Pages or Word

malch said:

There is a fairly major Word file corruption issue that can happen with big Word files (in my case it was a file with embedded images), that has to do with Word's Auto-Recover system, and perhaps a conflict with Time Machine... not sure of all the details, but I had a major crash a week or so ago: couldn't even boot up so eventually had to take my MacBook Pro in to an Apple Repair place. The guy got it going, but told me to replace the hard drive.
I got the machine home, made a backup, and then (because it was continuing to operate and with my backup I felt safe to keep using it) searched the internet for info about a problem like the one I'd just had. Found something finally. Eleven pages long, and counting:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3504333?start=0&tstart=0

I'm not trying to scare you away from Word, which I prefer to Pages, partly because it's so commonly used. But beware that there's an issue, that seems to be with really big Word files. Maybe it'll be fixed with the next OS update.
Regards,
malch

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From the thread it seems the issue is some sort of conflict between Autosave in Word and Time Machine with large files, resulting in file system corruption deep enough to hose the drive. Turning off one or the other seems to be the relief, though hardly a solution. This kind of thing should never happen nowadays. Interesting, but one of the dings some have against Pages is the lack of an Autosave feature. Is this the reason, perhaps?

One thing for sure, though: I'm glad I didn't try producing my book in Word. Not only does it lack the layout features I used extensively, the file was huge (over 80mb) when completed. If I'd lost that it might have been a lot of work down the tubes.

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MCAsan said:

It is a business decision. For the very low cost, try pages. If it works for you, you have saved money compared to word. If pages does not work for you, return it to apple and get word.

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Doesn't Apple still include a trial version of iWork on all new Macs? If not, it's available for free download, for certain.

Ignatius J. Reilly———are you a fan of the book that has been my bedside bible for the last twenty-some years: A Confederacy of Dunces?!!!??
malch

IJ Reilly said:

... Interesting, but one of the dings some have against Pages is the lack of an Autosave feature. Is this the reason, perhaps?
....

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Actually, Pages on Mountain Lion does have in effect Auto Save. Mountain Lion keeps copies of most application's documents... so it's not a Pages thing.

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I am a Pages user, and find it suits me for 99% of things I do. If I need to send a document, it is usually as a PDF in any case. If I have to send a .DOC file it will retain it's formatting about as well as someone sending a MS Word document. That is to say, there can be as many issues sending an MS Word document to another Word user if their versions are mismatched as sending a Pages document.

Many people using Word are doing so in an office environment, where their Word versions are matched. When they say exchanging Word documents is pain-free, they are correct.... within the context of their office experience. However, my wife - MS Word user - does have issues with Word formatting (not often, but it is a regular thing) because she works from home and she is exchanging Word documents with lots of people, each with a slightly different version or platform.

And to be fair, often it is not Word (or Pages) that is the culprit - it is the printer that Word (or Pages) thinks it is printing to. When each person is printing to a different printer, then things like margins can get messed ... and the printer may have translate the printing codes differently ... And suddenly a long documents starts getting messed up. If you have precisely formatted for a table to start at the top of page, and the printer adds 2 extra lines to the preceding 3 pages.... it gets messy.

Which is why I try to send as PDFs.

Word is probably your best bet. I use Pages as my main word processor but having used it for years, I've become accustomed to what errors it may result in with compatibility so I account for these before hand. It's a much better UI and far easier to use IMO.

With Word, there is no compatibility issues so you shouldn't have to worry about this. Unlike other posters, I disagree that Word for Windows is better than Mac. On the contrary, I prefer the Mac version once you become used to the UI as it is much easier to use IMO.

Windows Word has had for many years big problems with large documents with graphics, charts, sections.....etc. if I had a dime for every blue screen during writing RFP responses and contracts....

I hope OS word is more reliable.

Now gone

MCAsan said:

Windows Word has had for many years big problems with large documents with graphics, charts, sections.....etc. if I had a dime for every blue screen during writing RFP responses and contracts....
I hope OS word is more reliable.

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Framemaker was the best word processor for Mac ever! Bomb proof for long documents and with paragraph styles that knew how to stay as designed. However to answer the original question I would pick Word over Pages for compatibility reasons alone in your situation, but the better integration with Endnote (a citation manager) would also play a part in my choice.

I agree about FrameMaker. Our designers used to use it for all tech documents. It would have worked well for RFPs and contracts. But alas....it was too expensive for the general office.

I'd throw in a vote for Pages as well. Had been a 15+ year user of Office when nearly 3 years ago, I uninstalled all of it and haven't looked back. I've got Scrivner as well... But for what I do, Pages is great. If I need to share a document, it's going on Google Docs. That way everyone has access to it for viewing and editing... When time comes to produce it in a different form, copy and paste into Pages.

EXCEL is absolutely the Gold Standard still. More so than Word by a long shot. But for most people, Numbers will get the job done.

Keynote far outclasses Powerpoint, which was my main draw for dumping Office.

At the end of the Day, Office and Word became too much of a resource hog and just too bloated generally for my needs/taste... The Price was crazy too, unless you're one of the select few who can get it for some ridiculous price $10 - $25 a copy...

Coachingguy

malch said:

Ignatius J. Reilly———are you a fan of the book that has been my bedside bible for the last twenty-some years: A Confederacy of Dunces?!!!??
malch

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A great book. Somebody gets this reference about once every three years.

snberk103 said:

Actually, Pages on Mountain Lion does have in effect Auto Save. Mountain Lion keeps copies of most application's documents... so it's not a Pages thing.

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Ah, thanks for the correction. I am a Snow Leopard laggard.

saberahul said:

With Word, there is no compatibility issues so you shouldn't have to worry about this.

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It's already been pointed out but it bears repeating that Word is often incompatible with Word, due to the different platforms and the many versions in common use.

I almost never send anyone a word processing file unless they demand one for a good reason, if only because I have to guess what it might look like when they open it, and at the very least, I will be restricted to using only common fonts. Sadly, Word has turned our computers into high tech typewriters. I will continue to resist by sending PDFs whenever possible.

Word is not worth the effort any more...

Consider a wordprocessing program that..

• enables textflow from box to box like QuarkXpress
• has outlining for structuring your thought
• where paragraph styles are modified in a snap, and NEVER changes randomly
• where TOC is a snap, and always correct
• you have a complete drawing module that gives you graphics that print and are viewed correctly
• adds hyperlinks and bookmarks painlessly
• create simple tables that looks great and are easy to edit and don't change randomly

I always wanted ALL these features in Word (outlining is fantastic in Word, my last argument for using Word..). But Word fails on almost all points.

Pages don't. The best document processor since the Mac. So simple, so powerful. Windows users are just astonished when they watch me work in this application.

Unless I need Word, I prefer to use Pages, which has Autosave+Versions. But Word is generally more powerful and easier/more intuitive to use, too bad it's not very up-to-date with OSX features. I HATE being asked to save, relying on old-fashioned autorecovery save, and the ribbon is kitsch too.

What about Latex markup engine? Is it better than Word once you learn it (assuming one doesn't need to read DOCX files)?

I can't recommend Libre- or OpenOffice Writer if you want to open Word files. They're worse than Preview and Pages at reading DOC files.