Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Jodeo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 12, 2003
247
130
Middle Tennessee
There's a lot of dismay over Pages 5 and its loss of features. It's being captured rather well in this Apple forum:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5468056

As of the time of this posting, page 15 in the thread above has a current list of adds and take-aways (with an annoying strike-through on the removed features). I'll post it here for your consideration (alphabetized, no less).

Keep in mind this is written by users. I haven't seen Pages 5 yet so I'm just passing this along for review and comment:


Updated Check List (as of Oct 24, 7:23AM):
New Pages 5 added, removed or altered features:


Added
Collaboration
Phonetic Guide for Chinese & Japanese
Right to Left text
Share outside iCloud
Single model templates. No More Word Processing/Layout templates
Template names can be changed inside the Template Chooser
Text language is detected automatically

REMOVED
135 templates
Accented Characters in Footer
Alignment Guides
Background Object selectable
Bookmarks and Links
Bullet points in comments
Capture pages/sections
Character Styles (?)
Import of older .pages formatting - Not Clean
Customizable Toolbar
Default Start Up page
Delete page
Drag and Drop VCards
Drag reorganize pages
Duplicate pages
Endnotes
Export to .txt or .rtf
Facing pages
Find & Replace special characters (e.g. paragraph returns)
Images within Tables
Import Styles
Insert File Name
Layout Breaks
Layout Margins
List Styles (?)
Mail Merge
Manage Pages
Mask with shapes other than rectangle
Mathtype/Grapher Equations/Formulae within Pages
Media Inspector links to Aperture Library
Media Inspector links to iPhoto library on external drive
Merge Fields
Multiple Comments view
Open Type features
Outline view
Paste and keep style
Retain zoom level of document
Search comments
Search in Media Browser
Search Sidebar
Select all instances of a Style
Select non-contiguous text
Selective formatting in Character Styles
Storyboards
Style Function key shortcuts
Styles Drawer
Subscript/superscript buttons
T.O.C. clean numbering
Tables in Headers/Footers
Tables to Text
Text to Tables
Textbox linking
Two-up view
User Guide (?)
Vertical Ruler
Word (.DOCX) export to iCloud


Altered
AppleScript Library for Pages 5 has changed with many classes and commands removed which indicates how the feature lists have been slashed
Character Styles are in the Text Inspector under Bold, Italic etc
Documents reconverted back to Pages '09 lose all template information
Drag and Drop text only works with .txt files now
Header appears to be multi-column
Language set moved to Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar now document wide
New file format/architecture (but still .pages in name?) not backwardly compatible
Page numbering method changed
Pages '09 files previewed on iPad via iCloud are irrevocably converted
Subscript/superscript text is now a convoluted route Gear > Advanced options > Baseline > Subscript/Superscript
Tabbing within Table cells appears to be inconsistent, tabbing internally with numbers.
Template file storage location moved …somewhere?
Update is missing for older installations (Apple is reportedly working on a solution via a redeemable code or update on their Support Download site)
Wrap methods have been cut back severely
 
Last edited:

fizzler

macrumors member
Jul 5, 2010
34
1
The ability to enable Auto-capitalisation feature is also missing from the latest version.

Much to my disappointment!
 

amadtaz

macrumors newbie
Dec 15, 2008
7
1
Santa Rosa, CA
Just like iMovie and Final Cut

This is insane. They have to bring some of this stuff back eventually. Hopefully not four years from now... Right?

Ya, I'm sure there are going to be a ton of missing features, but they will bring them back overtime as long as we the consumer demand it. Then when they do bring back the big ticket features Apple will make a big deal about it and show it off as the next best thing even though it was the best thing already.
 

firedept

macrumors 603
Jul 8, 2011
6,277
1,130
Somewhere!
I wonder why Apple left behind the old version of iWorks? I think we all have an idea. The new version is to stripped down to work with anything but the basics.

I for one am very thankful that Apple did.

I know some will say you just have to get use to it and I agree. I like upgrades and can usually find a way to work with them and learn them pretty quick. But I have been trying all day to work with iWorks and it is very hard.
 

hallidc

macrumors 6502
Sep 26, 2013
496
71
I use pages everyday for note taking, etc. I was astonished of what disappeared! I also found that while trying to bold, italicize and underline words, it would never work. I'm rather disappointed with the new updates..I really am.
 

coachingguy

macrumors 6502a
I'm definitely not missing all of those things. One thing I use all the time and just used it was the Media to Aperture and iPhoto libraries on an external drive. The outline view is right next to the Views...

I think this is a big over reaction... Yes, there are changes, but they didn't get rid of all the items on that massive list... Maybe the moved, but in less than a minute, I found 3 things on that list.

