Don't buy Pages, It's HORRIBLE!

[nsbio]

Pages is not bad, but it oftentimes breaks formatting of .doc files sent over from PC side. Given that I frequently co-edit Word files with my colleagues on PC side, Pages is useless for me.

In other words, a Mac user who interacts with PC users should have both iWork and Office. Unfortunately, there is no single magic bullet here.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

Pages is fantastic!

Wow. I don't see how someone could hate Pages. Previously, I had used Word for YEARS and I always felt like I was fighting that program to get it to do what I wanted. With Pages, I downloaded the trial and within a few minutes I was doing things with it that I never could have done in Word. I bought iWork soon after before the trial was even up. It was a no brainier.

I am SO much more productive with Pages. I do website work and sometimes I even use it's Instant Alpha feature to strip out the background quick and easy. It has exceeded my wildest expectations and I use it everyday in ways I never thought I would.

Numbers on the other hand is the reverse so far. I am trying to get used to it, but so far I still prefer Excel. I feel like I am fighting the program a bit with Numbers. And just like the word example earlier, I don't like fighting a program to get work done.

Final Letter Grade of the two for me: Pages A+ Numbers B-

 

[bocomo]

i hate using word for anything as it's bloated and slow and cluttered. i don't personally have a need for most of it's special features and find pages a much better solution. and pages is much better as a layout tool as well. as others have said, i export as pdf or even .doc when sharing files and am now using google docs to share edits back and forth.

i find it funny that different versions of word can't keep up with each other and pages gets blamed for a lot of it. oh well, to each their own...

 

[chrono1081]

If this had been written substituting Pages with Word, you would have been killed. Just as elaborate as the OP:

-It's faster: it's word processing, for pete's sake. Do you really note that possible thousand of a second difference?

- It's easier: for you because you use it. 99% of word processors users (the ones that use Word) might disagree with you.
- More flexible: like in 90% of the people you know won't know what to do with your pages file? like .doc being the standard and used by every company in the world?. Are you kidding me?



So the first time you used Word you found that you didn't know how to use it (therefore you have to do all these hoops as you call them) and that's the program's fault, no yours. So you try photoshop and as you don't know (just an example, not saying you actually don't know) how to use it, it's the program's fault. If you don't know how to drive, it's the car's fault, right?.

You have to be kidding with that piece of S**T NeoOffice is. It's buggy, ugly and way less powerful than MS Office.

First off, I've used word forever. Its a piece of **** when it comes to design. You have to do so much crap just to do any basic function in word. (Look up MS help for deleting a page once in Office 2003 and then tell me Word is user friendly.) Just because a feature is hidden and buried in a sub menu and does exist doesn't mean the program is designed well. IMO office needs a complete overhaul. You don't see iWork randomly disabling features of other programs because its afraid it may crash. You do in MS Office, just click on "Help -> "About Word" -> "Disabled Items". Oh ya Microsoft, thats a really superfriendly easy way to find out why your adobe wont print to PDF.

Second, Pages is MUCH better then word in my opinion because everything I need is right there. It so far has been 100% compatible with office and all I have to do is save as .doc in order to be compatible with office.

Third. Neo Office really isn't buggy. I have MS office at work crash on me way more then Neo Office, and Neo Office reads more file formats then MS Office.

Sorry, iWork is much more stable, and as others have stated much faster then MS Office. I also don't have to worry about saving all the time in iWork because I'm not afraid of iWork crashing.

 

[mac2x]

Hate to reply to a troll thread, but I've used OpenOffice since I got my Mac, and recently downloaded the iWork trial. I'm going to buy iWork because I wouldn't want to be without either!!

 

[macfan881]

Open Office ftw, that is all!

 

[Chase R]

I went all last semester with Word and no Pages and hated it. I bought iLife '09 and have been using Pages ever since. It's a hell of a lot better than Word in my opinion.

 

[rhomsy]

Pages is missing many of the advanced word processing features of Word. I hate Word, since it seems slow and cumbersome, but I still need it for my needs. When I write legal appellate briefs, Word auto-generates the required Table of Authorities and Table of Contents, along with a number of other things. There appears to be no similar functionality in Pages.

I know Pages '09 works with Endnote, but that is a crappy and expensive 3d party app that doesn't seem to even produce the same tables that Word produces.

Unfortunately, when I need to write complex briefs, I still need Word.

