A year later Pages instead of Word, any comments?

[Bern]

I'm not a big Word user and I never use Excel. The most I would use Word for is perhaps the odd letter, invoices, quotes and for storing pages for web design (using DW8).

I would like to give Office the flick from my Mac and be completely M$ free once and for all so I'm considering iWork.

Now a year down the track I'm interested to hear the comments of people who may have "replaced" Word on their Macs with Pages and how the user experience has been so far.

Thanks

 

[MBHockey]

I've been playing with the trial version of iWork that came with my purchase of iLife '06...and i have to say i am pleasantly surprised with it.

I haven't touched Keynote yet, and don't think i would really need it...but Pages seems like a wonderful little word processing application. It can open and export to Word files, and it seems very promising.

I'd like to hear others opinions also, since i have only used it very lightly.

 

[Verto]

I haven't used Pages for anything other than writing plain college papers (ie, no graphs and charts etc embedded in it) and have had little problem with sending the .doc file to my Office-using prof.

 

[kiwi-in-uk]

Pages is like a hybrid word processor and publisher.

For the things you want to do it is a snip, and there are even some simple templates for letters, invoices and quotes. Pages handles embedded graphics much better than Word, and lacks Word's complexity (the complexity can be a bad thing).

That said, before you start using more complex templates it is essential to understand how they are set up and how they work (as I discovered at the cost of several "wasted" hours), and Pages lacks Word's flexibility (the flexibility can be a good thing).

I have not yet replaced Word with Pages, but do use it for 80% of my work.

 

[munkle]

Pages is more of a substitute for Publisher than Word and I happily use both.

But if you're looking for a simple word processor, there are plenty of good alternatives to Word available. Starting with TextEdit (!), Mellel, to the more heavy weight NeoOffice and OpenOffice.

 

[xsedrinam]

Pages is more of a substitute for Publisher than Word and I happily use both.

But if you're looking for a simple word processor, there are plenty of good alternatives to Word available. Starting with TextEdit (!), Mellel, to the more heavy weight NeoOffice and OpenOffice.

Another surprisingly good, bare bones word app is AbiWord http://www.abiword.com/ I've liked the simplicity of Mellel, too though it's shareware. I use Keynote bundled with Pages in iWork, but am not impressed. I won't purchase iWork '06 because of it.

 

[nagromme]

Pages isn't meant to replace Word. Pages focusses on ease and style, while Word focusses on options, power and (in my view) arbitrary random frustration

Which is one is right for you is a personal choice. Many people need Word's advanced power. Or will simply be used to it and not want to think about a new way of doing things. Many will appreciate Pages however, and be glad never to see Word again.

My own choice: TextEdit It reads and writes Word docs just fine for my needs, and it's simple. Plus the price is right. (I do like AppleWorks OK, but I just never seem to need it.)

 

[QCassidy352]

i gotta stick with word because of its "notebook" layout option. nothing better for taking notes in class!

 

[redAPPLE]

That said, before you start using more complex templates it is essential to understand how they are set up and how they work (as I discovered at the cost of several "wasted" hours), and Pages lacks Word's flexibility (the flexibility can be a good thing).

I have not yet replaced Word with Pages, but do use it for 80% of my work.

i am interested in the word "flexibility". could you maybe elaborate?