - in other words, go from one buggy program to another buggy program. Not good strategy from a company who's motto is 'It Just Works'.

Where it leaves a big gap is that in my case, when I'm talking to a PC owner, in answer to the question, "Does Apple have a word processor?" the unfortunate answer, in 2006, is, "No it doesn't".

Where it leaves a big gap is that in my case, when I'm talking to a PC owner, in answer to the question, "Does Apple have a word processor?" the unfortunate answer, in 2006, is, "No it doesn't".

Imagine a head exploding in disbelief! No word processor? Okay, so some people have typing lag issues with Pages, but it isn't universal and there are so many strange things going on (I know of a tangerine iBook running Tiger and Pages 2 without lag whilst a dualie G5 has noticeable lag ) that I can't wrap my head around it all. Accepted - I'll recommend that anyone thinking of Pages should run the demo on their computer for a while.

But no word processor? MS Word for those who are willing to accept its idiosyncracies and the bloat. Mellel is quite good, as is Mariner. Don't forget Nisus. I know I'm missing at least one other. No word processor? Sorry, that is over dramatic and plain wrong.

NeoOfficeJ, Open Office, too. And Appleworks is still available (although I don't think that I'd encourage a switcher to go that route now.)

Sorry, you're right, I meant from the POV of 'straight out of the box'.

They all have problems and or deficiencies.

Word is the most complete and professional but is pure bloat and has a loathsome and meddling interface. After that in mainstream word processors you could go for Mariner Write then Mellel.

All the Word Office substitutes are what I call 'sposterware. That's software that is supposed to work but the recommender has never really tried them or they'd know what turkeys they are.

But I get back to TextEdit which can not be beat for simplicity and it comes free with Mac OSX. Why fight it, unless you need headers, footers and columns.

Suggesting Pages as a word processor is crazy. A cheap, not too fast and amateur DTP app yes, but word processor no.

Yikes! Text edit? Talk about bare bones! No features, formless interface. I suppose if you are just typing text and copying and pasting the clipping this would be an alternative. It has no where near the features of Appleworks or Pages.

I sense frustration in your writing but I am afraid I don't share it. I was willing to pay the $79.00 just to get Keynote. Pages was an added bonus and, despite it quirks, I keep finding myself using it, mostly for layout type work, but I have done some real slick WP docs with it as well.

I have been a little confused with Pages. Is it a DTP program, WP?
My conclusion: It really is its own beast. It is a beautiful program for doing brochures and DTP stuff but also has some great word processing powers. The line, character and after and before paragraph sliders are really cool. They make formatting the end result a snap.

Of course I am not a speedy typist and I am not creating a book. For professional writing Word seems to be the answer. For every other need there is Appleworks and Pages.

The suite is as follows:
Appleworks:
Excellent for all but the most demanding word processing.
Database app that is second to none in simplicity.
Spreadsheet to fill most calculation needs.
Drawing ( I almost never use it)

Pages: For basic layout and word processing needs. Has some professional features that make it fun to use such as transparency and the line and character tools. Renders fonts beautifully.

Keynote: The most intuitive and powerful presentation software out there.

I am not even mentioning the iLife Suite yet. As a person that spends about 80% of the day on my machine, I can only say, "I love these apps!!"

Kurt

Contenders for the WP stakes are:

Abiword FREE - bit too basic and amateur looking
Open Office FREE - X11, clickety click
Neo Office FREE - Looks like Linux, smells like Linux...
TextEdit FREE - fat fixed margins, no header, footer or columns.
Novel ??? - The Howard Hughes of WP.
Mellel $49 - competent, clean looking but short a few features
MarinerWrite $49.95 - neat but retro
Nisus Writer Express $69.95 - a community that makes Mac Users look blasé.
ArabWorx Suite $189 - a jihad on your dyslexic camels!
InView $395 - a suite of business apps tailored for photographers.
Microsoft Office $399 - the 600lb Gorilla that thinks it is an authority on English usage.
Papyrus $99 - ve haf vays of making you register! Till then we print to the Enigma machine.

btw Papyrus has an integrated database which makes it more like AppleWorks.
The German developers are worryingly anally retentive. The demo actually scrambles letters when you print! Desine and proof writing kills are not necessary!. It is self contained and can be run from anywhere, even off a Flash drive.

Anybody out there know of any other WPs?

Well, RagTime, for one:

http://www.ragtime-online.com/

That was the other one I was trying to think of.

Haven't seen it in decades, another oddball German DTP app.

Have they been keeping it up to date?

I don't know. I don't qualify to use the free version and the paid version is way more than I'm willing to spend on office software, so I haven't looked at it in a while.

Just had a quick look and they are revamping its GUI for version 6. Something it really needed. I remeber looking at it back in the early 90s and thinking it was rough compared to all the other DTP packages then.

Actually I think Pages owes more than a little of its ideas to RSG, MsPublisher and Ragtime. The inbuilt ability to generate graphs from data is one similarity I can think of. But still we are talking DTP packages which are a bit of overkill for plain word processing.

At $695 Ragtime is not really in the same ball park as even MsOffice.

I know at least 2 from the AW6 team are still at Apple.

They were the runts of the litter. Too weak to escape. s;-)

Found a web based Word alternative on the International Herald Tribune site:

In the world of Web 2.0 - today's shorthand for using software that lives on the Internet for what were traditionally desktop-bound applications - there is real reason to believe a worthy rival for Word will emerge.
One that I have been trying is called Writely. I am not ready to hit the delete button on my Word icon, but this Internet-based program is so good that I can see the potential in the near-term future. A comparable Web service called gOffice is not too far behind.
At http://www.writely.com, you sign in free (most current browsers work there, except Apple's Safari; Mac users should try the Firefox browser), and within a moment or two, you are creating a document that can be saved or sent in a variety of formats, including HTML for the Web and a version that Microsoft Word programs can read.

Well, I've read all these posts and find them quite amusing. Some are quite vocal in their objections to Pages being a Word Processor. And some have voiced problems with the operation of Pages. I think it's interesting that we all have a slightly different perspective based upon the kind of work we are trying to do with a program. What works for one obviously doesn't work for another, or at least doesn't work as well.

I for one have totally scrapped my MS Office programs for Keynote and Pages. I don't use excel except when someone sends me a spreadsheet. I will not go back to MS Word. I don't use Pages as a page layout program (I use InDesign for that) but I do use it for word processing. For MY needs it works great! It has allowed me to do things that I could never figure out how to do in MS Word. It's easy and doesn't lag whatsoever on my PowerBook G4 Titanium with 1GB processor and RAM. I am totally happy with it.

So, for the original question: "Pages as replacement for Word?" my advice is, take the demo for a test drive. If you like the feel and smoothness of the road and the quiet comfort of the interior... then go for it!

Art

So, for the original question: "Pages as replacement for Word?" my advice is, take the demo for a test drive. If you like the feel and smoothness of the road and the quiet comfort of the interior... then go for it!

If there's anything to be taken from this rambling thread <grin> the above quote would be it. Well, that and to try reducing the screen resolution to fix the typing lag.