Are there any add-ons for Pages?

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Level 1

1 points

Are there any add-ons for Pages?

Just back from a pc to Macs. Got way comfortable with MS Office software especially Word & Publisher. Salesperson showed me iWork with Pages and it is now on this iMac. I'm surprised, however, at the lack of features, templates, and options missing. I decided to get Parallels, XP Home, and a version of MS Office 2000. They are definitely more option orientated than Pages. I just don't want to have the Windows side of this iMac to have access to the outside world. With hackers, viruses, etc out there attacking everything. Main reason for coming back to Apple technology.
Does anyone out there know of any add-ons to bring Pages up to par with Word with or without Publisher. I really don't want to buy Office for Mac, if at all possible. Thank you for any and all help.

iMac-24";iMac-17";'98 Dell xps R-1400, Mac OS X (10.4.8), iMac 24 also Win XP Hm

Posted on Jan 5, 2007 4:30 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

DennisG

Level 5

6,520 points

Jan 5, 2007 5:16 AM in response to bigLaker

big,

Sort of. There are template sites at http://www.iworkcommunity.com and http://www.microsoft.com/mac/resources/templates.aspx?pid=templates&browser=1&ap p=&group=&category=&template=

But I'm not going to profess that a mere template will bring Pages up to whatever your standards are for Word and Publisher. I use Pages precisely because it works so differently from Word. Really, if you want all the functionality and GUI of a program you're used to, you might consider sticking with Word or trying out some of the clones like NeoOffice.

-Dennis

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Answer 2

Jan 5, 2007 5:31 AM in response to bigLaker

Dennis is right in everything he says. There are no add-ons or templates that would make Pages on par with everything in Word. Apple never intended to kill of MS Office with iWork.

For your particular needs, it is possible that they can be handled in some way, but that entirely depends on how you use MS Word. A list of differences can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pages#PagesandWord .

In addition you can add some functions to MacOS X with Devon WordService, which can be found at http://www.devon-technologies.com/download/index.html .

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Answer 3

DennisG

Level 5

6,520 points

Jan 31, 2007 4:23 PM in response to bigLaker

Laker,

Surprisingly, no. All of us regulars in this forum were very disappointed that a new version of Pages wasn't announced at the January 9th MacWorld conference. Historically, that's where they're announced. There is speculation that the release is delayed because of the difficulty in integrating iWork with Leopard, but no one knows for sure.

-Dennis

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Answer 4

DennisG

Level 5

6,520 points

Jan 6, 2007 6:44 AM in response to bigLaker

big,

I would say that it's pretty certain a new version of Pages will be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at MacWorld in San Francisco, for two reasons: the first is that this venue is where Apple has historically announced previous versions of Pages; the second is that Amazon.com already has placeholder pages set up for iWork '07, which tells me they expect to have it in inventory very soon.

-Dennis

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Answer 5

Brie Fly

Level 5

7,925 points

Jan 5, 2007 11:23 AM in response to Dogan

Why go through Parallels, instead of Office for Mac?

The original poster mention "Publisher" -- there is no Mac version, so something like Parallels + XP would be the only way to run that on a Mac.

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Answer 6

bigLaker Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 5, 2007 6:38 PM in response to DennisG

Dennis,
I heard on some web sites that there may be an update coming down the road for iWork's Pages. Do you think something like that might be made known at the upcoming Apple Show?
Thanks for the templates!

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Answer 7

bigLaker Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 31, 2007 3:44 PM in response to DennisG

Hi Dennis,
Thank you for the links for templates for Pages. I did not see anything at Apple about any improvements that may have come down at the most recent MacShow. Were there any software program updates for Pages?
Thanks Again!

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Answer 8

Dogan

Level 1

135 points

Jan 5, 2007 8:44 AM in response to bigLaker

Why go through Parallels, instead of Office for Mac?

Parallels + XP seems like more overhead than Rosetta / Office

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