Pages 5 features checklist

I talked to tech support. They stated that the Apple engineers are VERY much aware of the issues, and are working on fixing ( Delete page, duplicate page, etc).

Noone I talked to could explain why we lost all of our templetes/samples in this new verision. Now we do have the iworks 09 folder and pages 4.3 is in there. go to application, and click on the folder. You can go in, and save all the templets as "my templetes" and have them all. Just an idea.

Update: Cant seem to save the templets from pages 4.3, and find them in pages 5.0 templets. So my theory wont work. Sorry guys 😟

Missing feature?

I can't seem to find character spacing anywhere? Is it gone or am I not seeing something?

8aseem8 wrote:

Can't split cells in tables created on Pages 5.0

Try the Format/Table/Unmerge Cells menu item.

I did see the 'Unmerge' menu item, but I meant that the functionality to split a single cell has been removed. No biggie, I guess I'll have to rethink the methods I use to create tables!

Cant set the thickness or colour of table grid lines

Select the desired cell; in the Format sidebar select the Cell tab, and the triangle next to "Border." This will let you choose the type, thickness and color of cell edges, applied by clicking one of the nine little icons called "border pattern." BTW, selecting the "Table" tab gives additional border control over the whole table.

You're amazing, did you know that? I really should poke around in the App before ranting about it online!

8aseem8 wrote:

I did see the 'Unmerge' menu item, but I meant that the functionality to split a single cell has been removed. No biggie, I guess I'll have to rethink the methods I use to create tables!

Suppose you have a table of 3 rows and 3 columns, and would like to split the cell in the 2nd row and 2nd column into two cells, side-by-side. Whilst Pages 5.0 cannot just split this one cell into two, you can do the following:

1. Select the cell (in this case, B2).
2. Move the cursor over the column header ("B") and notice the triangle on the right.
3. Click the triangle to get a pop-down menu of actions, and select "Add Column After."
4. Row-by-row, merge the cells from column B with the newly created column C, except the one(s) you want spllit.

Transpose row/column for getting a cell effectively split horizontally. I know this is much more work (esp. with really large tables) than simply splitting an individual cell, but the end result is what (I think) you wanted. Of course, if you can foresee that you'll need those few selected cells split additionally, you can start off with more columns/rows... 🙂

It's there, in the right column's top. But I'm missing to many things, too. One huge step back. Hope they walk forward faster.

robogobo wrote:

And yes, this is complaining about change. The majority of the complaints are about alterations, not exclusions, and there's very little recognition of the improvements. And little to no acknowledgement that this is an x.0 release which is always dangerous for a workflow [...]

Ahem... It is Apple (the manufacturer, who probably knows—or should know—better than any Tom, Dick, Hary, you or I) who calls it "version 5.0"; not "version x.0 which is always dangerous to a workflow." But, thanks for clarifying what it really should have been called, in your opinion at least. Also, while we're at it, do you claim that "Pages 5.0" (as Apple calls it) is a mislabeled product that should have been billed as "Pages 0.x" or is even the name of the program name mislabeled? I have suggested "Pagelets"… 🙂

Can we please stop the mud-slinging (lutum iactatio 🙂), and stick to collating a correct list of features:

1. added (PeterBreis0807 did list them first, now, didn't he?)
2. missing (= no Pages 5.0 workaround, as best as known to us—but Apple may illuminate)
3. altered (= workflow different or there is a workaround)

Of course, only those in group 2 make sense to be transmitted to Apple; groups 1. and 3. are for the benefit of the users reading this thread and attempting to use "Pages 5.0" (as Apple calls it).

My previous post in response to robogobo contained a Freudian slip of dyslexia: IMHO, "Pages 5.0" really should have been called "Pagelets 0.x". That made me dyslexically misread "x.0" in robogobo's post as "0.x". 🙂

Just discovered that there can be multiple TOCs now. Not only one for the entire document but also per section or "until the next TOC" (can't translate it better). Don't know exactly how it works, but I found the menu items. In the side bar it is well hiden and it will only show up after you have gone through the menu and created the TOC. Insert > TOC > ...

Well, whoop-de-do. 😝

Did they finally add in an Index function though? That's one of the few functions I was waiting for, but I didn't get a chance to look for it in 5 before I uninstalled it out of annoyance.

Tristan Hubsch wrote:

8aseem8 wrote:

I did see the 'Unmerge' menu item, but I meant that the functionality to split a single cell has been removed. No biggie, I guess I'll have to rethink the methods I use to create tables!

Suppose you have a table of 3 rows and 3 columns, and would like to split the cell in the 2nd row and 2nd column into two cells, side-by-side. Whilst Pages 5.0 cannot just split this one cell into two, you can do the following:

1. Select the cell (in this case, B2).
2. Move the cursor over the column header ("B") and notice the triangle on the right.
3. Click the triangle to get a pop-down menu of actions, and select "Add Column After."
4. Row-by-row, merge the cells from column B with the newly created column C, except the one(s) you want spllit.

Transpose row/column for getting a cell effectively split horizontally. I know this is much more work (esp. with really large tables) than simply splitting an individual cell, but the end result is what (I think) you wanted. Of course, if you can foresee that you'll need those few selected cells split additionally, you can start off with more columns/rows... 🙂

Yeah, I thought that would be the solution. However, it is definitly not intuative! To create intricate tables, I guess it'll be easier to make giant, grid-like tables and merge everything!

Celotil wrote:

Well, whoop-de-do. 😝

Did they finally add in an Index function though? That's one of the few functions I was waiting for, but I didn't get a chance to look for it in 5 before I uninstalled it out of annoyance.

Hmmm, I don't think so. It's "just" multiple TOCs per document.

EDIT: But then again... you can have one or more for the whole document and separates per section etc.. Each can show custom styles, so yes, you coud in theory add an index for images, given you apply a specific style to your image captions. I have just tested it a few minutes, but it looks like pretty cool stuff so far.

littlekelli wrote:

Update: Cant seem to save the templets from pages 4.3, and find them in pages 5.0 templets. So my theory wont work. Sorry guys 😟

To move a template to Pages 5, here is what I did.

1. Open 4.3 and choose the template I want.
2. Add every available page option in the template to the file.
3. Choose Save as Template and save to my Desktop.
4. Close the file.
5. Open file in Pages 5 and it will put the template in correct template folder.
6. Rename it with the name I want.

Not as easy as drag and drop, but at least it gets all the different page options in there. Bummer that Apple dropped the good page layout templates.