Pages 5 features checklist

When I saw what was in the update, my first thought was "why release such a paltry update?" Then I went to the US app store and saw that it wiped the 'current version' ratings clean. And that there are more 5 star ratings than 1 star ratings for the current version. Waiting for my 1 star review to get past the reviewers, wondering if they will post it.

This is completely false. "Cureent version" is 5.0.1 and all 5.0 reviews are now under "all versions". Stop spreading FUD.

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

Somebody added 40+ 5 star reviews today (almost 10% of the ratings) in the Australian App Store and wiped all the current reviews for Pages 5.

You can only see the reviews for Pages '09 now.

This has pumped the average back up to 3 stars.

Peter

This is how it's always done. Don't panic. There is no conspiracy.

Maybe people who like it? I gave it three stars yesterday. That reflects my opinion of it. That's how it works, see?

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

Now I wonder crumvoc who might be pumping in those rave reviews?

Peter

oh, hahahah hhaha ahha haha ha ha

yeah, the funniest thing. It's like when I was in high school and all the kids laughed together at the one kid who acted differently. So funny!

(really? 20 minutes? that's kind of sad.)

And no, cosmo, I won't be your guinea pig. I'm trying it on my own though. And if you want to be able to speak intelligently about it, you should too (unlike your fearless mob leader who bashes stuff before he tries it). That's how this works.

John Bull wrote:

Cosmo wrote:

“Hey Robo, we're looking for a guinea pig to try the Pages update!”

Cosmo,

I’ve watched this discussion closely from the start, but not contributed until now. I feel the need to say a few serious words.

As a fairly heavy user of iWork ’09, and having started with ClarisWorks, I detest Pages 5 and the way Apple have foisted it on us with precious little, or no regard for faithful users and their valuable documents.

My point is this:

I think your invitation to robo is the beat-all, hands-down, no-nonsense, funniest thing I’ve seen in this discussion so far. No question. I simply could notbegin to tell you how badly it cracked me up. No kidding. I’ve been laughing for at least 20 minutes – and counting.

Kind regards and thanks a million.

It always takes a while for reviews and ratings to apply.

cosmofromwatertown wrote:

I rated it and it didn't budge the number. Could they be filtering ratings somehow?

Just added my new review. Here it is in case it doesn't get approved.

If this were marketed as “Pages Lite” or something like that then this app could be reviewed on it’s own merits, but it is not. It has been marketed as an upgrade or update to our beloved Pages 4.3 which was and still is due for some improvements. Because it represents itself as Pages 5, then it will continue to get a 1 star rating (they don’t allow 1/2 stars). It will not deserve a 5 star rating until it reaches feature parity with the older version.

This minor update brings back a customizable tool bar, mostly window dressing, and supposedly unnecessary because of the intelligent inspector window that now takes up a permanant and larger space on the desktop which replaced the floating minimizable inspector.

Still no mail merge, linked text boxes, serious Applescript support, plus some 80 or so more features. You can’t even drag and drop a Contact from the Apple Contact Addressbook onto a document. Whatever happened to the idea of simplicity and ease of use?

This is still a toy. Fit for making posters of Eddy Cue’s new album, but not a serious productivity tool. Staying with MS Word for now until Apple decides to give us an updated and upgraded Pages 4 which they promise not to neuter in the future. If you need stability in your workflow and don’t want to recreate the wheel when the Apple developers decide to abandon features, then this is not for you.

There are still bugs, obviously. Yes, this update was very much a paltry update.

Here is the text from the feedback I just sent to Apple (feel free to use):

Thank you so much for providing customization of the Toolbar. That is greatly appreciated.

However, there are several bugs in Pages that were missed:

1. Window size of Pages document windows can be narrowed to only 720 pixels in width, unlike other apps like Safari and Word, which can be narrowed quite a bit more.
2. There is still no way to replace straight quotes with smart quotes. You have a feature for this (Edit —> Substitutions —> Show substitutions —> Check “Smart Quotes” —> Replace All), but it still doesn’t work.
3. There is no way to easily reset the location of a graphics anchor. Even with Show Invisibles turned on, the anchor disappears when an object is being dragged for repositioning. Moreover, the anchor tends to stay about 2 lines above the top of the graphic, and there is no way to get the anchor to be positioned on the first line of a paragraph when a graphic’s top edge is aligned with the top of a paragraph. With graphics that are explicitly configured to Move with Text, Pages’ positioning of the anchor in the PREVIOUS paragraph makes working with graphics unmanageable.
4. Still no vertical ruler.

Robo;

Just thought you'd appreciate being first to give the update a workout, thereby giving you first chance at a big 'told you so' with all the fixed and returned features.

Cosmo! Stop it! My sides are splitting . . . 😁

But then, I suppose "That's how this works"

I don't get it. Maybe I'm just too old to understand high school humor these days.

But I'll bite. That's how what works? Mob rules? Bullying? Or simply not having a leg to stand on so resorting to taunting and mockery?

I only asked that people be mature and not rude, and follow the proper feedback channels, all in hopes of actually improving Pages 5. There won't be any "I told you so", but it's interesting that you'd anticipate that, Cosmo. Maybe you feel like you and the gang did jump the gun on declaring the downfall of Pages and Apple. Could be. We'll see. 5.0.1 isn't much of a feature restored version, which is why I gave it three stars. Oh, I'm sorry, did I not follow the sophomore directive to give it one star? My apologies.

Seriously, your sides hurt?

The toolbar customization now allows putting a sub/superscript button there, which was one other of the missing features:

[copied from another thread]:

>

> 2 features in 1 month.

>

> 45 months to go.

So, "the way things are going," we can expect Pages'17 to be further reduced in features so as to sync seamlessly with the iClassRing.

Tristan Hubsch wrote:

The toolbar customization now allows putting a sub/superscript button there, which was one other of the missing features:

This reminds me...didn't Ordinals (i.e., automatic superscripting of the alpha characters in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) work in the old Pages? Doesn't seem to work now.

Robo;

Perhaps 'we' just wanted to see if you believed your own schtick...