Pages update 5.5.3 for Mac details

Apple never said, certainly no Auto-capitalisation.

I haven't spotted anything new or even fixed.

Peter

The first few reviews are TERRIBLE, listing features stripped out in 5.5.3, presumably in the race to make a MacBook into a folding iPad.

Obviously these are from a small number of self-selected individuals, but in view of your concern you really do need more information before committing.

I've decided not to take the update.

I'm new to Apple, and was just about getting used to Pages 5's little quirks, but my gut feeling is that I'll be back on MS Word one day. Not yet, though - I believe there's a big upgrade due. Let's hope it is Up and not Down.

David

The problem is with Pages 5, not Pages 5.5.3 specifically, and I am curious how you "believe there's a big upgrade due"?

What are your sources, or is this just a feeling you have?

Peter

The next big upgrade from Apple will occur shortly after the next cataclysmic eruption at Yellowstone. The demand for functional word processing applications will have dwindled by then.

Good points, Peter.

Yes, I have certainly heard that people haven't been happy with any version of Pages 5, compared with Pages '09.

However I'm referring to the Review page in the App Store in which most responders are even unhappier with Pages 5.5.3 than they were with whatever release they were using last week. I'm not an expert on this, just remarking that these reviews IMPLY a further downgrading of Pages in 5.5.3.

Could be time to make sure we've all got Bootable Images of our drives, folks.

Regarding a new version of Word for Mac, I've been in IT far too long to trust my Feelings :-)

I confess that all I know is that I just downloaded a Beta Preview of Office for Mac 2016 from:

http://products.office.com/en-US/mac/mac-preview

(Because I used to buy PCs in container-loads, I loathe Redmond more than most, but all I'm bothered about is the right tool for the job. I've had my MacBook a year, and while I don't regret the hardware and am learning how to delve past obstacles like Finder, I am steadily superseding the simple and attractive Apple 'starter' apps, (with their weak and often obsolete Help files, weird file handling and puzzling icons), by more generic software. I can't give a blow by blow critique, but I seem to have too many conversations with seasoned Apple users who say, "Sure I can show you how to do that, you just . . . er, Blimey! . . . where's the command vanished to ?" So I now have to put up with the tedious quirks of Photoshop etc instead, but at least I'm no longer wasting hours wondering how-to in the dark.)

David

Viking, I may not have made it clear that I meant an upgrade due for MS Word, rather than an upgrade due for Pages.

I hope we do get upward upgrades for Pages cos it's got a nice feel, but that would have to wait for significant upgrades to the iOS versions, and budget iPads just don't have RAM space for bigger software releases.

(Tip for people with budget SSD Macbooks: get a third-party MicroSD adaptor to suit your specific Mac model and stick a 128Gb SD card in it. Now you've got a decent space to put all your reference stuff - original photos, completed documents etc. But keep your work-in-progress on the main SSD though because SDs aren't designed for little bitty file changes and can't safely be Defragged. If you format it for Mac, Time Machine will back it up for you, or if you leave it formatted for PC and Mac, copy it to HDD.

Now if an iPad had an SD slot, I'd buy one. As it is I'm stuck with an Android tablet, Hey Ho.)

David

The reviews are generally for all versions of Pages 5 but are removed with each minor upgrade and need to be updated to show up for Pages 5.5.3.

There are a very long list of problems for Pages 5, but the added dissatisfaction with Pages 5.5.3 is that so little has been done to fix them, after now being out over 20months.

Pages 5.5.3 is not as bad as the original Pages 5, which was a total shocker, but Pages 5.5.3's features are still mostly M.I.A.

Peter

Thanks, Peter, that's well worth knowing.

Please could you explain M.I.A. as I can't find it on Google.

