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What I loved about Apple's software is that they designed things in a way that was simple enough for basic purposes, but powerful enough for pro users. Everything had a strong feature set that was there for those who needed it. It's something that made Pages, Numbers and Keynote some of the best productivity apps out there.

Sadly, these updates don't appear to follow that ideology.
 
I'm glad I am doing research before jumping from PC to MAC, as threads like this have me rethinking my decision. With the Apple advertising and talking to folks I thought MAC was the way to go. I don't want to buy a MBP only to have to buy the MS Office Suite because Pages, Numbers, etc., is regressing.

I've been a PC user for years, and I can say that to me every new version of MS Word, etc. included noticeable improvements.

I don't know if Apple is trying to save money, but from what I read here, their software is falling behind.

I don't understand how Apple can put out updates that are not substantial improvements, it's just not the Apple of the past.

EDIT: Let's say Apple fixes most of the glitches, could Pages be used to write a research paper or a book?
 
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I'm glad I am doing research before jumping from PC to MAC, as threads like this have me rethinking my decision. With the Apple advertising and talking to folks I thought MAC was the way to go. I don't want to buy a MBP only to have to buy the MS Office Suite because Pages, Numbers, etc., is regressing.

I've been a PC user for years, and I can say that to me every new version of MS Word, etc. included noticeable improvements.

I don't know if Apple is trying to save money, but from what I read here, their software is falling behind.

I don't understand how Apple can put out updates that are not substantial improvements, it's just not the Apple of the past.

EDIT: Let's say Apple fixes most of the glitches, could Pages be used to write a research paper or a book?


No. It does not do cross-references, automated caption numbering, etc. Pages is a very light weight word processing program that has good image support.

Even more, files from Pages 2008 can't be opened using Pages 2013. Research papers should be archival, and you need to be able to access them years later.

I would stick with Word. It is easy to use once you understand the Styles drawer. It has a history of long term backwards compatibility, etc.
 
I'm glad I am doing research before jumping from PC to MAC, as threads like this have me rethinking my decision. With the Apple advertising and talking to folks I thought MAC was the way to go. I don't want to buy a MBP only to have to buy the MS Office Suite because Pages, Numbers, etc., is regressing.

I've been a PC user for years, and I can say that to me every new version of MS Word, etc. included noticeable improvements.

I don't know if Apple is trying to save money, but from what I read here, their software is falling behind.

I don't understand how Apple can put out updates that are not substantial improvements, it's just not the Apple of the past.

EDIT: Let's say Apple fixes most of the glitches, could Pages be used to write a research paper or a book?

I changed to Mac just over 2 years ago and wouldn't go back... for my 'serious' writing, though, I use WORD from MS Office for Mac. Everything else Mac is much better, IMO, especially installing/uninstalling programmes (you won't believe how easy that is!) and especially the fact that there's aren't endless updates to the system on an almost daily basis.

I actually have a Windows partition (running under Parallels), because there are two specific applications for professional ebook creating that don't run on the Mac. Whenever I go there, though, I'm reminded why I changed in the first place.

By the way, I was a PC user with Windows 3.1... back in the days LOOONG before Google, even before 'Compuserve' (Anybody remember that - and 'Gopher'?)
 
Personally I think the worst thing are the new buttons on the top bar.

I mean… that ˝simple" style may look kinda cool or minimalistic on iOS. On Pages for Mac, with those colors, they look like $h¡t designed in MS Paint.

I swear I want to go to Steve Jobs' grave and revive him.
 
Unfortunately Steve Jobs died

I know you're being funny, but this is a classic Steve Jobs move. Take something beloved, kill it, and make the new replacement simpler/useless. This is exactly what happened with FCPX.

Personally I think the worst thing are the new buttons on the top bar.

I mean… that ˝simple" style may look kinda cool or minimalistic on iOS. On Pages for Mac, with those colors, they look like $h¡t designed in MS Paint.

I swear I want to go to Steve Jobs' grave and revive him.

I don't think Steve Jobs would have liked the gaudy colors in iOS and in Pages. He certainly would have hated iOS 7's minimalist style. But he was also the guy who wanted the faux leather, linen, and game center's pool table.

The worst thing about the toolbar is you can't customize the damn thing.
 
Another annoyance: You can't hit return or delete to break out of lists from anywhere in the middle. You have to manually select the list style "None" from the inspector.

