Q: Pages 5 features checklist

As someone mentioned above, you can enable text-to-speech by going to system preferences -> keyboard -> shortcuts -> app shortcuts and adding an "All Applications" shortcut for "Start Speaking", which does work in Pages 5.0

The Typography functions in the Font Window in Pages 5  do not work at all.

Some exampes, in Pages 5, I cannot gain access to the real, designed small caps — neither for lower case or upper case letters — in Open Type fonts that on my system (for example, Chapparal Pro or Charter ITC Pro.

Also in Pages 5, I cannot toggle between Old Style figures and Lining Figures in fonts that have them.

And typographic extras, such as slashed zeros, are not accessible in Pages 5.

Pretty much, no typographic functions work in Pages 5.

But in Text Edit, all the typographic functions I have tried — including those used as examples above — work jut fine.

I don’t know where the bugs lie. Are they in Mavericks? Are they in Pages 5 and Nisus Writer Pro?

Wherever they are, they need to be fixed quickly. I prepare documents as my business, and these functions are necessary for me to perform my job.

Also, I cannot Group a text box within a shape, so that I can move them as one.

Even more important to me, the Vertical Ruler is gone. It needs to be replaced.

What you are saying is true, but it means that they developed a new iOS app and ported it to the Mac. They are turning your Mac into a $3,000 iPad that you can't carry around. Desktop features won't fit on an iPad, so they removed them.

This is not good news, it is not good software design, it is not a good strategy. Microsoft made a "tablet" that is really a netbook ironed flat. We laugh at them for trying to put a desktop OS on their "tablet." Now they can laugh at Apple for trying to put a tablet OS on a desktop. We are not amused.

Windows users used to look down on Macs as toys. Who knew that was actually a prophecy that is beginning to come true? Does Apple think we are all eleven years old?

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/25/some-power-users-are-unhappy-with-lost-featu res-in-the-new-iwork/

http://macdailynews.com/2013/10/24/apples-pages-5-0-an-unmitigated-disaster/

Pages 5 is a total disaster. How can apple release a product with stripped down features than the older one. This is a total downgrade. It should be namedUNproductivity tool as this would cause anybody who used to love working with Pages hate it so badly because of how it can affect their previous work. I used to work on Pages to create stunning brochures, and posters, and I like the features allowing for using the thumbnail views to copy and create versions of the posters or brochures I am working. Now we can't do anything with thumbnail views. How can we even work on this version. Total disgrace at how dumb current people working in apple are. Are they even using their products. Pages 09 was eons a lot better than Pages 5. Total disgusted with this product. Even if they pay me me 500 dollars to use this, I wont even use this, this will get me fired. Dude! Te temerity to call this leaps in improvement? What the!!

http://gigaom.com/2013/10/26/addition-by-subtraction-hands-on-with-apples-new-iw ork-productivity-software/

Fit to window does not work properly in Pages 5. It does not change page size after resizing of the window, which makes feature pretty useles for me. It worked like that in '09.

mephisante wrote:

 

Also, not that many will care, but I will point out that iWork for Mac and iWork for iOS now use the same system, no more converting back and forth. Apple didn't "remove" these features, they rewrote the app pretty much from scratch to be 64bit and cross-compatible with iOS and the web. Why they had to do that is up for debate, but missing features are missing because this is a whole new piece of software that will age much better than the previous version would have. That doesn't mean they shouldn't re-add them or that it's not frustrating, as a software developer I just want people to know Apple and other developers who "remove" features with major releases are maliciously removing your favorite feature, and it will probably come back, especially with a lot of people posting bug reports and enhancement requests! /rantover

You're missing the point entirely. Apple did remove these features: they were there; they're not there now. Whether this was due to rewriting it from scratch or not, they've been removed. You say the features will "probably come back" - in the meantime I'll just skip my weekly mail merge and then be suitably grateful if that feature eventually returns. You write "as a software developer" - try writing as a user that committed to the software four years ago, that has four years worth of work committed to the software, who's found out the hard way that the software developers have chosen to screw him and his four years worth of work into the ground. You might get off on the technical sensibilities of this abomination but for those of us to whom the software has become a part of daily business workflow this is anathema. Your omission of the word "not" in "I just want people to know Apple and other developers who "remove" features with major releases are maliciously removing your favorite feature" sums the situation up perfectly.

