Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Don't buy Pages, It's HORRIBLE!
- Thread starter kim6ball
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Care to elaborate. I love certain features of Pages, but I still use Word for most of my material.
That is what seems to be the general consensus. There are some features that are missing, but it's really that people are just used to it.
Word sucks for page layout and design... pages is much better there. I prefer word if I need simple word processing.
I, for one, like it and think it's worth the purchase.
Unsubstantiated original posts are tiring and reflects poorly on the poster.
Unsubstantiated original posts are tiring and reflects poorly on the poster.
word i could go either way between pages, open office etc, however when it comes to calculations and databases and presentations, i still prefer MS. Doesn't mean it won't work for your situations, however for me, MS 2007 is a must have to run my business.
I'd never go back to Word having used Pages. Works absolutely perfectly for most everyday tasks, or even layout projects. It'd have to be really advanced for me not to use Pages.
I strongly prefer Pages over Word. Pages is a layout application more than it is a word processor, so it works quite well if you have design experience. If you spend some time exploring the inspector, you should be able to find most options you visited formatting dialogs for in Word. They are very different applications, but calling something horrible because it wasn't designed like a Microsoft application is questionable. 
Related note: I prefer Numbers over Excel as well.
Related note: I prefer Numbers over Excel as well.
This is the least thought out thread I've seen in a while.
"doesn't flow nicely"? Care to elaborate?
For me I'm pretty much agnostic when it comes to word processors. If I start my own paper it's usually in Pages, just because the palettes are easier for me to get through (since it's basically like any native OS X application). There are no cryptic menus or weird formatting settings I need to work with.
If I get a paper from a friend, or a teacher it's usually .docx or .doc so I just open it in Word 2008 and work with that.
There's not a huge difference although pages is much prettier.
The best from the two suites are Pages, Keynote and Excel*. (Of course Mail trumps Entourage)
*Although Numbers beats Excel in all layout options, especially if your end result is going to be a PDF. Then Numbers wastes Excel. For spreadsheets and data collection, however, Numbers still has a ways to go to beat Excel.
I like Pages a lot, and for the price, it's a steal. I grew up using Word, but I never cared too much for it, it always had a ton of features I never used. Maybe I'm weird though, I like the newest version of Word more than the old versions, and I know many, many people are not fans of the new version.
But pages is crazy easy to use. I can spend less time screwing with the settings and more time writing, which is great for me, as I'm easily distracted.
But pages is crazy easy to use. I can spend less time screwing with the settings and more time writing, which is great for me, as I'm easily distracted.
I use Pages if I need the document to look slick without worrying that I'm being antisocial.
I use Word if I expect to have to send the document to other people for viewing or editing, or if I expect this to be a document I will need to refer back to over the coming years.
(And I used LaTeX to write my thesis because Word chewed it up, spat it out, and stomped all over it more times than I cared to count.)
I use Word if I expect to have to send the document to other people for viewing or editing, or if I expect this to be a document I will need to refer back to over the coming years.
(And I used LaTeX to write my thesis because Word chewed it up, spat it out, and stomped all over it more times than I cared to count.)
There are only a couple of things that keep me from using Pages exclusively. First and most importantly, I do a lot of writing and the ability to select paragraphs quickly is something I can't do as easily in Pages. I also have been unable to get Pages to automatically substitute a dash for two hyphens ( rather than --). Has anyone else had success with this?
Pages and the rest of the suite are good. The problem for iWork is compatibility and if you're a power user. Documents nowadays are spread through files and not paper which is a weakness for iWork. Since very few need the power of Office, I'd recommend iWork if you're an adult and use it every once in a while which consists of more than half of the population. The perfect office product is the UI of iWork and the features of Office.
You can do this two ways:
1. Shift + Option + Dash = —
2. Pages -> Preferences -> AutoCorrection ; Then define "--" to give you "—"
Hope that helps!
The guy above gave a great answer re: the second question, but re: the first, did you try triple-clicking a paragraph to select it? You can triple-click a paragraph, then drag the mouse to select more paragraphs. Is that what you meant?
You can do this two ways:
1. Shift + Option + Dash =
2. Pages -> Preferences -> AutoCorrection ; Then define "--" to give you ""
![m.png]()
Hope that helps!
You are absolutely right, and I did not express myself clearly enough the first time. I have input this auto-correction into the Pages preferences, but there is one problem: since there is no space before or after the dash when it is used in a sentence, Pages thinks the characters are part of the previous word and does not make the substitution. Word is smart enough to do the right thing. I wish there was a simple fix to this, but I have yet to find one!
I did not know about the triple click, and for that, I thank you!!
How is Shift+Option+Dash not a "simple fix"? I use it all the time, works flawlessly (Shift+Option+Dash is for a m-dash, Option+Dash if you want a n-dash).