As someone who frequently uses Option+8 to create ad-hoc lists as he's outlining his thoughts, the inability to easily break things into sections so I can turn my outline into prose is frustrating beyond belief. I was excited to use the new version of pages because of the new features for Japanese, but when it comes at the cost of the way I do the most critical parts of what I do, I can't stay.

Reverted back to iWork '09, where I'll be staying until this mess is addressed.
 
Removed: Bulleted and numbered listed, unless you type them in as lists from the start. No way to change a non-list into a list.

It's there, you just missed it. Someone else complained about this the day it was released and it took me all of 5 minutes to find it. Format -> Text -> Style -> Bullets. Just select what you want then select the bullet you want. Easy peasy.

Images within Tables
I had no problem, just created a table, and dropped in several images; worked as expected.

Mask with shapes other than rectangle
Sure you can. Select image, Format -> Image -> Mask Image with Shape -> Pick shape

Seems like so many people jumping to conclusions, it can't do this, it can't do that, when in fact it is THEM who aren't learning a new software package. Things have changed, they are in different places. I picked a few out of the list of complaints and ALL of them are there. I didn't check every one, many I don't even really know what they are. But so far, much of the things are there, just need to look for them.

OK, even more things :
135 templates
Were these by default in the old Pages? If not, then they weren't removed.

Accented Characters in Footer
Yes you can, 100%. Just press and hold the character you want to add. Say 'e' with an accent. Just hold the e and a context menu will appear asking which accent you want. Works fine everywhere.

Alignment Guides
So far I haven't seen them, not sure if they can be turned on or not.

Background Object selectable
Arrange -> Section Masters -> Make Master Objects Selectable

Bookmarks and Links
I think you can drop and drag in links. Not sure about bookmarks.

Bullet points in comments
Comments are new, never removed. Thus a feature you'd like.

Capture pages/sections
Not sure what this is, capture pages / sections? If you mean their styles, yes you can. Format -> Character Styles -> Pulldown -> + sign. Not sure why, but doesn't seem to always work but it is supposed to.

Character Styles (?)
See above

Import of older .pages formatting - Not Clean
Most do; guess it depends on the document. I have had zero problems so far.

Customizable Toolbar
Nope, can't seem to change it; I guess it's personal opinion, but never have seen the need.

Default Start Up page
What do you want here?

Delete page
Yup, couldn't find this one.

Drag and Drop VCards
Don't have any vCards to try with.

Drag reorganize pages
Yup, seem silly this isn't here.

Duplicate pages
Another issue that is missing, seems like the Page Thumbnail bar isn't up to snuff.

Footnotes? Yes, they are there.
Endnotes : Shift - CMD - E

Export to .txt or .rtf
You can export to .TXT. File -> Export -> Plain Text

Facing pages
Would be nice.

Find & Replace special characters (e.g. paragraph returns)
Oddly enough I could copy a paragraph return and press CMD-F and paste it in and find it, but it didn't show up in the text box for the find. I'm guessing it's an oversight.

Images within Tables
No problem dropping and dragging images into tables.

Import Styles
Yup, doesn't seem to be there, but then you'd need a way to export the style.

Insert File Name
Didn't seem to find this one either.... might be useful in the footer or something, but generally would it be that useful? I guess it could be.

Layout Breaks
There, just turn them on.
View -> Show Invisibles

Layout Margins
View -> Show Layout

List Styles (?)
Format Bar -> Style -> Bullets & Lists -> Chose your style. Press the triangle down for more options.

Mail Merge
Manage Pages
Right, already mentioned a few times.

Mask with shapes other than rectangle
Format -> Image -> Mask Image with Shape -> Pick shape

Mathtype/Grapher Equations/Formulae within Pages
Insert -> Function -> Formula (not 100% sure it is what you want)
Insert -> Math Type Equation (grayed out, not sure why I can't insert one, looks like it is there, just not sure how to use it yet)

Media Inspector links to Aperture Library
Not sure how to do it, I haven't use Aperture yet, but someone else says it is there.

Media Inspector links to iPhoto library on external drive
Not sure if the "on external drive" is the issue; but others say iPhoto library support is there. Clicking the Media button seems to work fine for internal iPhoto libraries.

Merge Fields
Multiple Comments view
New feature, not removed.

Open Type features
?

Outline view
I haven't see this one yet, not sure if it exists. Kinda would be nice to have.

