Pages 4.3 converted to Pages 5.6.1 – won't open directly on another Mac

Question

Level 1

14 points

Pages 4.3 converted to Pages 5.6.1 – won't open directly on another Mac

Here's the situation: I hate Pages 5.6.1 with a passion, and refuse to use it unless absolutely necessary. My boss, however, uses only Pages 5.6.1.

So when I create a document that he will subsequently need to work with, I use my beloved Pages 4.3, then close that document, open it within Pages 5.6.1 and resave it in the newer Pages.

However, my boss tells me that such a document, when emailed to him, will not open directly by double-clicking it — even though I have set his system (via Get Info) so that all Pages documents are supposed to open by default in Pages 5.6.1. He gets the "missing .xml file" error message, and he can only open the document I've sent him by right-clicking and choosing Pages 5.6.1 from the pop-up menu.

Of course, his time is much too valuable to be bothered with this burdensome extra step! So he's demanding that I create all documents in Pages 5.6.1, the prospect of which horrifies me.

But now, I've discovered through experimentation that the problem runs much deeper than I thought. I have:

created a document in Pages 4.3, then copied its contents, opened a blank Pages 5.6.1 document and pasted those contents within it, then saved it.
created a document in Pages 4.3, Duplicated it in the Finder, then opened that document in Pages 5.6.1 and selected "Upgrade."
created a document completely from scratch in Pages 5.6.1 and saved it.

In ALL THREE cases, when I've emailed this document to my boss's Mac and saved it to his desktop, the document still won't open directly by double clicking. I still get the "missing .xml file."

What can possibly be going on here? Is it a setting on his Mac or mine? Does the fact that I have all Pages documents on my Mac set to open by default in Pages 4.3 have something to do with this? That doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's all I can think of.

What is the path out of this dilemma, other than abandoning Pages 4.3 altogether and purging it from my system, which I absolutely refuse to do?

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 3.6 GHz

Posted on May 4, 2016 8:31 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

VikingOSX

Community+ 2024

Level 10

111,383 points

May 4, 2016 9:12 AM in response to DChord568

Your boss has Pages '09 v4.3 and Pages v5.6.1 installed on his Mac. The index.xml file is unique to Pages '09 and earlier documents. He has attempted to open your Pages v5.6.1 document with Pages '09 and rightly so, it has complained about the missing index.xml file.

If Pages '09 is running, it will ambush any attempt to open any version Pages document — especially via double-click. This can be avoided by expressly quitting the Pages '09 application. Using the red traffic light on the document title bar does close the Pages '09 document, but does not quit the application. Coach your boss on this remedy.

When two versions of Pages are installed on the same Mac, and neither are running, then the higher version (e.g. Pages v5.6.1) will take priority on opening any Pages document. The Get Info : Open with settings are useless in the case of Pages.

Reply

Answer 2

DChord568 Author

Level 1

14 points

May 4, 2016 9:12 AM in response to VikingOSX

By golly, you're right! I doubted that this could be so, as my boss to my knowledge has not used Pages 4.3 for any purpose in quite some time.

But sure enough, I checked his Mac and he did indeed have the Pages 4.3 app open. And yes, he is notorious for closing documents but not actually quitting the application (and he wonders why his Mac slows down to a crawl after a while — believe me, he has been told numerous times about this, to no avail).

When I quit out of it, all three of the experimental documents I had sent opened easily by double-clicking.

Thank you so much for your help!

Reply