No mail merge in Pages 5.0? Any one know a secret?

I'll try your solution. Hope it works!

I've been a loyal Pages user since it came out but I'm really disappointed with Pages 5.0. It's lost many of the functions that I use in my business and the biggest one is the lack of mail merge.

I use that at least a few times a week and now I'm forced to either go back to Pages '09 or use Word. I can't believe that Apple would rip this basic functionality out of it. It seems that Apple is going backwards in their software.

And why did it eliminate all the fills that I had in my document tables? That's ridiculous. Now it will literally take me hours to make my documents look like they did. Upgraded software is supposed to make things better - not break them!

thanks for clarifying that brian as i was a little confused and thought #1 had been solved, however its clear that it hasnt.

why apple would remove functionality like mail merge has me shaking my head... i & my staff use it every day and it is a hassle and waste of time to have to switch back to pages '09 to do, which then cause problems saving and reopeining etc....

i'm dumbfounded by this.

Thanks lady43bugfor sharing, will try that!

Using Get Info to change all documents to open with Pages 4.3 doesn't work. It will work on individual files, but that could be a lot of files to reset.

You can have the iWork '09 apps be the default but still have the new apps installed. After I installed the new iWork updates I created a folder on an external drive & named it "other applications." I then moved the new iWork apps to this folder & renamed the applications Keynote 6, Pages 5 & Numbers 3. I have icons for two versions of Pages & Numbers (I rarely use Keynote) in my Dock. Even with two versions of Pages & Numbers running, double-clicking an existing file opens in Pages 4.3 or Numbers 2.3. This should also keep the Mac App Store from nagging you to update.

Hmm...I tried this because I've found it to be a useful trick for other applications. It doesn't seem to be 100% reliable, at least for me. Even with Pages 4 open if I double click on a Pages 4 document sometimes it launches and opens Pages 5. If I want to work on an iWork '09 document I launch the app first then drag the file onto its icon on the Dock. That is 100% reliable.

I tried changing to open with 4.3 rather than 5.0 but it consistently reverts to 5.0. Can anyone tell me how to kill these so called upgrades and go back to what i had? My work efficiency is much more important than playing games with a new and less functional versions of numbers and pages.

Trash Pages 5 or compress it so the System can't open it.

Peter

Just an FYI. If you've already upgraded to Mavericks and want to get mail merge back by deleting Pages 5 and reinstalling iWork '09 – it won't work. Even iWork '09 mail merge is broken in Mavericks. You will find that you can only select the first column in any table to link to. If you want mail merge it will have to be iWork '09 in OS X 10.8.

Read my posts in this thread more carefully. The merge pallete of Pages 4 is broken in Mavericsks BUT after choosing your Numbers document or the Contacts app, use the insert menu to select your merge fields. It DOES work.

Big apology. I, unfortunately hadn't read your posts at all. When I selected this thread I was sent to the second page of responses. I'm very relieved that it does work. I can now begin testing my work laptop for the Mavericks upgrade. The issue now is whether it functions with ActivInspire on the Promethean Interactive White Board.

Please remember to send fedback to Apple to let them know what you (and so many other users) need.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html

There is a temporary solution if you don't mind going back to Pages '09 with your new Pages 5 document. Pages 5.0 gives you a choice export your Pages 5 document as "Pages '09". Export as "Pages '09" (make sure to label it as created for merging) and then open in previous version of Pages. Updating to Pages 5 did not destroy your previous 4.3 version. It's in your apps!

Now! If you were using a Numbers spreadsheet for your data source, and have also upgraded to the newer version on Numbers, you can follow the same workflow. You will have to export your spreadsheet as Numbers '09 and use that as your merge source. SO you will have to continue to open and work with your Pages '09 and Numbers '09 documents to do your merges until Apples provides us an update containing a mail merge workflow. Ugly I know, but it will tie you over. Apple never leaves you hangin' forever.

For temporary read "annoying" and "probably" forever.

Peter

One thing to note here, Mavericks apparently doesn't allow pages to access your contacts by default and so I spent days trying to get a virtual machine and all kinds of other things to make this work. Turns out, all you need to do is go to the privacy settings and allow your contacts to be accessed by pages. I could kill someone right now. This almost drove me crazy.