Thanks, David

I went from Pages 4.3 to 5.5.3. The first thing that struck me was the graphics: They don't really matter, but they have been comically "streamlined" to the point that they're ugly, which bothers me - ugh! I don't use Pages strictly for word processing, but when I do use it for word processing, I've found that the program wants to do more for me than I want it to, and what it wants to do isn't intuitive. I think those of us who use computers are smart enough to figure out how we want things to be and don't want our computers (or the programmers behind them) telling us how things should be. I also used Pages 4.3 to create online cards, self-illustrated cookbooks, and so on, and comparing the two programs, 5.5.3 falls flat on its nose. For example, it takes three or four steps to do with Pages 5.5.3 it took me to do in one or two steps with 4.3, and even then I didn't always get the exact results I wanted with 5.5.3. The only use for Pages 5.5.3 is word processing. You can drop in pictures and move them around, and that's about it. When I use a text box, the lines around the text box stay there; there seems to be no way to have the text "float" in a photo or picture. Applying colors is a multistep process, it isn't intuitive, and doesn't seem to work at all outside the six or so basic colors provided, even though I tried to used the "crayon" colors, which are a choice. Crayon and color wheel color are a choice only for certain things, not for everything, as they were in Pages 4.3. The menu bar doesn't include background color choice for print: you're required to do two other steps. I could go on and on, but leave it to say, Pages 5.5.3 is not worth the programming that went into it. Steer clear: get something else if you plan to use it for anything but basic word processing, and even then, think again. It's made for six year olds who don't need anything sophisticated.

I liked Pages 4.3 just fine and used it daily. I hate Pages 5, and the update to 5.2.2 has totally messed up my ability to control and open my own documents!

I don't want my programs dumbed-down with "streamlining," and I don't want iCloud controlling my documents or anything else to do with my computers!

Syncing between devices is great and I'm all for it, but is it necessary to take control away from the user and give it to iCloud in order to make that happen? I don't think so. I think Apple genius programmers can figure out how to let users retain control of the devices we paid many thousands of dollars for and the documents we create on them, if that is what Apple wants to do. Apparently it isn't, either because the honchos at Apple think we are children or too stupid to be in charge of our own possessions and creations, or because they don't respect us enough to resist wresting control from us after overcharging us for our purchases. (Apple may be worth more, but given its manufacturing and shipping costs are the same as all the other companies using overseas manufacturing, Apple's products are not worth as much it charges.)

Today I'm here once again trying to find out how to open an important document that my computer refuses to open because of conflicts between the two Pages programs, apparently. Every time I get the problem to go away, it comes back and I'm back to hunting for a solution for whatever the new problem is. (At this rate, I could end up feeling like I did when I abandoned Windows years ago because of too much time spent trying to fix problems!)

When you have two versions of Pages installed on your Mac, a double-click will always open with the highest version of Pages. That includes documents created by Pages '09 that you do not want opened in Pages v5.

To open Pages '09 documents from the Finder, right-click on these documents and use Open With Pages (4.3) — if you have the latest version of Pages '09. By now, this may be redundant advice.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately that does not work for me. I just get the message that my iWork `09 Pages will not open in my current OS X which is Mavericks. I held off installing Mavericks until last fall because I didn't want the initial headaches I went through with Lion. Eventually I felt pressured into installing it because too many of my apps weren't working anymore.

After refusing to open a document in either version of Pages because I created it in Pages '09, and it looks to me like sometimes `09 created documents that do open are then saved in Pages 5.x.x after I edit them, sometimes I eventually get a previously created document to open after being denied repeatedly, but only after I've tried opening it in Preview (where I can't edit it, of course), opening versions I somehow managed to save in the new Pages (I don't know how or why), and then exporting in various formats. Suddenly, the problem document will open but I won't know why. Things will go along smoothly, and then one day I will try to open the same document and I'm back to denials. I suspect it has something to do with iCloud because, also, suddenly I will have iCloud showing up for saving to or for having accidentally saved to when all I intend is to continue saving to my Documents folder on my computer.

Although it is still installed on my computer, my system will not allow me to use Page `09 anymore.

You can use Pages 09 manually by opening it, and then using it to open the file.

Have you tried going into Finder, going to the document you want, highlighting it, then, without opening it, control click on the highlighted name of the document (i.e. hold down the control button and click on the trackpad); a menu should pop up and in you should have the choice to "open with" whatever word processor program you wish to open it, or that it will open in. That's what I have to do to open old documents in Pages 4.3. I have some documents in a newer version of Pages that won't open in the older 4.3, but will open w/ 5.5.3. It's all pretty confusing. At least I I haven't lost documents (books, stories, poetry, etc). I sure don't like this. Who ever approved Pages 5.5 and beyond had his head up his proverbial arse. Whoever said they were trying to make MacBooks like folding iPads has it right. Computers are computers. They may be old tech, but they suit me just fine.