FedEx delivered my copy of iWork at noon today and I had installed it by 12:10. I first took a look at Pages to see if it can replace Microsoft Word.
Like Keynote 1.0, when you get into Pages you are given a choice of templates. Like Keynote 1.0, you can use preferences to turn this off and can even set a default template to open whenever you get into Pages or start a new file.
Pages has a very clean interface. Bearing a resemblance to Keynote 1.0, the default toolbar has buttons for columns, styles, lists, objects (including shapes, tables, and charts), wordwrap, Inspector, media (including movies, photos, audio), colors, and fonts. This toolbar is customizable.
Two things that are very important to me are styles and endnotes. Pages does well in the former but is a disappointment in the latter. Styles can be easily changes, deleted, or created. The interface for doing so is far simpler than Word's.
Pages does not support endnotes. It does support footnotes but with some problems. Prior to Microsoft Word, whoever made footnotes in which the footnote numbers in the footnotes (not the numbers in the body of the text) were superscripted? What idiot at Microsoft decided to superscript those numbers? Fortunately, in Word, you can unsuperscript the numbers, though it can be tedious.
For some reason, both Nissus and Pages decided to follow Microsoft's mispractice of superscripting the footnote numbers. So far I haven't found a workaround in Pages. Since I prefer endnotes anyway, it wouldn't do much good if I did find a workaround.
In sum, I may end up using pages for shorter documents that don't call for endnotes. I will not use the footnotes function unless I can find a way to unsuperscript the number. For documents that require endnotes I will continue to use Word. I hope Apple improves the footnotes function and adds endnotes to Pages 1.1.
I'll add comments about Keynote soon.
Randal O'Toole
Like Keynote 1.0, when you get into Pages you are given a choice of templates. Like Keynote 1.0, you can use preferences to turn this off and can even set a default template to open whenever you get into Pages or start a new file.
Pages has a very clean interface. Bearing a resemblance to Keynote 1.0, the default toolbar has buttons for columns, styles, lists, objects (including shapes, tables, and charts), wordwrap, Inspector, media (including movies, photos, audio), colors, and fonts. This toolbar is customizable.
Two things that are very important to me are styles and endnotes. Pages does well in the former but is a disappointment in the latter. Styles can be easily changes, deleted, or created. The interface for doing so is far simpler than Word's.
Pages does not support endnotes. It does support footnotes but with some problems. Prior to Microsoft Word, whoever made footnotes in which the footnote numbers in the footnotes (not the numbers in the body of the text) were superscripted? What idiot at Microsoft decided to superscript those numbers? Fortunately, in Word, you can unsuperscript the numbers, though it can be tedious.
For some reason, both Nissus and Pages decided to follow Microsoft's mispractice of superscripting the footnote numbers. So far I haven't found a workaround in Pages. Since I prefer endnotes anyway, it wouldn't do much good if I did find a workaround.
In sum, I may end up using pages for shorter documents that don't call for endnotes. I will not use the footnotes function unless I can find a way to unsuperscript the number. For documents that require endnotes I will continue to use Word. I hope Apple improves the footnotes function and adds endnotes to Pages 1.1.
I'll add comments about Keynote soon.
Randal O'Toole