Pages 5 features checklist

Someone designs a totally new car. It's very complicated, so you can't expect everything to work at the beginning, but there'll be a new version out soon, and that little problem with the brakes not working properly will be fixed. Oh, and we've taken away the horn, as it's not used very often, so you'll just have to shout as you approach the bus queue with poor brakes. We'll think about putting it back if enough users want it.

Slightly more seriously, the file sizes are smaller in 5.0: our 24 page catalogue is 76MB in 5.0, and is 110MB in 4.3. (identical content), and after some effort looks the same (just don't mention Table of Contents) - fortunately no linked text boxes. I suspect that the difference in size is because 5's files are zipped (files inside the package), and 4.3's are xml etc.

However, the above catalogue scrolls smoothly and quickly in 4.3, but is slow in 5, going too fast produces a grey & white chess board pattern, until scrolling is slowed. Could this be caused by content being unzipped on the fly - so that the same file can also be handled by an iOS device with less memory?

Robo I haven't used the new Pages yet but the reviews here and elsewhere have given me enough information not to touch it at all. I am currently porting my Pages docs out of the old program to some format where I can use them in say, Word, and give up Pages for good.

I remember many times I regretted upgrading wihtout user feedback in the past and it is valuable to make a decision as to what course of action I might take. If you like the new Pages, please feel free to discuss what you like about it. Do not put yourself in a defensive state; it only makes people angry with you, as you have already seen. ALso, do not be disdainful of others. Peter and all the others are trying to figure out just what is going on here, and if we need to comment on the state of the software at least they are backing it up with proof. Yes, sometimes it may be a bit much to write off the entire program as junk, as you have witnessed that some features thought to be missing are still there in some form.

The point is, when this many people are having problems with software that Apple published without telling us of the consequences, don't you think that Apple bears some accountability? Why would Apple publish a program and not be open with us? They weren't honest with us with iTunes 11, iMovie, FCP X...all they ever claimed was that the programs were "redesigned form the ground up" which now seems to be a code phrase for "watch out, Apple is trashing another program".

I myself am a long-time user (since 1995) of Apple products and I have not seen such bad stuff come out of the company since Scully was CEO. We know what almost happened then. I do not want Apple to be the Commodore of the 21st Century or one of many once flourishing companies still present. But I am not pleased with the direction as it currently goes.

I'll be happy to field any questions.

Sorry, you must have replied while I was testing what you had listed.

Is it just me, or is everyone getting two emailed copies of each new posting?

What??? Time Machine (or some other backup) is the only way to fix it! How is that clinging?

Look, most of my old Pages files had no problem opening in 5.0, including the majority of templates. I had a few problems, for which I submitted feedback, complaining in a mature manner. For those I used Time Machine to revert back and I'm now exploring what I can do to make them forward compatible. If you work with computers enough, this is standard. Have you ever used an Adobe product? Then you'd know you have to make backups part of daily life. Apple streamlined this with Time Machine. EVERYONE should be using it. It's been around long enough to be ubiquitous.

and again I'm 1000% certain Apple did not intentionally damage users' work. I'm 100% certain they're working as quickly as possible to figure out the problems and issue a fix. 101% even. Sure.

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but I can't find anyway to adjust page ordering at all. All inserted pages only go to the end of the document, no pages can be duplicated, and none of them can be shifted around.

TPerhai wrote:

Do not put yourself in a defensive state; it only makes people angry with you, as you have already seen. ALso, do not be disdainful of others. Peter and all the others are trying to figure out just what is going on here, and if we need to comment on the state of the software at least they are backing it up with proof. Yes, sometimes it may be a bit much to write off the entire program as junk, as you have witnessed that some features thought to be missing are still there in some form.

This.

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

Apple will get the feedback, but I will be very surprised if that goes anywhere.

Peter

It's not the actions. It's the attitude. It's the "Apple intentionally damaged our work and they're never ever going to fix it and they hate their users and whaa whaa whaa!!!" stuff that gets me. That's not complaining. It's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

And everybody wants me to stop. But I'm so sick of this culture of complainers who take for granted that this stuff takes work and forget that nobody's perfect. Actually the complaining is fine. I did it too, directly at Apple. But the trash talking and shooting down vialble solutions just for spite drives me nuts. The icing on the cake is that Peter is trash talking and he HASN'T EVEN USED IT YET. it's comical really.

What the **** is wrong with the Pages programmer at Apple ???

After updating all our machine quotes are a mess. Most inacceptable that no logo can be placed in the header, nor the table with imprint in 3 columns in the footer.

How you think we should go on working here ?

As new design is well liked an accepted, it can not be, that major functions just disappeared, leaving the user back helplessly.

This is the best way to force us going to MS Word, as much as I hate to fumble around with it, I do not see another way at the moment.

At least a warning about this lack of functionality should have been given to all users, leaving the decision up to them using the update or not.

That's a shame and really disappointing way to let down you fans !

I agree that Apple shouldn't design an upgrade that depends on a backup for recovery. I've said several times They should have warned us and should have duplicated the files (I'm guessing in house they use versioning religiously since save as was depricated, and so Time Machine is part of their workflow, but even so, Pages 5 can't revert to a previous version without updating it and thus corrupting that version too, hence the real mistake).

But that's one thing, the only thing that I have a real problem with. In the end, it's 2013 and everyone should have backups. It really goes without saying. I'm not blaming the victim any more than I would had they accidentally deleted their own work. Backups are mandatory, especially if business depends on it (and that's what we're talking about here, isn't it?).

However, Peter. My main beef with you is that you're saying all this without having used the product. I really can't fathom how you can be so adamant, go in circles and trash talk something you haven't tried. amazing.

Time Machine. Use it.

Apple doesn't routinely respond to feedback and you know that. That doesn't mean they don't read and implement it. You know that too. Congrats on your tshirts.

Like you Peter I gave Apple lots of feedback on Pages and heard nothing. I'm a professional author writing long documents of more than 100,000 words (one novel written entirely in Pages). It was so nearly an excellent word processor and needed very few features, such as better outlining and long doc navigation, to get there.

But a while back I came to the conclusion that Apple really didn't care about people doing serious work on Macs and moved to Word, first on OS X and now on Windows 8 where it is much, much better. I'm sorry to see my fears have been realised. You're to be congratulated for bringing all this information to the attention of people thinking of upgrading (we have one Mac left in the house and I so nearly did that).

Unfortunately it doesn't matter how much of a turkey Apple delivers there's always someone around who will say it's actually a wonderful piece of work, and any problems that ensue are the responsibility of users, not the company that lands this stuff on their customers. They're best ignored, not least because they're one reason why Apple thinks it can get away with shameful stunts like this.

As far as I'm concerned there's no longer an industrial strength, long document word processor on the Mac. Great shame - it means the computer I've used for most of my writing career is now of no use to me.