Q: Pages 5 features checklist

"I need docs organized in a tree structure."

By default, Pages tries to save to your iCloud account which only allows one level of folders. You can, however, save a doc outside of iCloud. When you save a new doc, just change the "Where" setting to somewhere in your local filesystem. Once you've selected something in the filesystem, the down-arrow to the right of "Save As" becomes active and if you click it you'll get the more finder-like interface.

"But the ability to override the langauge setting for a section / paragraph / column / word would be an improvement for sure."

It wouldn't be an improvement - it was already a feature. The current version marks a regression, removing something that was already possible. Putting it back in isn't an improvement, it's getting us closer to where we already were.

Oh well.  I think to be candid the circumstances you are describing are not likely to be ones commonly encountered: for most people I think the auto-switching language feature will be quite helpful.  But the ability to override the langauge setting for a section / paragraph / column / word would be an improvement for sure.

Kenneth, see: that's same mistake that Apple did with Pages. Assumptions on how people work... Believe me, there are hundereds of thousands of people using word-by-word language switching. Teachers, lawyers, students, writers, etc. It's such a common use case that I only can "assume back" that this desicion has been made by people only speaking english... ;-)

Apple does read the discussions and they do listen. An Apple employee told me over the phone, very emphatically, that Apple does read them. With new software, I suspect they wait to see if the furor dies down as people get used to new features. If the complaints pile up and don't stop coming in, they will see it is a real problem and eventually do something. The problems is that we need a shorter "eventually" than usual.

When they dropped the price of the original iPhone, and iPhone users were the targets of scorn and ridicule, a friend called up Apple and suggested a store credit. The person on the other end of the line got excited about the idea and said he was about to go into a meeting. Then we all got a store credit.

On another occasion, I filled out the feedback form and said that the phrase "You need to" wasn't necessary in prompts. For example, instead of "you need to enter your password," it should say, "enter your password." I gave six or seven examples. The next version of OS X didn't discuss my needs at all.

Let's all fill out the feedback form, and if we still feel the same way in a week or two, go back and fill it out again, so they don't think that silence means acceptance.

"iWork for Dummies" should be the title of a book, not the name of the software.

Actually, you can also go to <http://help.apple.com/pages/mac/5.0/>, look up a few topics, and it will ask if your question got answered; one more opportunity to list the most needed v.4.x features that we'd like to see in v.5.0.

Saving a new document to any folder in Finder is not the problem. My problem is moving a document already saved in one folder to another folder in Finder. "Move to..." in '09 Pages displayed the entire Finder where I could choose the folder I needed. Now, using that function, I cannot sort any of my saved documents in any nested folders.

The one-layer default is a major reason I do not save my documents on iCloud.

"Saving a new document to any folder in Finder is not the problem. My problem is moving dcocuments already saved in one folder to other folders in Finder."

Okay, I see what you mean, but at the end of the "move to" drop-down menu is an "other" option. Select Other and it'll give you the Finder view.

Correct, but not the nested folders. It just saves automatically at that point.

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

 

The only thing that would grab Apple's attention is to hear from our lawyers.

Well, I thought they did reinstate at least some of the Final Cut features that FCX initially axed... (I am not an FCX user, merely recall vaguely having heard/read some about it.) iCloud ever so rudely killed many of the MobileMe features; now at least keychain syncing is back (although now Safari's choice for my e-mail is always the one that I never use). As for lawyers... I'll bet the EULA covers their posteriors.

In the File menu, Move to... is a function that enables (or used to) the movement of documents among folders.

File/Move to...

The very first operating system for the Mac didn't have a name, but in retrospect, we could call it System 1. It had a flat filing system, which was reasonable since there were only floppy disks for storage. You could put things in folders, but the folders didn't actually exist, they were like the "folders" in iOS. It wasn't until System 2 that there were actual folders on the Mac. (Interestingly, MS-DOS didn't have subdirectories until version 2.)

It's interesting that Apple has regressed all the way to 1985 with iCloud. They think, I suppose, that we only have a couple dozen documents each. The reason that they started the hierarchical filing system is still valid today. With computers, we tend to think, "this has been around for a long time, we need something different," when the real reason it has been around a long time is because it is an excellent solution. Imagine a car company saying, "wheels have been round for a long time. Let's make them square."

No one has a problem with a hierarchical filing system. Those who don't need it can simply put everything in one place. Those of us who do need it, can use it. Everyone is happy. Getting rid of it solves a problem that doesn't exist.