How do I get text to flow from one page to the next in Pages 5?

Agreed. No belabor intended.

When I saw that there had been changes to the latest Pages recently, I tried it on one of my two 27" iMacs. The other I have reverted to 09 and booted the new Pages from it altogether. I publish online magazines, and two features that have disappeared are just crucial. The first is text box linking that automatically flows from page to page as 09 did. The second is the ability to move pages from one location to another, as was possible in 09, using the sidebar. When I saw the sidebar back, I figured this might have been restored. No such luck.

The new Pages is just useless to me for all but writing a blog or a letter.

If Apple are ever going to get serious about replacing the PC and Microsoft junk, they are going to have to think of the various tasks people perform in a given program. How could anyone NOT think the ability to design a magazine with text flow from boxes, which automatically adjusts to additional pages as you add images to a page, was essential for a program like this? How could they NOT know that the sidebar ability to move pages about was crucial?

Our company run a bunch of Macs, from several 27" iMacs to MacBooks and MacBook Airs, and of course iPads, etc. But the iPad will NEVER be what a Mac is for what we do.

The point is, Apple don't seem to learn when it comes to software--the hardware is great. When Final Cut went to the newer version, we got the same treatment--a half-baked release.

And iCloud is still half-baked, with features that can't be used in the cloud but are on the desktop.

Also, the new iTunes radio--does anyone at Apple read the many comments? It stalls, stalls, stalls on so many of your self-created stations. I don't want to listen to rock. I want a station that features people like Hayley Westenra. But I get the same songs again and again, and then silence. And sometimes just plain silence with no songs. Again, when is someone going to either fix this or just tell us straight out, "Sorry, but you can't have a station for..." Then we can go elsewhere. Much of the time, I'm now back to listening to Cinemix on the Apple internet setting. I need music that works for my writing and editing.

When is someone going to YELL LIKE CRAZY inside the Apple headquarters, as Steve was wont to do, and GET THESE THINGS FIXED? The software is vital to the whole Apple picture.

Well, I removed 05 from the iMac, with OS 10.9.1 and am now running Pages 09. You would think Apple would be busy impowering its users to publish on the web and publish in print and create content for easy distribution through it's electronic hub (computers of all types). But it is not. iWeb is crippled compared to what is needed, Pages is crippled compared to what is needed. I am now looking at open source solutions for my publishing needs.

Without Steve I doubt Apple will wake up. At least not until another groups of leaders comes online and follows and improves on Steve's genius.

Terry

Terrence R. Redding wrote:

iWeb is crippled compared to what is needed

Apple dropped that in 2011, nobody should be using it any more I hope.

Terry, now you've REALLY done it--you went and mentioned iWeb! Someone else talked about the HTML export capacity of an earlier version also. Why, why, why didn't Apple develop iWeb, with all its simplicity, into something that would truly allow us to publish dead easily on the web?

Why didn't they add the ability to take a Pages document, such as a book, and do a simple conversion into eBook formats for ALL platforms? Kindle, Nook, iTunes--not just Apple.

Would to God that iWeb would come back and be really developed!

yorkmin wrote:

the ability to take a Pages document, such as a book, and do a simple conversion into eBook formats for ALL platforms?

Pages does export epub, which is the primary standard for ebooks and is certainly readable on a lot more platforms than just Apple.

I wonder whether you perhaps missed my point. ALL platforms. That means Kindle, too. In other words, ePub plus Mobi. A huge number of people use Kindle. I use the Kindle app on my iPad, for instance.

Another factor: you can't currently download an audiobook from an independent website, even though it's in a format like m4b or mp3, directly to the iPad or iPhone. You have to have a computer and transfer it. (Well, it can be done--but it's complex, using a couple of different programs including Dropbox for storage on the iPad. Far beyond a simple purchase.)

And yet, Apple sparked the very revolution that is now producing a bumper crop of individuals who have replaced their computers with the iPad or iPhone as their sole access to the internet. So if these people want a book from an independent site like ours, too bad.

Again, it's a half-baked approach that doesn't need defending, but fixing.

I've just been reading this thread as I searched to find a solution to the text box flow problem and I can't believe Apple took this feature out of Pages! It beggars belief. The Pages interface is much worse than the previous version and now I find it's actually been set back. Do Apple not like customers? I don't like Word for Mac, and I really enjoyed the old pages, but I don't think I'll be able to load it back on. Any idea about how I can do that? Thanks.

Pages '09 should be in your Applications/iWork folder.

Rate/review Pages 5 in the App Store.

Peter

I am also very frustrated to have lost that feature. All my templates I created don't work on Pages 5! At least Pages 09 is still in the application folder... I'll definitely just continue to use that one!

I agree with you thoughts on Pages 05. I have never understood Apple when it comes to their software. They start and never finish. I had a copy of Claris Works once and it had a flat file type database that worked pretty well. If they had continued to improve their software from what it was at one time, they could probably challenge MS Office now. It seems like they start a project, work on it some, mess it up, then drop it. I really thought Pages was going to be a good word processor/publisher. Apple, why not carry through on one project just one time. We all love the OS. Do something with the software!

Spot on!

Peter

Hi all, sorry but I'm new to Mac and Pages.

I created a document in Pages 5, and want to link two text boxes. When I tried to open that doc in Pages 09, it gave me a 'can't be opened - the required index.xml file is missing.'

How do I transfer/open the doc so I can use 5?

Thanks!

There is no linked Text box support in Pages v5 (any release), and you cannot directly open Pages v5 documents in Pages '08, or '09 applications. Attempts to do so will be met with the dialog and message that the index.xml file cannot be found. You can export to Pages '09 from Pages v5.

If you have Pages '09, it has 100+ features that were not added to Pages v5.

I don't know what you are expecting, but you can't fix Pages 5 problems with Pages '09. They are two separate Applications.

Pages '09 works. Pages 5.x mostly doesn't.

If you want to stick with Pages 5 you will have to limit your ambitions to what is possible in the "New! Improved!" user interface.

If you are unhappy with the 100+ missing features Rate/Review Pages 5.5.2 in the App Store.

Peter