Flawlessly? Office 2004 is expensive ($150-ish eBay, hundreds normally), and might be overkill for my needs if Pages will import and export Word files as well as Word works with them. If this is the case, I'll plop down the $50 for iWork.
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How well does Pages import/export Word files?
- Thread starter ArcticFox
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I waffled about getting Office 2004, also. I'm glad I got Pages, instead. I have no problems exporting to Word. It is flawless and seamless. My advise is go with Pages.ArcticFox said:
I just ran some tests...
I just ran some tests on some old docs and found that Pages does an exceptional job of translating - of course I only have standard docs none involved automation or tables etc.
Don't forget that Appleworks and text edit will open word files - that said I enjoy using pages, and if you do buy it, I think you'll find it a much more relaxing program to use because of it's simplicity.
I just ran some tests on some old docs and found that Pages does an exceptional job of translating - of course I only have standard docs none involved automation or tables etc.
Don't forget that Appleworks and text edit will open word files - that said I enjoy using pages, and if you do buy it, I think you'll find it a much more relaxing program to use because of it's simplicity.
IJ Reilly
macrumors P6
Word translation into Pages is good, but hardly flawless. It can't be flawless because Microsoft's file formats are proprietary, so we're always relying on imperfect reverse engineering efforts. Pages will fail to import text boxes, character shading (whatever that is), and sometimes tables (accurately) from Word, and will reject some older Word documents entirely.
The biggest problem I've got importing Word documents into Pages is the lack of discipline most Word users seem to have in creating paragraph and text styles. I've seen as many as 50 styles applied to Word documents. Yeech. Maybe that's a product of Word's confusing method of defining styles. Fortunately, Pages makes this mess pretty easy to clean up.
The biggest problem I've got importing Word documents into Pages is the lack of discipline most Word users seem to have in creating paragraph and text styles. I've seen as many as 50 styles applied to Word documents. Yeech. Maybe that's a product of Word's confusing method of defining styles. Fortunately, Pages makes this mess pretty easy to clean up.
osiris315
macrumors member
James Philp
macrumors 65816
Office student edition os pretty cheap, and one thing iWork will not give you is a good spreadsheet app.
I use excel a lot, and it's almost worth the student price alone.
$139 on Amazon.
I use excel a lot, and it's almost worth the student price alone.
$139 on Amazon.
osiris315 said:
Hmm - OpenOffice Mac edition basically. I'll give that a whirl before I plunk down the money.