Coachingguy
 

tardegrade

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2009
146
250
Devon, UK.
I updated the other day and was absolutely shocked at the regression.

I'm sure that for people who only use Pages for the occasional Letter, CV or Flyer, they will love the simpler layout. But if you use Pages frequently for long documents it's a huge, huge step backwards.

The first thing I noticed was text box linking has gone. That's a big one for me. That certainly will make revising long documents interesting. I found that grouping text boxes allows text overflow, but then discovered that it doesn't work over one page to another. So that's no good at all, back to square one.

I've restored Pages '09 from timemachine and have the two running side by side, the things that are no longer possible in the new version is absurd.

Eddie Cue said that they started Pages again from the ground up. Well it looks like they just took the iOS version and ported to the desktop for the sake of compatibility. Well what's the point of compatibility when you are running with the limitations of an iPhone app on your desktop and have lost all the functionality of the full desktop version?

Awful decision by Apple.
 

APlotdevice

macrumors 68040
Sep 3, 2011
3,145
3,861
Increasing and decreasing the intention level of a list item no longer affects items indented under it. This is something I found to great benefit when note taking, and so am naturally quite upset that it was removed!
 

Dambuster43

macrumors member
May 20, 2013
83
0
I am feeling quite lucky.....for some reason the update ignored my existing iWorks.. which were in a folder rather than listed alphabetically in the app folder. So they are still the old versions, And I now have the new versions on the apps list.
 

Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2003
7,766
2,553
I am feeling quite lucky.....for some reason the update ignored my existing iWorks.. which were in a folder rather than listed alphabetically in the app folder. So they are still the old versions, And I now have the new versions on the apps list.

That's normal, it doesn't delete them.
 

superswiegie

macrumors newbie
Sep 9, 2008
6
1
Omg

I can't tell it loud enough, what a mess!
The new pages stinks! not being able to see multiple pages of one document, and deleting (for NO GOOD RESON) comments is bothering me the most. If you export back to pages 09 the tab's and spaces are ruined. Thanks for ruining my day apple!
 

ritchey

macrumors newbie
Sep 18, 2013
20
1
one more thing...

And there is one more thing...

When you try to delete one character (doesn't matter what it is - slash, dot, column) which is followed by a space, you get both (character+space) deleted, so you have to type the space again. What a wonderfull timesaving feature... :mad:
 

numlock

macrumors 68000
Mar 13, 2006
1,590
88
ive been getting blasted for long time on here for saying apple dosent care at all about these apps.

they finally get to releasing a new version and i see and hear nothing but negative comments
 

chfilm

macrumors 68040
Nov 15, 2012
3,304
1,987
Berlin
This is the FCPX and IOS7 debacle all over again. :(
I'm afraid of what they might do to OSX next year..
 

Chris5488

macrumors regular
Feb 26, 2011
223
37
Belgium
Why can't you duplicate a page anymore in Pages??? :mad:
It's driving me mad!

It's still possible in Keynote, it's still possible in Numbers, but why oh why can't you do it anymore in Pages. When you let Pages show page miniatures you can't call a menu anymore using right click or cmd+click. You can't even cmd+c cmd+v anymore while the page is selected!

This is very annoying when you want to make presentation papers or compilations, since I want to keep the layout.

Maybe someone knows how to duplicate a page in a document? Please??
 

oakrrl

macrumors member
Aug 1, 2006
77
34
Pages Mac iPad

Yes, indeed to all the above comments. Very disappointing.
BUT -- worth mentioning the big plus of the new iWorks, namely: compatibility between iPad and Mac. I previously stopped using my iPad as a vehicle for serious work because things I did on my Mac in Pages and Keynote wouldn't come out the same on iPad, making it fairly worthless for portability.

So for now, the advantages of stripped-down compatibility outweigh, for me, the loss of some features. I'll still use iWork 09 for some specialty tasks -- especially Page Layout mode, but will confine that work to my desktop Mac. Otherwise I'll use the new version - and hope Apple adds features back in, as in Final Cut X.
 

zedsdead

macrumors 68040
Jun 20, 2007
3,402
1,147
So it seems Apple learned NOTHING from the launch of Final Cut Pro X. They once again abandoned professional features in an app many people use and rely on.

I mean come on, the app is CALLED PAGES, and you can't even rearrange or duplicate PAGES!!!!

Not to mention all the other great things scarified in the name of iOS.

VERY VERY disappointing. And there was no way to use both versions because the new file structure is automatically detected and updates the old files which renders them unusable in the old documents once they are opened.

As others have said....OS X is coming up soon on the chopping block (as we all know Mavericks was just a refined version of Mountain Lion...a good one albeit)...but I am getting concerned.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.