I need to keep Pages 4.3 working for many of its features that are not available in Pages 5.5.3.
(Another great program I have to use is AppleWorks. I am forced to keep my old PowerBook G4, OS 10.5.8, around to run AppleWorks(ClarisWorks) I use the database function a lot and I need the mail merge as well.)
Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 5,1(2010) 12 Core, 3.46GHz 32GB RAM
No.
No.
Pages '09 v4.3 works fine on El Capitan. Just used it a second ago.
AppleWorks v6 word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents can be opened in their iWork '09 Pages, Numbers, and Keynote counterparts, providing they are not overly complex with other AppleWorks features. The iWork '09 applications will have nothing to do with your AppleWorks database, but there is built-in support in Pages '09 for Mail merge. The free LibreOffice v5.0.2 can also open ClarisWorks/AppleWorks v5/v6 documents. Database files are opened as a spreadsheet with most formatting lost.
Here is what I would do on your Mac Pro. Install latest Parallel's Desktop, get the Snow Leopard (10.6.3) server disk with a phone in order to the online Apple Store. Install that Snow Leopard server into Parallel's, update Snow Leopard Server, install your AppleWorks there, and update to 6.2.9. Get your current Appleworks database and other file data into that bootable, virtual Snow Leopard partition, and you no longer need your PowerPC hardware. Steps on how to do this on your Mac Pro.
Pages '09 v4.3 appears to be functional on El Capitan... but not exactly 100%.
The most immediate issue (and more of an irritant than show-stopper): The crayon tab of the Color chooser is a bit wonky. When first displayed it looks like a stack of colored pencils. If you click on a different tab and back to the crayon tab, the window is blank. You can mouse around the window and you will see the color names, but the colors don't appear. Closing Pages and restarting it will display them again.
I heavily rely on iWork '09 and I'm compiling a list of things in iWork '09 that DON'T work on El Capitan.
The latest report I have from active users of Pages 4.x is that it mostly works in El Capitan but some problems are being found. For one, the color picker in the inspector window is broken.
Edit: wow, posted at the same time!
If you want the individual color pickers to work as expected, including the crayons, then download the free ColorPicker 1.7 application. It provides the same toolbar of color pickers that the Pages color chooser provides, and the crayons actually work as expected when you come back to them. Colors are set in your document with a drag/drop from the Color Picker inkwell onto the selected text or object.
Here is an additional, free color picker (Scala) that I also use, that once installed, it adds itself to the toolbar (last item shown). It installs, by default, into your local Library/ColorPickers folder.
What the crayons are supposed to look like as shown in Color Picker.
Apple has retired the iWork '09 suite of applications. For those features that continue to break in Pages '09, do not expect Apple to assign engineers to fix them.
"Apple has retired the iWork '09 suite of applications. For those features that continue to break in Pages '09, do not expect Apple to assign engineers to fix them."
Yes, I understand that Apple has retired iWork 09. My purpose in responding was to in response to your claim that Pages 09 works "fine" in El Capitan. It doesn't exactly. Others need to know that before making the decision to upgrade to El Cap.
True.
Just don't use the crayons. They are a crude choice any way.
Create your own set of named colors in the Color picker.
Peter
Pages 4.3 does not work for me since a few OS Xs ago. Most features work, but the mail merge feature does not work on the later operating systems for me. When you say it works fine, do you mean besides not having mail merge anymore? Or, does mail merge work for you? I'm very interested in using mail merge if I can. Please let me know if I can use Pages 4.3 on El Capitan WITH mail merge.
I just walked through a simple Mail Merge on El Capitan with Pages '09 v4.3. For the simple test that I tried, it inserted the merge data as expected. Source content was a Numbers '09 v2.3 document, using Insert menu ▸ Merge Field items, and Edit menu ▸ Mail Merge…. You cannot use Numbers document data for Sender content.
Suggest you review Chapter 11, pp246 - 252 in the Pages '09 v4.3 User Guide. I am not going to take the time to test every aspect of Pages '09 Mail Merge on El Capitan. You can do that.
Dear VikingOSX,
Thank you for testing mail merge in Pages v4.3 on El Capitan. I just tested it myself and what I see is the following...
I can add a Numbers 2.3 document. I can choose a table in the document. I can add a merge field. The problem I am having (and have had for the last few Mac OS Xs) is that the pull down menu under "Target Name" only has the name of the first column. In other words, it works as long as you are only interested in merging data from the first column, you cannot choose other columns. When you choose the pull down menu under "Target Name", do you get more than one choice in a multicolumn table?
You must use header fields that use the same name that you want to access from the Insert Merge Field menu. Read Chapter 11 in the Pages '09 User Guide link that I provided. I am no authority on Mail Merge in Pages '09, and I got it to work, though didn't bother with table cells.
Dear VikingOSX,
I was already familiar with how mail merge USE TO work in Pages v4.3 in long ago Mac OSXs. The Pages '09 User guide mentions...
For each merge field, click the Target Name pop-up menu in the Merge window, and select a target.
My issue with Pages v4.3 in El Capitan, and other recent Mac OS Xs, is that the pop-up menu in question only has the first header name and not the other headers for other columns as it used to. So, when you said Mail Merge was working, I was asking you if you saw other headers beside the first one in the pop-up menu when selecting the target. If you can only mail merge the first column of a table, that means mail merge is severely crippled. Saying mail merge was working got my hopes up that it was working as before, and as described in the user guide you linked to.
Agreed that some of the Mail Merge interface items are no missing from what I see in online screen captures, or videos for Pages '09 Mail Merge. Not going to invest any more time in testing it. Recommend Word, or other WP applications that have fully functional Mail Merge support.
Hello
It is a known issue since OS X 10.9. And there seems to be a workaround.
cf.
Mail Merge not giving multiple target fields
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5474892
Regards,
H
Will pages 4.3 work in El Capitan
