Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Pages 09 vs MS Word 08

winsorbeach

winsorbeach

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 7, 2009
24
0
Long Island, NY
I'm about to purchase a new Macbook and am balking at the $150 price for MS Office. iWorks is selling for $50. I really only use the word processor but use it constantly and set up Macros for a screenplay templates, etc.. I'm wondering if Pages is as good as Word? Can you do everything in Pages (macros, pdfs) that you can do in Word? And is it 100% compatible for people that have PCs or run Word? With Mac priding itself in being better than Microsoft at everything, it should be, but I'm just wondering if it actually is?
 
winsorbeach said:
I'm about to purchase a new Macbook and am balking at the $150 price for MS Office. iWorks is selling for $50. I really only use the word processor but use it constantly and set up Macros for a screenplay templates, etc.. I'm wondering if Pages is as good as Word? Can you do everything in Pages (macros, pdfs) that you can do in Word? And is it 100% compatible for people that have PCs or run Word? With Mac priding itself in being better than Microsoft at everything, it should be, but I'm just wondering if it actually is?
Click to expand...

it technically can do all that word does..... although i still prefer word. just for ease of use, familiarity, etc. ultimatesteal.com you can get it pretty cheap. not sure if they have the mac version on there tho
 
I prefer Word over Pages, though I have both. I really wish there were a new Mac version of WordPerfect; it was the best consumer level word processor ever.
 
apparently all iWork Pages docs can be saved as .docx and are therefore fully compatible with Word/PC users, but I wonder if certain formats/styles/templates will translate...ie: screenplay. Does anyone have any experience with sending docs composed in Pages to PC users/mac users with Word?
 
I prefer Pages myself but I mostly only use word processors to write research papers. But as for compatibility with Word, although Pages can import and export Word files, I have found that it frequently doesn't retain all the formatting of a Word document. It's pretty good at that but not perfect, so if you need 100% compatibility I think you need Word.
 
Pages is not a bad program. However, buy Word if you intend to frequently exchange .doc and .docx files with others:

First, Pages sometimes (not always) screws up formatting of Word documents.

Second, if someone sends you a Word document and you open it in Pages, you can not save it as a Word document. You need to export it as a Word document, and that takes extra clicks and in reality is so annoying that I stopped using Pages as a word processor.

On the other hand, Word sometimes can not properly open Word files with images sent over from PC. Those appear as black squares. Pages displays those images fine... but screws up formatting of the text. I have to open that PC Word file with both programs: with Pages for looking at images, and with Word 08 for editing. So much for "just works". As a result, I am seriously eying Windows 7 now. If it turns out to be relatively bug-free, my next computer might not be one made by Apple.
 
I have both (wife is a teacher) and I use iWork '09 most of the time (Pages, mostly). Wife hates Office '08, uses Pages + MathType for everything.... To Micro$oft's credit, they've really patched/updated it a lot since it first came out.

Word '08 feels very bloated and slow compared to Pages, and the Home/Student Ed. doesn't have any fancy templates like iWork does. Pages is far more lightweight than Word, and if you have a multitouch trackpad you can resize fonts, pictures, etc., all on the touchpad by 'pinching'.

Numbers '09 is a great spreadsheet program. I cut my teeth on Excel years ago but haven't had much use for it in a long while (esp. Excel '08).

Keynote '09 vs. Powerpoint '08 is really not a contest.
 
Pages all the way, Office 2008 has been slow from the first iteration all the way up to the current update released yesterday and this is from my use since it first came out and have had to use it for my work. I use Pages, and StarOffice if I don't have to use MS Office. my 2 cents
 
I use Word at work, Pages at home. Definitely prefer Pages.

Since you mention macros ... You can script Pages with AppleScript, which should do just about everything you can do with macros, though it could take some extra finagling.

mt
 
I have never really had any real compatibility issues, I think that pages looks a lot cleaner and works nicer than word.
Keynote is much nicer than powerpoint, more options and much more professional look with less effort.
Numbers is pretty bad in all honesty and the only programme of the office suite I really use is exel because of this.
 
winsorbeach said:
apparently all iWork Pages docs can be saved as .docx and are therefore fully compatible with Word/PC users, but I wonder if certain formats/styles/templates will translate...ie: screenplay. Does anyone have any experience with sending docs composed in Pages to PC users/mac users with Word?
Click to expand...

If you're writing screenplays, take a look at the free Celtx. It's very good for screenplays.
 
Great Advice All

Thanks for all of the responses...

Sounds like Pages is up to the point where it is a legit no hassle replacement for MS Word. This was not true when I bought it back in '05.

Thanks also for the "openoffice" and "celtx" tips. I am a big fan of open source stuff and freeware. I've used Inkscape and GIMP (illustration and photo manipulation programs) to great effect...to design business cards and logos, to fancy up blogger sites, etc.. Its nice to have great performing alternatives to the expensive Adobe and MS products.
 
Geez. After looking at OpenOffice, Celtx and Scrivener, I'm not even sure I need iWork. I don't really do presentations (at least not yet) and if I'm going to spend money on a luxurious word processor for magazine articles, screenplay, novel, etc... Scrivener just looks like mindcandy.