 

[MrPeanut]

Pages is horrible. Get word if your gonna spend money on word processing software.

When i downloaded the trail all i though was i'm glad i didnt spend any money on it. I don't think its awful and i dont prefer word - i'd much rather use (yes its no where near as feature rich as the two) Google Docs. Its free and it does what i want it to do.

 

[Elzlaik]

When I switched to Mac last November I wanted to use Pages. However, after using it I found it felt as though it were too cumbersome. Took me three attempts over the last year to fully switch. Finally did it in June and haven't looked back. Now, I prefer it Word. I think it was hard because I was so used to Word from my Windows world and it took a bit of a commitment to get over the hump.

Even from the beginning I knew it was better for anything graphical. It's like a little piece of Photoshop inside a Word processor.

 

[mac2x]

I bit the bullet and bought a serial number for the iWork trial. I couldn't be happier for my needs. With iWork and OpenOffice (or NeoOffice; never tried it though) a person ought to be pretty well set for most anything.

The last MS Office I used was 2007 (I think) on an XP box; it's got tons of features (someone mentioned the legal stuff above), but the UI sucks big time.

 

[powers74]

Horrible?

Keep in mind; pages is in it's fourth version. Word is at what now? I think pages is fantastic. From the lovely templates (which I seldom use) to the way it handles type (is there even a way to get spacing other than single, single and a half and double spacing in word?) or it's handling of graphics, I think there are some ways pages in far more advanced than word.

Just the other day I was helping my sister with her resume. I used pages, but of course, she needed to have it in word. I did a custom flourish for the top of the page which looked great in pages, but in word, the one that was supposed to fall behind the text wouldn't fall behind the text, the transparencies were all effed up, so I had to just delete half of it. AAAGH. I'm getting pissed off just writing about it.

 

[mac2x]

Stuff like that can happen even in the Mac version of Word. I've noted that stuff like bullets made in Pages doesn't appear if you export as .doc and read it in Word.

That said, Pages is a lot younger than Word as you point out, so it can only get even better with updates.

 

[stainlessliquid]

I think Pages is decent and a lot better than Word for page layout but I find it and everything else from iWork completely and utterly useless. Their MS Office compatibility is so bad that it will get you fired if you use it for work, and if you are trying to find work by sending them your resume on a mangled Word file then dont be surprised when nobody calls you back. School and work are the only things I would ever want to use a word processor for, and since Pages is useless in both of those applications I dont see the point of it. Under no circumstances should you EVER trust Pages to export a Word file, you always need to test the file in Word before sending it to anybody.

Until Apple fixes their HORRIBLE Office compatibility then there is barely any market for it. After having to redo stuff in Word that I made in Pages because it royally destroyed the formatting I dont think I'll ever use it again, thank god I had the sense to check it in Word just to make sure it worked before I screwed myself big time (and it didnt work on any of the files I made, not even close). I honestly dont know why they even allow you to export in Word format when it screws it up so bad, it would have saved me hours of work if they just left that crap out and didnt try to fool people. It desperately needs a "Word mode" where it only lets you use features that Word can do so nothing gets lost in translation when doing an export.

 

[instaxgirl]

I never bought Word for mac simply because I saw people have a lot of problems with it (usually they'd open up a word document they'd made on their mac on a pc and it would be nothing but weird characters) and the one time I tried to use it it crashed when saving and it took me 20 minutes to find my work again.

I don't know how common this is since I've not really seen posts about it here. Either way I love Pages. I've never seriously used any OS apart from OS X which means Pages is very intuitive for me. I keep NeoOffice around as a back up.

 

[mac2x]

I think Pages is decent and a lot better than Word for page layout but I find it and everything else from iWork completely and utterly useless. Their MS Office compatibility is so bad that it will get you fired if you use it for work, and if you are trying to find work by sending them your resume on a mangled Word file then dont be surprised when nobody calls you back. School and work are the only things I would ever want to use a word processor for, and since Pages is useless in both of those applications I dont see the point of it. Under no circumstances should you EVER trust Pages to export a Word file, you always need to test the file in Word before sending it to anybody.

Until Apple fixes their HORRIBLE Office compatibility then there is barely any market for it. After having to redo stuff in Word that I made in Pages because it royally destroyed the formatting I dont think I'll ever use it again, thank god I had the sense to check it in Word just to make sure it worked before I screwed myself big time (and it didnt work on any of the files I made, not even close). I honestly dont know why they even allow you to export in Word format when it screws it up so bad, it would have saved me hours of work if they just left that crap out and didnt try to fool people. It desperately needs a "Word mode" where it only lets you use features that Word can do so nothing gets lost in translation when doing an export.

