Pages '09 and opening MS Word files from a USB stick

[jeffreyk]

Up until yesterday I was solely a Windows/PC-based computer user. I am now running Mac OS X with my new Mac Pro. Before turning off my PC system, hopefully forever, I downloaded all my MS Word files to a USB stick. I'm a writer and only worked in MS Word for my work.

I just purchased iWork '09 and am very impressed with the Pages App and I'm very excited to start working in Pages '09.

So...when I insert my USB stick with all my Word Docs on it into my Mac Pro, is it a case like under Windows/XP where you just open up each file with the Pages '09 program or is there something more to do to get Pages '09 to open the file up and save it within Pages '09? I understand Pages '09 works with MS Word files (as well as formatting to Word docs to send to colleagues).

Thanks!

 

[robert05au]

I can confirm Pages 09 opens and saves word 2008 documents withe ease.

I am pretty sure it will be open each one an re-save it as a pages document and if you need to send to some using MS word simply save as a word document again.

It saves it as word 97 - 2004 format which can be open easily with word 97-2007 (windows) word 2004-2008 (mac)

I hope this helps.

 

[jeffreyk]

Also when you open each document, does the system automatically prompt you to open with Pages 09 or do you have to manually have to do that? I could do this myself (of course, as to see what happens) but thought I'd ask as much as I could on certain things with my new MAC before I try something; that way I don't make a mess of things before I even start on my Mac! ;-) ...seeing that I'm a noob to the OS X environment!

Thanks for your help.

 

[PeggyD]

Also when you open each document, does the system automatically prompt you to open with Pages 09 or do you have to manually have to do that? I could do this myself (of course, as to see what happens) but thought I'd ask as much as I could on certain things with my new MAC before I try something; that way I don't make a mess of things before I even start on my Mac! ;-) ...seeing that I'm a noob to the OS X environment!

Thanks for your help.

By default, Leopard is set to use TextEdit to open Word files. You can easily change this. Highlight a known Word document in the Finder, highlight it & choose Get Info from the File menu. In the Get Info box, click the triangle next to "Open With." Click on this drop-down menu & choose Pages. If Pages is not a choice, choose "Other" & navigate to the Pages application. Now click the "Change" button under the text that asks if you want to open all documents like this with Pages. You can then double-click the Word documents & they will open in Pages. Note that the icon for the Word files will have a plain, white icon.

 

[jeffreyk]

Hey Peggy D,

When I insert the USB stick in the USB Drive, does it show up on Finder right away; or do I have to open it to/save to TextEdit, and then go to Finder to do what you specified I do.

Thanks.

Actually, the toughest thing so far on my Mac seems to be trying to type properly on the keyboard (Which after years of PC problems and freeze ups, seems to be just a heavenly problem to be having)! ;-)

 

[Mal]

Hey Peggy D,

When I insert the USB stick in the USB Drive, does it show up on Finder right away; or do I have to open it to/save to TextEdit, and then go to Finder to do what you specified I do.

Thanks.

Actually, the toughest thing so far on my Mac seems to be trying to type properly on the keyboard (Which after years of PC problems and freeze ups, seems to be just a heavenly problem to be having)! ;-)

Anytime you insert a USB drive into the computer, it will pop up on the desktop. You can just double-click on it to see all the files on the drive. You could also go the other way. Doesn't really matter.

jW

 

[jeffreyk]

Thanks; everything worked out just fine.

 

[jeffreyk]

Also, I'm extremely happy I went with Pages '09 instead of MS Office for Mac. I worked in Pages '09 for about 4 hours today and it was incredibly more enjoyable than Office ever was. Thanks to the advice here in this thread I was able to convert my MS Word docs into Pages docs in seconds and get to work pretty much immediately today.

Navigation seems to be far superior in Pages and much more effortless and intuitive than in MS Word.

There are differences, of course, between the two programs but I was able to pick up a lot on how to work in Pages in a very minimal amount of time and by the time I ended my session today it felt very much like it was second nature to work in Pages! This is coming from someone who had worked exclusively in MS Word for close to 10-12 years if not longer than that. Sort of amazing, really. Plus, I'm really digging my new wired keyboard from Apple as well. That even seems more efficient and accessible.

Thanks again for all your help as it made the transition really easy today!