Pages as replacement for Word ?

Dear members of the list -

I am looking to replace Microsoft Word, as I have simply run out of patience with this program and as I have just bought an Intel Mac I would like something more native...

Almost all the documents that I deal with each day are in Microsoft Word format - just simple texts that I translate from one language to another.

The problem with Pages, is that I have to first convert the document before working with it, and then in order to send it to someone I have to export it.

Is there anyway to make Pages work more transparently with this file format? Since it can read and export, couldn't it just simply save the document in the same format that it was opened? This constant switching of formats just makes this program too much trouble - every email attachment as to be exported so that the receiver can read it.

Or, as an alternative, could Pages use .rtf or something simpler as a default document format? I am aware that this format wouldn't support all the features of Pages, but I would never use any of those features in my work as the layout is always done by someone else. I just write text - which is what a Word Processor is for, or at least in theory.

Pages is a very nice program, and it provides a nice environment to just write, but sharing what you write with others is just too difficult. I would like to continue with Pages, but if I have to keep this format juggling act, I think I will have to go back to Microsoft Word.

Has anyone a solution to this type of problem?

Mac Book Pro 2.0Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on May 1, 2006 11:46 PM

105 replies

Kurt Weber

Level 6

13,969 points

May 14, 2006 4:36 PM in response to Arthur Joyce

I don't use Pages for my word processing mostly because of compatibility. Appleworks files translate seamlessly back and forth between my two machines. When I am sending docs to my PC friends I go right to Pages and, for the most part, the translation goes well. I open their docs, they open mine. Most formatting stays intact.

I just did a 28 page booklet with a table of contents and graphics in Pages. It was a blast to put together and came out great. One of the things I am doing now is avoiding using columns to do full pages in landscape. This seems to slow down the program and interferes with sections. I did the new booklet in portrait and letter-half size pages. Then I made it into a booklet use cocoa booklet.

Don't forget the price tag of this program. Microsnuffed Word is simply not worth it for what I do. Word has all the bells and whistles but in a unintuitive interface for mucho buckos. Pages took very little time to learn and creates beautiful docs.

Kurt

penmac

Level 1

0 points

May 17, 2006 12:00 PM in response to Kurt Weber

Pages is great at what it does. However IMO it is not a replacement for Word if you are writing a thesis, novel, technical manual or any long (400+ page) complex document. The inability to assign keyboard shortcuts for styles alone is maddening.

However, there are some great Word replacements out there for the Mac and some are Universal binaries.

My favourite is Mellel - do a google on it and read the reviews of the latest version. It's an incredible tool and easily beats MSW on the Mac as far as i'm concerned.

May 18, 2006 2:02 AM in response to Peter Breis1

Additional wordprocessors:

Artman's JeditX and Jedit4. Shareware.

Egword, a Japanese only wordprocessor. Expensive. (I think you can download a free trial version.)

May 18, 2006 1:27 PM in response to penmac

I agree with the style keyboard shortcuts, all applications should be like Quark and let you apply styles one handed using the numeric keypad. This is so efficient.

I was wondering whether this feature couldn't be patched with one of the keyboard short cut utilities such as:

QuicKeys $79.95 [universal binary] http://www.startly.com/products/qkx.html

iKeys $30 [universal binary] http://scriptsoftware.com/ikey/

Both rate 5 stars from their users on VersionTracker.com

Ofcourse it would be better that Apple wrote this feature into Pages/Keynote/TextEdit themselves. Best would be if all these apps shared the same set of styling keyboard shortcuts and all worked in exactly the same way.

The pity is that the keyboard shortcuts in Apple Preferences > Hardware > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts doesn't work with non-menu items. Nor as far as I can tell does it distinguish the numeric keypad from the standard numbers set.

dwb

Level 7

33,268 points

May 18, 2006 2:07 PM in response to Peter Breis1

I don't know about iKeys, but I do own QuicKeys and gave more than a passing thought to using it to create style keyboard shortcuts. Problem: The only way to create a macro to select something in a shelf using QuicKeys is by telling QuicKeys where to click.

Now this would work well if every template I owned had all the same styles with the same size fonts in exactly the same order. But I don't. The template I use for my office memos doesn't need the same styles as the template I use for my newsletter. And let's say I decided to meld all my styles together so I didhave one uniform set of styles in every template. Then they wouldn't fit in the shelf window and I can't reliably make QuicKeys scroll the list and select the proper style reliably.

Maybe someone can figure out a way to use AppleScript to trigger style changes but otherwise it looks like we'll have to wait for Apple to give this issue their notice.

May 20, 2006 4:49 AM in response to Will Woodgate

If you have never had a need for any Microsoft applications, how can you be in a position to say that Pages replaces Word for you if you have never used Word?