That's why I keep OpenOffice around. Keynote, however, has performed flawlessly for me. I use it for a class that uses a lot of PowerPoint slides.

 

[Mal67]

Pages

We use Pages all the time for family related stuff however I require more features than Pages provides for work. Unfortunately I have had enough of Office 2008, in particular word and I am now using Office 2007 under boot camp exclusively for wordprocessing etc.

 

[DaveF]

I use Pages for as much as possible, it's faster, easier and more flexible.

Faster? I use and enjoy iWork (and have bought 06, 08, and 09). But my constant complaint is the entire suite is sluggish; substantially slower than Office 2004. They're slow to load, slow to unhide, slow to create documents, slow to change views in the Inspector. And Numbers, bless it's little 2.0 heart, is mired in molasses.

A coworker went so far as to switch to OpenOffice, he found iWork so pokey.

I've switched to iWork for all personal stuff, but I can't find the "faster" in iWork

 

[macrem]

Faster? I use and enjoy iWork (and have bought 06, 08, and 09). But my constant complaint is the entire suite is sluggish; substantially slower than Office 2004. They're slow to load, slow to unhide, slow to create documents, slow to change views in the Inspector. And Numbers, bless it's little 2.0 heart, is mired in molasses.

A coworker went so far as to switch to OpenOffice, he found iWork so pokey.

I've switched to iWork for all personal stuff, but I can't find the "faster" in iWork

What are you talking about?

I just opened a blank doc in both Pages 09 & OpenOffice 3.1.1. According to Activity Monitor:

OpenOffice is using 0.2% CPU, 82.6MB RAM
Pages is using 0.0% CPU, 59MB RAM

I'd bet MS Office uses more...

 

[Shake 'n' Bake]

I use iWork instead of Office whenever possible. Pages is much better at making the paper look nice and doesn't seem to be hung up on geometric shapes. Keynote is lightyears ahead of PowerPoint in every category. Numbers makes the spreadsheets look much nicer, and I can't see why most people prefer Excel.

Trivia: PowerPoint was originally for the Mac.

I use Office when I'll be utilizing a document in a non-Mac zone, like most of my school district (there is one Mac area, with brand new 20'' iMacs!).

 

[Journojulz]

Do enjoy pages, much less cluttered and awkward.

Also enjoy having 2 columns in text boxes.

------

Has anyone noticed you can paste into shape objects?

You can make a polygon shape and paste text in to get word wraps when overlaying images - something i loved doing in Quark.

 

[Aldaris]

Pages is all I use for word processing. Sorry but 'word' in a word sucks.

 

[Daveoc64]

Pages is not bad, but it oftentimes breaks formatting of .doc files sent over from PC side. Given that I frequently co-edit Word files with my colleagues on PC side, Pages is useless for me.

... and that's why I don't use iWork.

The way Apple has implemented Office compatibility is woefully inadequate.

 

[Aldaris]

I think Pages is decent and a lot better than Word for page layout but I find it and everything else from iWork completely and utterly useless. Their MS Office compatibility is so bad that it will get you fired if you use it for work, and if you are trying to find work by sending them your resume on a mangled Word file then dont be surprised when nobody calls you back. School and work are the only things I would ever want to use a word processor for, and since Pages is useless in both of those applications I dont see the point of it. Under no circumstances should you EVER trust Pages to export a Word file, you always need to test the file in Word before sending it to anybody.

Until Apple fixes their HORRIBLE Office compatibility then there is barely any market for it. After having to redo stuff in Word that I made in Pages because it royally destroyed the formatting I dont think I'll ever use it again, thank god I had the sense to check it in Word just to make sure it worked before I screwed myself big time (and it didnt work on any of the files I made, not even close). I honestly dont know why they even allow you to export in Word format when it screws it up so bad, it would have saved me hours of work if they just left that crap out and didnt try to fool people. It desperately needs a "Word mode" where it only lets you use features that Word can do so nothing gets lost in translation when doing an export.

Ever hear of sending a PDF?

 

[Daveoc64]

Ever hear of sending a PDF?

What use is that if you need to send an editable copy of a document?

Some people are also REQUIRED to send a .doc file in various situations.