My £2,700 MacBook Pro Retina is a tiny bit more powerful than an iPad. Why the **** should I have to put up with software written for the iPad? Apple could have released something called, say, iSparkle, with cute icons and all the crappy cross-Apple-platform stuff bundled into it and, at some future point if the feature set caught up, those of us who use 4.3 as a busines tool could have chosen to move across. Instead, somebody has gutted the software and imposed iSparkle upon all of us, leaving 4.3 in a development dead-end and the investment of time and effort that many people have put into it is of necessity now chucked in the bin.

G.d preserve us from self-centred, self-righteous techies with no concept of how the real world operates.

So saddened by this. I loved Pages and now it's been completely gutted. I am going to have to use Scrivener now.

After two days fighting with the "new" Pages (I must work, after all) I made a list of 14 serious problems and went to my apple retailer here in Brazil. The "apple specialist" looked at me with a grim smile and offered a special discount on the  "MS Office for Mac". I answered that I really liked the old Pages, and HAVE BOUGHT my iMac (very, very expensive here in Brazil) just to escape from Microsoft.  "I am really sorry", was his honest answer.

And now? These last two days seemed a nightmare. I cannot downgrade to the old Pages, because I've opened some important files to read them (at least the file size bug was solved) in my Ipad (changing the files forever to the new Pages, I suspected when I saw oranges pens everywhere). Orange pens, my God! I tried to work in a new file: it took me twice the usual time to copy and paste text from pdf sources. The sidebar is a disaster, you have to find the menu and click three or four times, while earlier you could solve it with just one little and clean button (style, bold, italic, paragraph, paste keeping the style, view when opened, etc.).

I am following this discussion, waiting for someone FROM APPLE to finally reply to all our posts, saying: "Don't worry, we will fix it!".

As I already wrote I don't understand Apple.

Why do they want the iOS and OSX versions of iWork to be the same? (I konw it's technically easier to develop 1 instead of 2 versions)

I would never use my iPad and even less my iPhone to create a complexe document, table or presentation!

The fiddling to get it 100% right isn't given! I use DTP apps since I use computers (C=64, C=128, Amiga, Atari ST, Psion pocketcomputers (the best PDA ever), Dec/Sun Workstations, Macs… privately never had a PC or used MS Software). Most know-how on DTP was acquired with PageStream on my Amiga. (Unfortunately the Mac version is too buggy!)

All my documents are created on my MacBook or iMac computers, using iWork 09 which is great though still missing many professional features I was used to. But they make my day and I can create documents and presentations very fast. But this is impossible with a tablet, as my fingers aren't accurate enough. No I don't want a stylus (sorry Microsoft, nor do I want MS Word (the most terrible word processor out there).

Pages (old version) on my iPad, was good enough to write some letters but not more. Keynote is ok for viewing/showing presentations if one doesn't have complexe transitions with tables and icons as I often do.

Numbers is ok for viewing tables but not editing, takes too long to change something, most times I do destroy my cells.

People buy tablets for entertainment purposes. Those who use them on a professional level either do have special created apps, but surely don't do professional documents, tables or presentations.

I will try to work as long with iWork 09 as possible. But already now Apple is destroying my documents within th iCloud by loading them into the iWork 13 apps on my iPad. I can't reload them in 09.

Further I really don't want iCloud either! Give me a better me.com (à la dropbox) back. I want to have my docs on my own server, for use with the app I want!

MicroSoft was right last week when one of their managers twittered "iWork on the iPad is rubbish!" For one time they were right. But having a full blown Word isn't the way either.

I want iWork 09 with much more easy to use features, but not having to scroll through hundreds of menus.

Why not have the pro features as hidden option, so the us pro users can have fun too.

I really hope Apple will reintroduce the lost features and more, but not in 2 years, I want them now!

Message was edited by: cyberhusky69

Jorge Br wrote:

 

I am following this discussion, waiting for someone FROM APPLE to finally reply to all our posts, saying: "Don't worry, we will fix it!".

Apple employees don't post here (besides some community members, but only if the poster didn't get sufficient help), especially not engineers who are busy at work programming their brains out. Talking to an Apple Store employee won't cause them to bring back any features - you need to send your feedback directly to Apple, either via bugreport.apple.com or apple.com/feedback (or both), if you have not done so already. But I am positive they're working hard on bringing back these features. Perhaps they're prioritizing which ones to work on first based on customer response.

Peter,

I have completely removed Pages 5 from my system. I did save a renamed copy to a locked folder on an external hard drive. When I deleted it, it did ask for my password I assume for permission to remove system files. If I right-click on a .pages file Pages 4.3 is listed now as default. However, if I go to Software Update or Puchases it still considers it installed. Update does not seem to know it is not there anymore.

The 1 star ratings in the App Store now far outnumber the 5 star.