Pages update 5.5.3 for Mac details

When earlier today I re-opened a document I’d originally created in Pages ‘09, I got a message asking if I wanted to open it in Pages 5.5.3 (which had come to my iMac with Yosemite),

I said yes, which I now realise was really stupid of me.

Really stupid because when I try to re-open the same document now, I get the message that the document

"….couldn’t be opened.

The required index.xml file is missing.”

I’d be grateful for some advice on what to do, and whether this is usual with Pages 5.5.3.

Pages '09 documents have an internal file named index.xml, and Pages v5 documents, based on an entirely different document architecture, no longer use this file. Pages v5 documents are not directly backwards compatible with Pages '09, unless you export to Pages '09 format.

Pages '09 documents, on a machine with Pages v5.5.3, must be opened via a right-click, and then from the Open with sub-menu, Pages (4.3).

Thanks, VikingOSX, for your swift response. There are two odd things.

One is that the document I was trying to open was, according to File>Get Info, the Pages v5.3.3 version produced when I clicked to agree that the document I'd produced in Pages '09 should be opened in the current version of the software. If I try to open it in Pages '09, I get the message that it "can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer." And having checked, I'm clear there's no other version of it now on my machine. So there's no reason why any reference to index.xml, which from what you say would have a role only in a Pages '09 document, should have come up when I tried to open this v5.3.3 version of this document.

The other odd thing is that, having been out for a couple of hours, now that on my return I've clicked to open the document in question, it has opened without any trouble, and clearly in the Pages v5.3.3 format.

The mysteries of Yosemite...

Hi palquest,

OS X Yosemite 10.10.3

I have both Pages '09 and Pages 5.5.3 on my MacBook Pro. Both versions run happily together.

Here are the icons on my Dock.

Pages '09 icon (blue ink bottle) on the left, icon dragged to the Dock from my Applications Folder > iWork '09 subfolder.

Pages 5.5.3 icon on the right (orange header) on the right, icon dragged from my Applications Folder (no subfolder).

With Pages '09 running (a dot beneath the icon) and Pages 5 not running (no dot beneath the icon) I can double click on any Pages '09 document in Finder and it will open correctly in Pages '09.

If both versions of Pages are running, and you opened Pages '09 first, Pages '09 will correctly open the Pages '09 document.

If no version of Pages is running, Pages 5 will be the default.

Pages '09 Document opened by double clicking in Finder, where Pages 5 takes over (and you start to edit):

'Edit a Copy' gives you a copy to edit in Pages 5, and leaves your original Pages '09 document unchanged.

'Cancel' allows you to gracefully withdraw, with no changes to your original Pages '09 document.

'Upgrade' converts the document to a Pages 5 document, and your Pages '09 document is lost forever as a Pages '09 document.

Even Export To > Pages '09 may not restore missing features.

Caveat emptor!

Regards,

Ian.

,

Hi Yellowbox

Many thanks for your advice. While I knew what the ikons for the two versions of Pages looked like, and knew about what opening an application does to its ikon in the menubar to have the options so clearly laid out as in your response, is a very great help - and will be to anybody else who should be plagued by the problem and search the forum.

Thanks again

Paul

5.5.3 Pages is unusable. I fear no one cares about users. Maybe it works on an iPad. It is useless on my iMac. I have wasted much time looking for basic features: font choice, font colors. I still haven't found font colors.

Now I am wasting time complaining.

So back to Word seems the only solution.

Laurie,

Usability is one issue. However, how on earth could you not discover the Format button in the Toolbar, and see the resultant Text panel's Style tab with font attributes, and adjacent font color inkwell and color (globe) chooser functionality? Your comments lead me to believe that you have never seen this intuitive panel.

Hi Laurie,

Does this work for you?

Or try Crayons after you select the text

Regards,

Ian.