Character styles in Pages 5

Apple has gutted iWork for OS X in order to accomplish feature parity with iWork for iOS. Instead of switching to Word for Mac, I suggest that you look at Nisus Writer Pro, or consider switching platforms completely. It seems clear to me that Apple is not really interested in professionals anymore, and I don't expect any more pro hardware after the cash grab which is the new Mac Pro. Really disappointing, but there it is.

>Apple has gutted iWork for OS X in order to accomplish feature parity with iWork for iOS

This. Very articulate summary of what has just happened to our beloved iWork apps.

> Nisus Writer Pro

Looks like an amazing program. Thanks!

Gregory Lawhorn wrote:

…Or they don't actually USE the products they design.

I encourage everyone to make liberal use of Apple's feedback page, http://www.apple.com/feedback/

They don't use Apple software.

I think they use Keynote, but that is about it.

All the Apple staff I've talked to are Microsoft or Adobe users.

Peter

Character styles are still there. Highlight some text and in the TEXT inspector to the right look directly under where the Bold, Italic and Underline buttons are.

I posted this in another thread before I discovered this one:

I just upgraded to Pages 5.

I opened a document that I'd been working on in the previous version of Pages. It has several styles, incuding a bulleted list style called "main bullet".

I attempted to apply that style to a section of text, and while it did indent the text properly, it did not add bullets. (Also, in the Style panel a bullet does not appear next to the "main bullet" style as it does in Pages 4. This was my first clue that something was wrong.)

So I went back in the text to a bulleted list that uses the "main bullet" style. I selected the text, then went to the Style panel and chose "main bullet" > update style. This did not seem to help. The "main bullet" style still has no bullet next to it in the Style panel, and when I tried again to apply it to some text, the bullet doesn't appear.

I decided to try a different style, in this case "body". I went to a section that has the "main bullet" style, selected it, and applied "body". The indentation changed, but it did not remove the bullet as it was supposed to.

Is this a bug, or do styles work differently in Pages 5?

It appears that styles do not include formatting like bullets, which, if true, is a huge problem.

I was also upset to learn that once I've opened a document in Pages 5, I can no longer open it in Pages 4. So I'm essentially stuck with Pages 5 whether I like it or not.

Is anyone else noticing this?

I found the styles easily in the upper right corner but the hot keys are gone. SERIOUSLY???

You guys are right. Apple is so far lost from what made it great.

I have also been struggling with styles - all my templates from Pages 4 are a mess... it could be a learning curve thing but it's created a problem on productivity 😐.

I've kept Pages 4 going so that I can continue my work and I'm hesitant to *upgrade* my other systems.

THANK YOU, Edward Cross. YES, character styles are still there, and can be added to just like text/paragraph styles.

Hi s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s,

I tripped over the same thing. Clicking Update Style does not take you to style controls, it just updates the current name to match the selection. If there is no asterisk on the style name showing a difference between the selection and the named style, no change will happen.

And bullet mode seems to be funky. I'm not sure but seems like if you switch from a bullteted to a non-bulleted styles, sometimes it applies the new style with a bullet style override, indicated by an asterisk on the style name. Reapply that style and the bullet goes away. But you shouldn't have to.

Maybe my estimation of Pages is different because I haven't used it much until version 5. But I really enjoy the current form of the app. I've been using it for almost a year now, after over a decade of using Nisus Writer Pro -- which I continue to like and recommend.

Another factor, I suppose, is that my needs are pretty straightforward. I'm a novelist and I do occasional magazine pieces, book reviews and the like, so I'm not looking for power-user features. I basically produce manuscripts. I need some inter-operability with Word, which is ubiquitous in the publishing industry. (Nisus Writer excels in this area, BTW.) I like to be able to set up templates and styles so that things look the way I want them to, then never think about it again. I love being able to open a document on whatever device lies ready to hand. But I mostly want a clean uncluttered working space, an interface that feels natural and unobtrusive, and a generally elegant workflow (which I would be hard-pressed to define).

Earlier versions of Pages, for whatever reason, never felt quite right to me -- nor did AppleWorks, Claris Works or MacWrite before them. (I used WriteNow and Mariner Write before finding my way to Nisus Writer.) But this new Pages seems to suit me. So I just offer this as a differing opinion -- and a polite quibble with the thought that Pages in its current form is useless for real professionals.