I think this issue boils down to a matter of personal choice. It depends on the features one uses in Word and if those same features are available in Pages. For me, the grammar checker in Word is indespensible. Pages does not offer a grammar check feature. If Pages did offer a grammar check feature, I would use it exclusively and ditch Word ... but for now, I continue to use both apps.

For those who prefer to use Pages exclusively, you can export Pages docs to Word docs via the export feature. This feature works quite well.

May 20, 2006 4:07 PM in response to dwb

May 22, 2006 8:40 AM in response to Ks. Jan Jenkins

I have recently attempted to adapt to Pages 05 but have found the necessisty of using pre-formated new pages to be not very easy to modify. I would prefer blank pages without templates. Pages tends to use templates primairy as their structure. Any help using Pages for everyday word processing would be helpful. Thanks

DennisG

Level 5

6,520 points

May 22, 2006 9:24 AM in response to Mark Fitch

Mark,

Why don't you just use the blank template? There's no structure in that. You can modify it to your heart's content, add styles if you want, then save it as your personal template. Couldn't be easier.

-Dennis

dwb

Level 7

33,268 points

May 22, 2006 10:03 AM in response to Peter Breis1

Peter - the central point to my post is that QuicKeys cannot pick things out of a drawer the way it can from a menu. With menus QuicKeys select by the menu name or position (ie third menu, fourth item of that menu). Drawers can only be acted on with QuicKeys by vertical distance from the top of the drawer window. In my default template text is 8 pixels down, bulleted text is 20 pixels down, outdented text is 32 pixels down, etc.

Now your idea logically assumes that every template would have the same style names but might use different fonts and sizes. If QuicKeys could select something from the style drawer by name that would be fine. But since it relies on physical location, the mere change of font and/or size would throw off the entire scheme.

Been there done that. And that's when I also discovered I ran out of room in the drawer forcing a scroll which totally ruined the idea.

May 23, 2006 3:13 PM in response to dwb

Tried iKey? Just a chance there may be a different way to handle it.

Hopefully the Apple programmers are watching these forums and they'll fix Pages in the next version.

Not that I hold out too much hope, I detect a design style in iLife apps that has an inherent clumsiness, uses up acres of screen real estate and forces a lot of menu and pallette selection. Obvious productivity methods are subserviant to superficial aesthetics.

Despite the supposed objective of designing for the amateur, most of the apps hide obvious tasks and require some mind bending workarounds to avoid for example iPhoto's constant dumping of files on the boot volume.

dwb

Level 7

33,268 points

May 23, 2006 3:59 PM in response to Peter Breis1

No go there either. The drawer isn't a well thought out tool on Apple's part and the only access to its data, at present, is via clicks.

Abid

Level 1

0 points

May 24, 2006 3:10 AM in response to dwb

No 'equation editor' feature with Pages...LaTeXiT, or any other 3rd party equation editor do not 'truly' meet the purpose writing inline equations beautifully and/or peacefully...Other than this, to me, Pages is a good piece of software...

PowerBook G4 12" 1.5 GHz, 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) iMac G5 (iSight)

ibooking

Level 1

0 points

Jul 5, 2006 12:04 PM in response to Ks. Jan Jenkins

Newbie (okay, Mac user who has been forced to use PCs since 1998) here wondering if anyone has used Pages 2 for writing a dissertation-length doc? I am entering a PHD program in the Fall and will be teaching eventually and turning papers into profs who probably all work on MS Office in Windows. I REALLY don't want to give MS any more of my money than I already have, and I have been trying to research Mellel and Papyrus, End Notes and Bookends, though it is not simple to figure all this out. I am in a humanities field, so I am just looking for an intuitive program that will handle really large documents and integrate a bibliographic database. It would be nice if it was completely MS Word compatible, but I can work around that, I guess.

I have read this thread, and I see progress toward my answer, so I am asking here.

Thanks for any help!

iBook G4 12-inch (it's so CUTE!) Mac OS X (10.4.7) Mac Color Classic (retired) (It was cute, too!)

Jul 5, 2006 12:14 PM in response to ibooking

I've just graduated with a BSc in Environmental Resource Management. I produced my dissertation plus several key assignments in Pages 1.0 and it was a joy to use - very quick and easy. My dissertation was about 50 pages, but I reckon Pages can handle a lot more. Some people in my group had absolute nightmare experiences with Word including one person who lost their entire text 3 weeks before the deadline! Ouch.

Unfortunately this is still a Windows world, but you can quite easily export Pages documents to Word for PC which lecturers and journal editors prefer.

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Pages as replacement for Word ?