Will you move from Pages 4.3 to Pages 5?

[jacg]

This is a poll for people that use the previous version of Pages (v4.3 or Pages '09) and have tried the new version (v5).

I have over 1000 Pages documents and a quick sample shows that many of them are rendered incorrectly or obsoleted by Pages 5 due to a significant number of missing features. I also have usability issues with the simplified interface.

Pages 4.3 is going to remain very important to me and it worries me that Apple have no plans to maintain the software (as suggested by its withdrawal from the App Store).

 

[jacg]

Features missing from Pages 5

Here are some of the problems I have found with Pages 5:

You can’t edit or even view facing pages. If you open a document with facing pages, it will be completely messed up.

You don't appear to be able to link text boxes any more, certainly not from page to page.

You can't duplicate or reorder pages. You can only delete a page with the delete key, but only with certain types of pages (I haven't worked out the pattern yet).

You can’t edit the toolbar to add frequently used commands.

You can no longer drag page guides out from the ruler. And the vertical ruler is gone.

You can’t paste an image from the clipboard into media placeholders any more. I couldn't even paste an image from the clipboard onto the page. I literally have to paste it into Pages 09, then copy and paste it again into Pages 5. Even then, I still can’t paste into the placeholder. And it’s now a PDF so I can’t adjust the image in Pages.

Changing the object wrap setting does not update the page rendering.

Every time you work on a table, a whole bunch of controls appear around them even when you are simply editing the contents, and tab no longer selects the next cell in a table.

Adding rows to a table does not always intelligently extend the current formatting. You used to be able to select borders in a table, even individual borders for each cell; this doesn’t seem to be possible any more.

Randomly the word ‘text’ appears in my existing text boxes. It doesn’t print but it’s annoying, especially as it causes the text overflow symbol to appear randomly in my documents.

There's no option to have a single (or multiple) Inspectors to control all open documents. I'll be honest, I dislike the dynamic interface attached to every open document because I have to hunt for commands all around the screen. Like the MS ribbon, it is probably easier for new users, but for power users it's more hunting, more clicking and more wasted screen real estate.

I don't use templates much but I gather they have been cut down and their functionality has been massively simplified.

Find and replace has been hugely simplified. You can no longer find and replace by style, for example.

Others have mentioned you can't use fn keys to specify a style.

Merge fields are gone.

Applescript support has been massively cut down apparently.

Lots more chat about it here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5468056?start=0&tstart=0

 

[jacg]

Is sticking with Pages 4.3 a problem?

It looks like Pages 4.3 will not be maintained by Apple, as it has disappeared from the App Store. So what will we miss out on by sticking with Pages 4.3?

I’m intrigued by the collaboration features of new iWork, but it sounds less functional than the on-stage demo. Apparently collaborators have to use the web app and there’s no live cursors like in Google Drive. I'll probably just stick with Google Drive for my modest collaboration needs.

There seem to be some new options in Pages 5 to create complex shapes by combining objects using the usual Unite, Intersect, Subtract and Exclude commands. Select multiple objects and go to Arrange. It's a nice new feature.

Copy/paste style now works properly in Pages 5 for multiple cells in tables. If you format your own tables, this is a big improvement over original iWork.

Resetting image enhancements in the new iWork doesn’t mess up the sharpening anymore. This is an annoying bug of original iWork.

Pages 5 has better support for vertical and right-to-left type which will be important for some users.

Am I the only person that finds scrolling complex documents is stuttery in Pages 4.3 on Mavericks? This is on a SSD-based MBP with 16 GB. I don't remember this in Mountain Lion.

 

[NapoleonIV]

Give it a bad rating!

If you don’t like the new pages, consider giving it a bad rating in the app store. Maybe apple will be forced to take some sort of action, as with the maps debacle.

 

[jacg]

If you don’t like the new pages, consider giving it a bad rating in the app store. Maybe apple will be forced to take some sort of action, as with the maps debacle.

Agreed. Done that already. And given them feedback too.

Unfortunately the action on maps was due to reaction from iOS users. I'm not sure reaction from loyal OS X users has the same effect anymore, no matter what Tim Cook claimed in his latest presentation.

 

[Traverse]

Pages '09 (4.3) is still one of my favorite word processors.