-How do you collaborate with other PC users using iCloud and iWork online? they choose to use that too?
-I thought people want a .docx file for work meanwhile you use pdf?
-If you have Office installed why do you prefer pages? honestly asking
1) The collaboration feature built into the Mac and iOS/iPadOS versions of iWork is a cinch to use. It creates a link that is emailed to the client. They click it and the online version of iWork for iCloud pops up in their preferred browser. They can sign in with their iCloud account or just access the document with the permissions I had set in the link. Additionally, if they are using a Mac or iOS/iPadOS the link will launch the file directly in the corresponding app. Assuming it is installed on their device, that is.
It works wonders for PC users, especially those running supported versions of Windows 10 and 11.
Once in, it is the same experience as using Google Docs, except more of the features are revealed to the user and I
know everything that is done isn’t going to change upon export.
2) The PDFs aren’t really meant to be used except if all heck breaks loose. As I said, they provide a way of accessing the content if something weird happens and I wind up on a totally different device. A PDF, especially a simple one with just text, can be opened on a Windows 95 computer. The DOCX file format? No so much. I found myself in that situation in 2018. Yes: 2018. Windows 95 stopped being supported in 2001.
I would save the material as plain text files, but then I would be in even worse shape in protecting myself from potential liability issues.
Having multiple PDFs showing my progress on the project can make all the difference in a jury trial. Many people are inherently suspicious of word processing documents since they can easily be changed. Thus, I can say I had it up and didn’t change it after X, and even have the time stamps to prove it, but the less technically inclined may not believe it. Especially if the person suing me spins a sob story. PDFs are widely considered by many to be a pain in the caboose to change, so this is less of a problem.
I have never been sued, but am operating on the advice of a lawyer with experience handling cases like that. An ounce of prevention is worth a couple hundred grand in lawyer fees!
3) That is like saying “Why are you using a desktop app when you can just point your browser to Google Docs?” I have a one-time-paid version of Office floating around for emergency situations where
nothing else works. It never happens, since everyone tries to be compatible with each other nowadays. I use Pages and Numbers since they have the features I need, none of the features I don’t, integrate with a cloud based system that I already pay for, doesn’t cost me any extra to use them, and have never failed me.
I can tell you horror stories about having to use Google Docs, Office 365, Zoho, and other niche apps over the course of my career. My clients, and employers, all insisted upon them. They all inevitably messed up. Last summer Google Docs lost an emergency project that I, as an editor, and two of my writers spent several days on. Literally poof! Thankfully, I had a backup. Google refused to help even though the company paid for advanced archival tools. We still lost several hours’ work, but it could have been vastly worse.
iCloud only messed up on me once, and that was during the transition from MobileMe to iCloud. I had an old Pages document that was synced to iDisk and tried moving it over. Apple’s team actually fixed the problem for me within a half hour, while I was on the phone with them. I use it since I can trust it. Even then, with the PDFs stored off the cloud, I have a backup in case something goes wrong.
