How to open my Pages 3.0 documents on Pages 5

Same here. Please help!

After installing the new OSX 10.9, I bought iWorks '09 from the Apple Store. I tried to open files created by the old version (iWorks 08, pages 3.0.3) and I got the same message as well "This document can't be opened because it's too old. To open it, save it with Pages '09 first".

Per some prior posts about similar problems, I went to my home user library and deleted preferences - com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist and caches - com.apple.iWork.Pages. This did not help either.

IWorks 09 isn't going to do me a lot of good if I can't open my old documents with it!

This is a huge issue. I never bought Pages '09, and so now that I bought 5.0 I'm stuck with a bunch of Pages documents that I can't use in the latest version of Pages, and I can't convert them. Hopefully if anyone comes up with a fix they'll post it here...

@jbhenryNot really a satisfying solution when you have to deal with hunderts of old documents. In iPhoto 5 there's an importer for old libraries, why not in Pages?

My wife is having this exact same issue. She uses Pages 3.0 all the time on her 08 MacBook Pro, and decided to upgrade to the new Pages now, only to find that she needs an intermediary Pages to convert all of her documents. There has to be an easy way to convert all Pages documents to being readable with the new software...

I have this problem too. It's very frustrating. I upgraded to Mavericks and got the new Pages 5.0. I was using Pages 3.0 and have loads of documents saved in this version. Thankfully, the new Pages didn't remove the old one, so I ended up cutting and pasting my documents from the old into the new - but I don't want to do that for all my documents! They need to fix this, and allow older version documents to be opened and saved in the new Pages. I was going to buy the new Numbers but won't now because I will probably have the same problem.

Same issue here, absolutely frustrating.

When I reported the problem to the iTunes Store, Here's what they replied:

"Greetings from iTunes Store Customer Support. My name is Nisanth and I am glad to assist you today.

I understand that the Mac app "Pages" you recently purchased is not functioning as expected. I know how eager you are to get this issue fixed. I will surely help you.

Stephen, in five to seven business days, a credit of 21.09 USD should be posted to the credit card that appears on the receipt for that purchase.

The steps outlined in this article resolve many common issues with apps:

Troubleshooting applications purchased from the App Store

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1702

Troubleshooting the Mac App Store

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3624

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for being an iTunes Store customer. Have a great day!"

Here is my reply:

What’s the deal?

This was faulty software, and you are admitting it? I get my money back, but what about the hassle??

I’m not the only one with the problem:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5469622?answerId=23508739022#23508739022&ac_cid=tw123456#23508739

You pay more for Apple - you expect more in return.

Has Apple gone to the ObamaCare software development model??

I suggest that you buy a retail copy of iWork '09 from Amazon or eBay then you can update to the new iWork apps in the Mac App Store for free. You might check this link for the iWork '09 trial. I have no idea if it is still available.

If you have not been able to open filesin Pages 5 you are very fortunate. It appears to be a disaster. It is being called a downgrade rather than an upgrade. Check this thread before proceding any further.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5468056?tstart=0

Walt

Walt,

Thanks for the good info.

After reading your post, I took a closer look at Pages 5, and it is clearly a step backwards. All it appears the developers did was add some templates, and reduce functionality by simplifying the interface. Version 5.0 was not based on the ObamaCare software development model - it's based on the Mary Tyler Moore cosmetic surgery model. I am fine with the inspector as it is in 3.0, although it took a while to figure out how it worked since it's not a typical interface.

I really like Pages and hope that Apple gets it back on track. I use it to lay out a newsletter; it does everything I need it to do simply and easily. Easier to use and more capable that Word, much simpler and much easier to use than what's in Adobe Creative Suite. A quick, easy way to lay out any document more complex than a simple letter. I hope that it's not on the way out.

Why does inexpensive, simple, capable, useable software always gets screwed up??

Steve

Here's what I did - and it seemed to work with a few minor formatting problems. Go to File>Export, then choose DOC format - then import that into Pages 5.0.

In general though - if you can, you may as well continue using the old version as long as it is working for you.

My wife only had less than 60 Pages documents and less than 60 Numbers documents, so I simply set up an Automator Workflow to open all the Pages documents in the Pages 09 Trial, and with key combinations, I quickly saved and closed each document. It only took about 10 minutes total, but I bet with a bit more work, there is a way to get an Automator workflow to do it all for you.

It works, many thanks! 🙂