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Level 8

41,170 points

Pages 5 features checklist

As you go through the new Pages 5 can you please add an added, missing or altered features here please.

I will start with some culled from the general discussions and if you could correct any errors add them:

Added

1. Right to Left text ie Arabic, Farsi & Hebrew. Uncertain about Pashtu

2. Single model templates. You turn off document text to get rid of the default. Not sure if this then can be mixed and matched with Word Processing templates

3. Able to share outside iCloud

Missing

1. Selecting non-contiguous text gone

2. Outline view appears gone

3. Customizable Toolbar is gone

4. Many templates appear gone

5. Captured pages gone

6. Reorganize pages by dragging gone

7. Duplicate pages gone

8. Subscript/superscript buttons gone

9. Select all instances of a Style is gone

10. Retain zoom level of document gone

11. Facing pages gone

12. Endnotes gone

13. Media Inspector can't find iPhoto library on external drive

14. Update is missing for older installations, Apple is reportedly working on a solution via a redeemable code or update on the ir Support Download site

Altered

1. Language set under Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar now document wide

2. Subscript/superscript text is now a convoluted route Gear > Advanced options > Baseline > Subscript/Superscript

3. Header appears to be multi-column

4. New file format (but still .pages?) not backwardly compatible

5. Page numbering method changed

6. T.O.C. appears buggy

7. Template file storage location moved - to where?

8. Imported older .pages files are not translating properly

9. Text language is detected automatically now

Letting you know I can't test or verify any of these as I haven't got Mavericks yet.

Peter

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Oct 22, 2013 7:57 PM

1,554 replies

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,170 points

Jan 13, 2015 10:18 PM in response to LA Writer

.tef files are iCloud files.

Pages '09 works fine in Yosemite so long as you update it to v4.3 (even v4.05 works fine on my Mac).

Peter

Kurt Weber

Level 6

13,969 points

Jan 27, 2015 6:32 PM in response to LA Writer

If you save them anywhere else but iCloud they will not be named "tef" files. Save them locally on your Mac.

Pages 09 is still working great on my machine, too. I will probably use it until it is no longer able to work at this rate. Nothing has compelled me to update so far.

Pages 09 still works on my iOS 8 device, too. I have it backed up in case I accidentally upgrade it. All my devices, including an old iBook are using Pages 09 beautifully with no problems.

Jan 28, 2015 5:43 AM in response to Kurt Weber

Pages 09 does not work on iOS. Pages 1.7.2 for iOS does, but that is very difficult to come by.

Kurt Weber

Level 6

13,969 points

Jan 31, 2015 11:34 AM in response to rogerfromnorwalk

Correct on the version for iOS. I have reinstalled the old version a couple of times by deleting the new version, going to iTune and syncing with the old version checked.

Sep 14, 2015 10:43 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Does anyone have an updated features list? Has Pages 5 been improved at all?

Nov 15, 2015 10:07 AM in response to NapoléonIV

There were incremental improvements in a recent update (12 Nov 2015), but it still has a loooong way to go. I cannot fathom how, over two years later, the Pages team still hasn't added, for example, linked text boxes (flowing text). The newly-updated version of Pages 5 will apparently open Pages '08 and '09 files, but flowing text boxes are now static individual boxes. That's fine if you just need to open and print them again, but any major editing, or re-use as a template, is lost without the flow. Frustrating.

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,170 points

Nov 15, 2015 11:47 AM in response to NapoléonIV

Can't say anyone who cares about Pages actually cares what the heck happens with Pages 5.xxx.

After two long years where predictably the little we got from Apple didn't change much, it is clear that any updating is not going to happen or at such a slow pace that my predictions of almost 10 years just to get back to where Pages '09 was in 2013, look wildly optimistic.

Just waiting for Affinity Publisher next year, so I can finally give up on even Pages '09.

To cap it off I have to look for a replacement for Aperture as well.

I'm pretty well giving up on Apple. It has now taken up the baton from Microsoft* as the black hole of hope. So much is buggy, malfunctioning, insanely convoluted, inept or just Fairy Floss that there isn't much to look forward to as a platform. I barely even bother going into the Apple Store anymore.

Peter

* Microsoft's Surface is actually genuinely innovative. What have we got? The Apple Watch! If anyone showed up wearing one to an interview with me, I'd be quietly crossing them off the list.

Nov 15, 2015 12:53 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

The last email that I exchanged with the Affinity leadership over the summer indicated that their initial goal for Publisher was to create document types that extend what can be done with Designer and Photo, with a concentration on strong typography and PDF features. Initially, though subject to evolving decisions, they see Publisher as more DTP than just a word processor. The finished product may surprise us, but my thoughts are that it will not be the solitary replacement for Pages, or Word.

In an understatement, there is overdue room for improvement at Apple — in decisions, quality deliverables, and leadership.

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,170 points

Nov 15, 2015 1:34 PM in response to VikingOSX

I suspected as much, but a competent well designed DTP solution is better than nothing. And basically nothing is what Apple has left us with.

I have put in a request with Affinity to add CSS styles because that would be a useful feature in DTP production and help transition material to eBooks and Web pages.

Peter

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,170 points

Nov 15, 2015 4:23 PM in response to NapoléonIV

The long slow decline of good User Design continues at Apple.

For a better understanding of what has gone wrong and how far wrong:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name

http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/gestural_interfaces_a_step_backwards_in_usability_6.ht ml

http://asktog.com/atc/principles-of-interaction-design/

Peter

Jan 14, 2016 1:02 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Still no way to have a header ONLY on the first page of a section... *sigh*. Or linked text boxes. Or import styles... three of many missing features I used constantly in Pages '09... Apple, come on, this stuff is not rocket science.

Jan 14, 2016 1:46 PM in response to Mark Wilson2

Mark,

The Apple product teams are not reading, or participating in these user-to-user community posts. As Pages '09 v4.3 before it, all releases of Pages v5 have a Pages menu : Provide Pages Feedback menu item that communicates directly with the Pages product team.

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,170 points

Jul 8, 2016 8:08 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

It is now July 2016, almost 3 years later, and despite the 10,000% certainty of those who "knew" exactly what Apple was going to do, Pages 5 is just about where they left it. What a surprise!

Just a few more problems (plenty of others) for anyone finding this thread:

1. All vector graphics copied and pasted into other Apps from Pages 5 are rendered as 72dpi png bitmaps

2. Pages 5 ignores colorspaces when Exporting pdfs and turns them all into sRGB

3. The reason for the lockups and slow downs of documents in Pages 5 is probably due to bad coding. It progressively can't manage large numbers of objects and text. It bogs down even on a Mac Pro with RAID and lots of RAM, with relatively small numbers of objects, far less than Pages '09 easily copes with.

Jul 9, 2016 6:17 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

I believe that you can extend item 2 to imported CMYK text and graphics color spaces get converted to sRGB too.

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,170 points

Jul 9, 2016 6:21 AM in response to VikingOSX

I've grown exhausted pointlessly listing what's wrong with Pages 5 Viking.

Should I rebuild the list? Don't think anyone is paying the slightest attention. Particularly Apple.

I only posted back here because I had a request for the list in another forum, from someone who "really knows what they are doing" but seems unaware of the in your face situation at ground zero.

Pages 5 features checklist