export .pages to .docx makes file size bigger

Question

export .pages to .docx makes file size bigger

Hi,

I'm new to "Pages" application having just moved from windows PC over to MacBook Pro (a long overdue change that I wish I had made years ago)

I've opened a windows ".docx" file within Pages and it worked fine, saving as ".pages".

However, in order to upload to job sites, they all want a .doc or .docx format file. So within Pages, I opened my .pages file and used the "File->Export To->Word..." and selected "Word" and in the "Advanced Options" I selected the format as ".docx". This worked fine.

However, the file size of the .pages file is 425KB, but the .docx file is 502KB. Normally I couldn't care less, but I'm finding job sites that will only accept upload of a file that is less than 500KB. They all specify ".doc" or ".docx" format so they can be searchable, and do not offer the option of a ".pages" version.

Other than the obvious "why don't you remove some text", can anyone help me save to a smaller file or reduce the .docx file size?

(I tried to download "OpenOffice" to my MacBook Pro, but then received a warning before opening that it was not installed from the Apple App store and as such should not be trusted, but could not find it in the App store.... I didn't want to go any further!).

Thanks

Bob

MacBook Pro Retina. OS X Mavericks... soon to be Yosemite!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), Apple ID

Posted on Oct 21, 2014 6:09 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

VikingOSX

Community+ 2024

Level 10

111,809 points

Oct 21, 2014 6:18 AM in response to nicolafromwoodchurch

Pages v5 exports bloated Word documents. The trick to get this half-megabyte file to be in the low, double-digit file size, is to open with (my choice) the free LibreOffice, and then save immediately as another-name.docx. My 512KB Word export from Pages v5.2.2 was reduced to 12KB via this approach. Others have performed this unbloat operation using Word in Office for Mac 2011.

On OS X, in an effort to protect you against potential malicious coding outside of the App Store, you will get the warning on first clicking something like OpenOffice or LibreOffice about the unknown developer. Right-click on the application in /Applications, and choose open. Subsequent invocations of the application will open normally via the Dock, or double-click.

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Answer 2

Oct 21, 2014 12:58 PM in response to VikingOSX

Hi,

Thanks for prompt reply. Brilliant! I did accept the OpenOffice app and it opened fine, and I now have a file that is just 52KB == 1/10th of original size, and stored in ".doc" format (.docx isn't available to save as in OpenOffice, I wonder if LibreOffice has it?). Maybe this is an area that the Pages development team could address in a future release.

Looks like I'll possibly have to keep this file in OpenOffice in the future to avoid this changing back and forth from .pages <-> .docx and any subsequent anomalies between the two.

Thanks again.

Bob

Just an aside, do you know if there is a free app (or cheap app) that performs as OpenOffice or LibreOffice does? Ultimately I'd rather use Pages, and I don't have any intention of paying Microsoft their inflated prices! I'd rather have an app that has been Apple approved as this was one of the big pluses for me going over to them and avoiding all the pitfalls that windows opens itself up to (but at least I now have Time Machine if it all goes very wrong!!)

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Answer 3

Oct 21, 2014 2:34 PM in response to nicolafromwoodchurch

The issue with Pages is this: no other application on earth can open this document format, and as Apple has demonstrated, Pages v5.5 on Yosemite, cannot be opened with Pages v5.2.2 on Mavericks, which cannot be opened with Pages ’09 v4.3. One has to either export to Pages ’09, or .doc/x. Word Processing on Apple is an island with one bridge to the mainland: Word documents.

OpenOffice and LibreOffice use the same native open document (.odt) architecture. LibreOffice is more actively developed, supports many more document formats (including MS Publisher, Word Perfect, and Visio), and certainly can save as .doc, .docx, and Microsoft .rtf format. I have LibreOffice installed, and that 512KB Word (.docx) document? LibreOffice shrunk that down to a 12KB .docx. It was 14 pages and 60 paragraphs of text. Both OpenOffice, and LibreOffice are intended to be superset replacements for MS Office.

A competent, word processing application on the Mac that is free or inexpensive, and performs as the OO/LO applications? The following are in the OS X App Store, and I held the price below USD$50.

Swift Publisher 3 (DTP) - TIFF, JPEG, EPS, and PDF output, proprietary data format
iStudio Publisher (DTP) - PDF, ePub, and RTF documents, otherwise proprietary
Mellel(WP) - import: text, .doc/x, .rtf, ePub, save as: .mellel, export: text, .doc, ePub, PDF. 30-day trial.
NeoOffice 2014.5 (Office replacement) - (based on OpenOffice, Mac UI). Free edition cannot save documents.

Mellel is probably the most serious word processor, and is designed for writers. Text looks nicer set (kerning?) than Pages.

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