I have transferred my documents from iMac to macbook air, but when I try to read then I get the message "This document is too old. Download it to version 09. How do I do that?

Hi Edinjock, I am not sure where you are with this problem but if you have the Pages application that you used to produce earlier documents, you need to open the application, then go to the 'template chooser' and at the bottom is a line "open existing document" which you need to select. This then takes you to the finder and you can search your folders for the document you wish to read/modify. Select it and it should open as before with your old Mac. You can then cut and paste it to a new Pages document which you can the save as normal (obviously, you need to have opened the new Pages application to do so). A bit long winded, but it worked for me with Pages 08 (3.03).

martin

I have iWork '08.

I can't open Pages from the Application Folder - I just keep getting the message "You can't open the application "Pages" because it is not responding. If I cough up the $20 for the latest Pages, will it be able to read my old files that contain pics and such (I used it like an old MacDraw program)? Just how dumbed down is the new version of Pages?

On the upside Numbers appears to be working, so at least I didn't lose my checkbook & tax records. So I got that going for me.

I ran into the same problem today with both Pages and Keynote files: I can't open older files (I haven't yet tried an older Numbers file). I'm running the latest Mac OS, 10.10.1 (Yosemite), and am using the latest versions of the software-formally-known-as-iWork.

One solution I tried was installing a trial version of iWork '09 (I found via Google on Softpedia). Unfortunately, Pages crashed when I tried to open it.

Realizing that I retain CDs and DVDs of Mac software, I installed the full version of iWork '09. Unfortunately, Pages crashed when I tried to open it. I'm guessing that Pages and Yosemite don't get along.

I also tried uploading an older Pages document to Pages on iCloud, but when I tried to open the document, it gave me the same message about needing to use iPages '09 first.

The only "solution" I've found it to right-click the document in question (by holding down the control key, then clicking), opening the document with Preview, and then exporting as a pdf (or printing it as a pdf).

So Apple is telling me that all my older Pages/Keynote/Numbers files are not useful any more, that I shouldn't need to open them or edit them. I think the new name for Pages/Keynote/Numbers should be iDontWork. And I was doing so well not to use Microsoft Office.

Trail Slider wrote:

Realizing that I retain CDs and DVDs of Mac software, I installed the full version of iWork '09. Unfortunately, Pages crashed when I tried to open it. I'm guessing that Pages and Yosemite don't get along.

No, you simply haven't updated the installed version to v4.3.

Peter

How do I update from 4.0 (the version on the iWork '09 DVD) to 4.3? I tried the App Store, but it says no updates are available.

iWork 9.3

Peter

Hi Trail Slider, as you can see from my earlier input on in this thread (20 Oct 14), I had just the same problem. First of all, I found a different workaround which was:

If you have the Pages application that you used to produce earlier documents (i.e. iWork 08), you need to open the original application, then go to the 'template chooser' and at the bottom is a line "open existing document" which you need to select. This then takes you to the finder and you can search your folders for the document you wish to read/modify. Select it and it should open as before with your old Mac. You can then cut and paste it to a new Pages document which you can then save as normal (obviously, you need to have opened the new Pages application to do so). A bit long winded, but it worked for me with Pages 08 (3.03). I have since found that the "open existing document" procedure also works with Pages 09, so that is worth a try.

Since then, I contacted Apple Care (as I had a new iMac which was covered) and they eventually sent me an iWork 09 DVD from which I downloaded the Pages application. The version that this gave me was v4.03. Now, when I get the message from Pages (v5.5.1) to open with Pages 09, I use Pages 09 and it works ok. I then save in the new Pages to save the hassle later on. I have no idea about v4.3 that has been mentioned by others. I haven't removed iWork 08 from my system 'just in case'! Also, I have no idea if this works with Numbers and Keynote as I don't use them much these days. The thing that I still find frustrating is that there is no indication in the filename whether it is a Pages 08/09 or the current version (5.5.1) document (they seem to have dropped the year from the name!)

I hope that this is helpful.

martin

or as has been said a thousand times:

right click > Open with…

Apple has always used .pages as the file extension no matter what version it actually is.

Peter

Peter:

Thanks for the update link. Updating to Pages 4.0.3. did the trick! Now Pages '09 works on my Mac (10.10.1).

Martin:

Your approach seemed a little too much effort for me 🙂, so I took another approach. My goal was to convert all my Pages docs to Word docs as I don't trust Pages any more (nor Numbers or Keynote).

First, I created an Automator script to find all my Pages files, using these draggable Actions:

* Get Specified Finder Items: I "added" my Documents folder.

* Get Folder Contents: I checked "Repeat for each subfolder found".

* Filter Finder Items: I used "Kind...is...other...pages" (I typed in "pages"; it also worked for "numbers" and "keynote"). After I ran the script, clicking on "Results" showed me the list of Pages files.

(I'm not including my script since you should never run a script from someone you don't know, IMO.)

I double-clicked each file to open it up in Pages, and from there, exported to Word (likewise Numbers -> Excel, Keynote -> PowerPoint). I then deleted the original Pages file.

For me, my problem is solved, albeit it took me a couple of hours.

I just upgraded my old iMac to a new one (iMac). I can't open any of my older pages documents. I have the cd for iWork '09, but I don't have a cd slot! Suggestions anyone?