Pages 5.2 creates huges files when exporting into Word format

You don't have to use Pages, particularly the lobotomised version: Pages 5.2.

Pages seems to be carrying a lot of extra baggage in its new format, which is carrying over to Exported files.

It is what it is.

Use Pages '09 which should still be in your Applications/iWork folder or one of the many alternatives:

http://www.freeforum101.com/iworktipsntrick/viewforum.php?f=7&mforum=iworktipsnt rick

The best of the bunch probably is LibreOffice [free], but there are several other alternatives.

Peter

A .docx file is really a ZIP archive with a different extension. If you unzip it, you can see that Pages is embedding a large image at word/media/image1.png. The image doesn't bear any obvious relationship to the document or anything included in it. I've no idea where it's coming from, though!

atomnet

I took the Report template from the Template Chooser, unchanged and exported it to docx.

Then I unarchived it and there is no media folder or image1.png. Just various nested .xml files for each part of the document, all adding up to 12k size.

Peter

Interesting — so this affects some templates and not others. I don't have a template called "Report", but the "Essay" template under Reports exports to a small Word file, as does the "Classic Letter" template under Stationery.

The basic "Blank" and "Note Taking" templates export to large (~500kB) Word files, as does a custom template I have.

Sorry yes it was Essay, I took the name from the first line.

I tested the two you mentioned and all the oversize is due to the blue texture file used for the default shape fill.

Why this would be included in these two documents and not the other is a mystery only Apple can answer.

But the question on everyone's lips since the new iWork apps came out with Mavericks is

"What the @#$% is Apple thinking?"

Peter

Yes, it's the default shape fill — the unaffected templates seem to have a solid or gradient fill as the default, not a texture. It seems that Pages 5.2 embeds this in exported Word files, whether or not you're actually using it.

And it turns out that leads to another workaround. This may be useful if you've already created a document you want to export to Word, and you don't want to start over.

• Click the "Shape" toolbar icon and add a shape using the default (specked blue) fill.
• In the "Style" sidebar, expand "Fill", and select "Color Fill".
• In the "Style" sidebar, right-click the default fill and choose "Redefine Style from Selection".
• Click "OK" in the dialog that pops up.
• Delete the shape you created in the first step, unless you want to keep it for some reason.

Why on Earth include a superfluous file, that isn't even used, in the Word Export?

Pages 5 is really the pits from top to bottom, …and beyond.

Peter

Having exactly the same issue. Wrote an essay in Pages, my university only accepts submissions in .doc format so I exported it and it was 1.5MB! Way too large to submit electronically. I opened the file on another Mac with MS Office on it in Word, hit Cmd + S and the file went down to 42KB!!! I mean, what's going on? Do Apple want us to not use their apps?

Why use Pages for essays?

Apple really doesn't care, even less so now that they are giving away Pages, Numbers & Keynote.

Peter

Because it was the only suitable editor on my own Mac, the other belongs to a friend. Suppose I'll download LibreOffice for now. Do you know if the word counts it produces tally with MS Word (i.e. if it uses the same rules for what counts as a word -- Pages gives a significantly different number to Word)?

There are alternatives to Pages v5 that output very compact .doc/x documents. I chose a paragraph of 636 characters placed on a default, blank document template. Here are the results in three different WP solutions, with the same content.

The word (93) and character count (636) are identical in all documents produced by these three applications.

Pages v5.2: .doc: 1.5 MB, .docx: 496 KB

Pages ’09 v4.3: .doc: 17 KB, .docx: n/a.

LibreOffice v4.2.4.2: .doc: 11 KB, .docx: 4 KB

I presume so.

Other alternatives:

Bean, iText Express, TextEdit, LibreOffice all free and can Save/Open directly in Word .doc/x format.

iAWriter is also another good alternative.

Peter

Thanks guys! You've both been very helpful :-)

Comprehensive file size comparison

All files are the same 10,000 character text file saved to different formats.

File Format Kb

Interesting that Mavericks reports not just different file sizes to Snow Leopard, but different ascending order!

Peter