Pages 09 4.0.3 will not open documents

The following represent the Pages application icons:

• Pages '09 v4.01 — v4.3
  
• Pages v5/v6 (any)
  

If you have the above so-called “yellow” Pages icon in your Applications folder, then it will be the default application for opening the newer, and incompatible document formats that Pages '09 cannot open. Simply control-click, or two-finger tap on your trackpad to bring up the contextual menu, choose open with, and select the default Pages at the top of this menu (should be Pages v6.0.5). If you have the yellow icon, your iWork '09 applications will be in the Applications : iWork '09 folder.

None of the Pages applications will quit simply by clicking the red “traffic light” on the document title bar. When you do this with Pages '09, it continues to run, and will ambush any double-click on a Pages document icon. This is a non-issue if it is a Pages '09 document, but an index.xml annoyance when it is a newer Pages architecture document.

I am surprised that Pages '09 v4.0.3 continues to run on macOS Sierra for you. If you installed this from an iWork '09 DVD, then there is an Apple iWork 9.3 updater, that will bring Pages up to v4.3 — the very last update. This update is strictly for DVD sourced Pages, and not from an individual Mac App Store purchase before the product was discontinued by Apple.

Hi Heather,

Has you document been saved in iCloud? That would also convert it to a form not openable by Pages 4.

"I do not know what (icon: page and orange pen means)"

Pages 4 icon on left (purple ink pot)

Pages 5 icon on right (page and orange pen)

Pages 6 icon is similar to Pages 5.

Pages 4 will run well under macOS Sierra (although recent reports say hyphenation no longer works), but needs to be updated to version 4.3. IF the copy of Pages on your machine was installed from a retail DVD, you can use the updater iWork 9.3 updater available here: Apple - Support - Downloads This updater works only on the applications shipped as part of the retail box package, and will fatally damage versions downloaded as individual applications from the Mac app store.

You will need Pages 6 to open a Pages file giving the message you report. Once open, you can export it from Pages 6 to Pages '09 format, and the exported version will be openable in Pages '09.

Several people have both versions on their computer, and use Pages '09 as their go-to choice due to the 100+ useful features supported in pages '09 and missing from Pages 5 and Pages 6.

Regards,

Barry

Using any Pages with a yellow application icon will create a document that is not backwards compatible with Pages '09 (any version). One can however, export to Pages 09 format, and these documents will open appropriately. Pages for iCloud, and Pages for iOS currently create documents that are compatible with Pages v5.5.3 and later, but not Pages '09. You must download/email these documents as Word for compatibility with Pages '09.

Here is a Pages '09 v4.3 document format compatibility table. Unfortunately, one cannot detect the version of Pages document by icon appearance alone. I have an AppleScript that can do that.

Hi Heather,

Reinstalling Pages '09 (and the other iwork 09 applications) would no cause the issues you see.

The issue has a simple cause: Pages '09 files are a 'package'. The 'package' includes an index.xml file. If that file is not in the package, Pages '09 cannot open the file, and presents the message you have seen.

Pages 5 and Pages 6 files do not contain an index.xml file. If a Pages '09 file is opened in Pages 5 or in Pages 6, then saved using Pages 5 or Pages 6, and keeping the same file name, the file no longer contains an inde,xml file, and any attempt to open it using Pages '09 will present the error message you saw.

If a Pages '09 file is saved to the current iteration of iCloud, the file is not saved in Pages '09's file format, but in one compatible with current versions of Pages for Mac and Pages for iOS—a format which does not include an index.xml flle. Any attempt to open that file in Pages '0 will present the error message you saw.

Action:

• If your Pages '09 application was originally installed from a retail boxed version of iWork '09, download and run the iWork 9.3 updater. (see my previous warning regarding using this updater on non-retail box iWork '09 sets).
• with the updated iWork applications installed, go to the Mac app store, get and install the current (Pages 6, Numbers 4, Keynote ?) versions of the iWork applications.
• Use Pages 6 to open the file.
• If you wish to continue using the file in Pages '09, Export a copy of the file in Pages '09 format.
  Open the copy in Pages '09, edit it, then save, using Pages '09.
  You may find that some features used in the document have not survived the translation out of and back into Pages '09 file format. These can be added back in, although you may find the added vlue not worth the effort.
• To keep using this document in Pages '09, ensure that it is never sent to iCloud, and if it is accidentally opened in a newer version of Pages, that you close it without saving any changes you make.

Regards,

Barry

Hi HD'

The "required index.xml file is missing" message means you are attempting to open a file last saved from Numbers 3 or Numbers 4 (both of which use a file format that does not include an index.xml file) with Numbers 2 ('09), whose file format does include and does require an index.xml file.

If you Quit (not just close all windows, but go Numbers > Quit Numbers) Numbers 2, then double-clicking the problem file should launch Numbers 4 and open the document in that version.

Regards,

Barry

My error. Too much bouncing back and forth between Numbers and Pages. My head was still thinking Numbers.

Same issue, though.

The two most recent versions of Pages (and of Numbers) have file formats which do not require, and do not create an internal index.xml file.

Pages '09 (Pages 4) and Numbers '09 (Numbers 2) use a file format that includes and requires an internal index.xml file.

The only occasion that generates the "index.xml file missing" message is an iWork '09 application attempting to open a file last saved by a later version of the application bearing the same name (Pages or Numbers or Keynote).

Preview will not open any Pages file or any Numbers file. What Preview opens is a 'preview' of the file—an image of the file created and stored with the actual file when it is saved.

Try launching Pages 6 (icon: page and orange pen), then choosing File>Open... navigating to the file, selecting it and clicking Open. If the file does not open, and presents the 'required index.xml file' message, pleae go to the Pages menu, choose the first item (About Pages), and post a screen shot of the splash window that is displayed.

Regards,

Barry