Other Word Processors than Pages? & why do we have to pay for an upgrade that is incomplete?

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Level 1

5 points

Other Word Processors than Pages? & why do we have to pay for an upgrade that is incomplete?

I am very unhappy.

In order to access my documents from iCloud I have to upgrade to Mavericks (free, alright) and the new Pages, for which I have to pay.

The new Pages (and Numbers etc) does not have the same functionality as the one I have been using - yet I have to pay for it. Alright, Apple promises to upgrade in the next six months and add the new functionality. This is not good enough.

This was a very unpleasant surprise today - when I went to my document that I have been working on on my iPhone and my Mac at various times during the day and the Mac one had changed to 'Untitled 47' and the version on my iPhone would not open on my Mac unless I upgraded to the new Pages - $19.99 - and to OSX Mavericks - free - but I don't want to upgrade yet. And I don't want to pay for a new version of Pages that clearly does not have the same functionality(according to the user comments and the apple page that this discussion is about).

I have praised Apple to high heaven for the functionality of iCloud. But this really really annoys me.

If there's anything I hate its a company I am relying on forcing me to upgrade before they've sorted out the bugs.

I am definitely considering changing to a different company's word processor - if only they had a word processor that I could use on my Mac and iOS devices.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Posted on Nov 29, 2013 3:13 AM

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Answer 1

A Partington Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 29, 2013 4:33 AM in response to A Partington

I have just been doing some web searches. I am certainly NOT upgrading to Mavericks. Custom fonts apparently do not work and cause iWorks to crash and need to be reinstalled. I really can't be bothered going through this hassle!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5476685

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5477049?answerId=23586735022#23586735022

Apple, this is not good enough! Surely such a big company has the resources to do things properly? Don't you realise people rely on your products for their work, their employment, their income? Don't you understand that reliability beats bells and whistles?

I would certainly appreciate anyone's advice on word processors that can be used on Mac and iOs devices that can sync via the iCloud, that are able to use bold, italic, underline and basic text formatting. i.e. something like Pages that I can switch to.

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,420 points

Nov 29, 2013 5:13 AM in response to A Partington

To make sure Apple hears you views, also post them at

http://www.apple.com/feedback

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,420 points

Nov 29, 2013 5:30 AM in response to A Partington

A Partington wrote:

a word processor that I could use on my Mac and iOS devices.

Three I have heard about but not tried myself are WriteRoom, Byword, and IA Writer.

You would presumably need to use something other than iClound for sync, such as Dropbox.

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Answer 4

A Partington Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 29, 2013 6:38 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks Tom! Following your advice I posted a (shorter) version at feedback.

And thanks for those hints. Yes I've been looking at those ones.

IA Writer and Byword both can use the iCloud.

Writeroom only syncs using Dropbox.

Of course they're very minimal apps compared to Pages, or Word.

I feel very depressed.

Perhaps I will have to use one of these and then import into Word for final editing.

Believe it or not, for a minute I thought MS Word might be a contender for iOS syncing - because there is this thing called Office 365. But look at the reviews.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/office-mobile-for-office-365/id541164041

I really don't want to deal with all the problems of updating to Mavericks just now.

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Answer 5

Jeff Shenk

Level 4

3,005 points

Nov 29, 2013 6:50 AM in response to A Partington

I think the basic problem you are encountering is that anything designed to be compatible with the core concepts of iOS devices is going to fall into that category of "very minimal apps compared to Pages [v. 4].

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Answer 6

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,420 points

Nov 29, 2013 6:58 AM in response to A Partington

Have a look at Textilus (ios).

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Answer 7

A Partington Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 29, 2013 7:32 AM in response to A Partington

Textilus looks pretty good, actually... I'm going to download it and have a play with it! (the free version)

But I have so many documents in Pages.

I have worked out a temporary workaround for Pages, for now:

1) don't use pages on my iPhone. (I wish I could revert to the earlier version actually but I don't think that's possible)

2) use Pages on iPad. Don't update it.

3) email to myself any documents that iPhone has changed (making them unreadable by old Pages versions) as .doc documents. Loses fonts, but most other things seem to be there.

4) Don't update computer to iOS Mavericks, and therefore don't update Pages on Mac.

Man this really ***** though.

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