Maybe I should make a new thread to get you all back in here again. Now I want thoughts on whether to get Pages at all..:)
 
right now i have both but im contemplating getting rid of one or the other

my only concerns are the following: MS Office is slow, Pages doesnt open .docx files

so what should i do? there could be instances where i would need to open a .docx file.. also, i open a paper in Pages which was written in MS Word and it looks different - stuff has been moved around

any suggestions?
 
halisray said:
right now i have both but im contemplating getting rid of one or the other

my only concerns are the following: MS Office is slow, Pages doesnt open .docx files

so what should i do? there could be instances where i would need to open a .docx file.. also, i open a paper in Pages which was written in MS Word and it looks different - stuff has been moved around

any suggestions?
Click to expand...

It was my impression that the .docx compatibility issue had been solved with the latest version of Pages, but it sounds like maybe not. this could be another vote for the open source programs listed above. Anyone know the level of compatibility of OpenOffice with MS Office?
 
I just watched the intro video on the Scrivener site. Sold! Absolutely amazing! I just downloaded the free thirty day trial and can't wait to get writing. It is genius... and beautiful.

But, with that said, you still need a word processor for final formatting so Scrivener doesn't really solve the whole MS Word vs Pages debate. However, there is a "links" section on the Scrivener site that describes many different word processing options and it sounds like there are way better options out there for Mac OSX and cross platform compatibility. Like Nisus Writer.

I'm glad I started this thread. Thanks again guys. As far as I'm concerned the answer to my original posted question: Pages vs MS Word is .... neither! I'm going Scrivener and Nisus Writer.
 
For me, Pages and Word identical (both lack and have features the other has/lacks).

However, I stuck with iWork as its integrates well with Mac OS X and it incorporates Apple's signature drag+drop.

Also because of Keynote.
 
Greenman85 said:
Pages sucks. Get word
Click to expand...

Clueless... why don't you back that ridiculous statement up with something?

I don't like word 08 and I wish I hadn't bought it. I'm definitely buying iWork09 soon. Word runs like crap and there are certain things about word that make me think MS set out to frustrate the Mac user, like how the damn window never stays maximized by defualt no matter how many times I adjust it to fit full screen, it always opens up unaligned, with margins around the window. It's bloated, it has ridiculous steps to perform simple task; all in typical MS fashion. Word continually crashes when I use AutoShapes and don't even get me started on how utterly retarded MS word is when it comes to moving things around, like shapes/pictures, in a document; it seems to enoy taking a dump on you and repositioning things in the most nonsensical way possible. I don't use excel, so I could care less how Numbers works, but it sure looks easier and cleaner than excel.

PowerPoint 08 is BS...stone aged comparing to Keynote 09. MS word for mac was a total waste of $100+

P.S...OpenOffice blows, It's unreliable.
 
Greenman85 said:
Pages sucks. Get word
Click to expand...

Real maturity demonstrated here, also we see very informing post. Reasons are irrefutable....

Seriously, if you are going to bash something give out the reasons why and just say you don't use it because you think it's not up to your standards. The whole "it sucks" phrase isn't enough.... makes you no better than a troll...
 
How do Pages handle equations from Word 2007, because Word 2008 do not read Word 2007 equations!!!

Luckily many people uses MathType these days, although Word 2008 doesn't work too well with MathType either..

Sometimes Word just thinks MathType equations are pictures and refuse to save the document. I'm doing a "save as" every hour in Word, just to make sure my equations aren't lost, after I had an incident where a 50 page long scientific paper I was working on with 25+ equations that had to be rewritten..
Took me hours to rewrite all the equations.
 
Pages Template Users Beware

I never register for forums or blogs--I don't have time for all that. But I have spent so many wasted hours dealing with Pages templates that I am compelled to join this forum, just to warn the prospective user.

I have used Pages successfully for two years for letters and simple documents. And I used the 'elegant brochure' template to very good effect recently.

So a month ago I naively began using one of Pages report templates. Once I had painstakingly entered 20 pages of text and photos, arranging and ordering the text and photos very carefully, I discovered that trying to do any kind of editing has been a total nightmare. Even the most straightforward cutting and pasting has proven impossible: For example, I needed to move the first 8 pages to become the last 8 pages in the report. As I tried to cut and paste, everything in the document ordering fell to pieces. Text collapsed, pictures disappeared, then when did a bunch of "Undo" commands to try to recover what I had had, the document wouldn't come back fully, or the pictures were suddenly not movable as they had been before. Even if I tried to just delete the first pages, this left 8 blank pages at the front of the document, and if I tried to eliminate them or move the other text and photos forward, all my painstaking work was ruined.

I have spent HOURS trying to correct for this very poor design of this template--it's one of the worst such pieces of software I've ever dealt with in 20 years of computer work on Macs. User beware. It must never have been quality-tested.

Pages is good for certain things, but working with this report template has felt like the template could not have been designed to be more inflexible or user unfriendly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back