Paste and keep style
I'm guessing this is a bug; Paste should do this. Paste and Match Style is an option, so far I'm seeing both do the same thing for me.
It seems to work within Pages documents, but I lost the style when going from Safari to pages; but only some times. I'm guessing it has to do wit the website I'm visiting.

Retain zoom level of document
Not having a problem with this.

Search comments
Agreed, searching should search comments or at least have a check box to allow it.

Search in Media Browser
Meh; was this before?

Search Sidebar
Not sure what this is for, Searching the Sidebar?

Select all instances of a Style
Could see this being useful.

Select non-contiguous text
For those who use it, it could be useful.

Selective formatting in Character Styles
No reason you can't do this, jus select the characters you want formatted and change their style. Seems to work.

Storyboards
Again not something removed, but something you'd like. Kinda an advanced feature that I don't think many people would be using.

Style Function key shortcuts
Useful? Maybe. Never existed before, so again, not REMOVED.

Styles Drawer
Could be useful to be expanded. But Format -> Style -> triangle under the format button to expand and change the style. Not as nice as it could be. Although the one for the text boxes is much nicer.

Subscript/superscript buttons
Right, not quick easy button, just click Advanced then baseline and select super/sub script.

T.O.C. clean numbering
Not sure what you want here.

Tables in Headers/Footers
Yup doesn't seem to be there.

Tables to Text
Did this ever exist? Is it really that useful for general people's use. If you're going to do something like this just make your tables in Numbers and drop and drag them in.

Text to Tables
Same as above, just import CSV files into Numbers, then drag the numbers doc into pages. Works that way.

Textbox linking
You can Unite them but doing Format -> Arrange -> Unite; but not quite what you want, you'd like to "Lock" them like you can do images. That would be useful.

Two-up view
??

User Guide (?)
Help -> Pages Help, brings you to Apple's pages help website, lots of good information there.

Vertical Ruler
Didn't find a way to turn it on. :(

Word (.DOCX) export to iCloud
iCloud wasn't in previous version, thus not removed.
 
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CylonGlitch, I'm afraid you're talking nonsense with a load of your comments, some of them are just plain wrong, and others it's clear you don't understand the feature you're talking about.

for example:
"Comments are new, never removed. Thus a feature you'd like."

Nonsense. Comments were well featured in Pages '09, the way they are implemented has changed, any many people who were using them before don't like the way they are now implemented.

Quote:
Multiple Comments view
New feature, not removed.
Wrong. They were there, now they aren't. Please don't make daft comments about features just because YOU didn't use them.

Quote:
Import Styles
Yup, doesn't seem to be there, but then you'd need a way to export the style.
You clearly never used it. You could previously import the styles used in any saved .pages document.

Quote:
Open Type features
?

Open type includes many useful additional features in fonts. These were supported in Pages 09. Suggest you do your research:
http://practicaltypography.com/opentype-features.html

note the comment "Pages ’09 on the Mac is the word proces*sor with the best OpenType fea*ture support."

Style Function key shortcuts
Useful? Maybe. Never existed before, so again, not REMOVED.
*yawn*... again, yes they did. I'm using them right now in a document over there -->

There are other examples but tbh I can't be bothered to point them all out.

Please don't comment with nonsense like "It never existed before" on features that people are only complaining about their loss because THEY ACTUALLY USED THEM so they know they're missing.
 
CNonsense. Comments were well featured in Pages '09, the way they are implemented has changed, any many people who were using them before don't like the way they are now implemented.


Wrong. They were there, now they aren't. Please don't make daft comments about features just because YOU didn't use them.

Never even seen the way to use them before. Look, the original post said that all those features were removed. About ½ of them were NOT removed, just moved. That's the point, someone blowing it out of proportion. Many were repeats of the same thing.

You clearly never used it. You could previously import the styles used in any saved .pages document.

I said I agreed, it was missing.


Open type includes many useful additional features in fonts. These were supported in Pages 09. Suggest you do your research:
http://practicaltypography.com/opentype-features.html

note the comment "Pages ’09 on the Mac is the word proces*sor with the best OpenType fea*ture support."

OK, I didn't say that it wasn't there, or any comment about it besides ? because I didn't know what the original poster was talking about.

*yawn*... again, yes they did. I'm using them right now in a document over there -->

Please tell me the steps in assigning a style to a function key (F1 to F12). Never heard of it; OK, so out of some 30 different "issues" that were not really issues I got 2 wrong, comments and Function Key styles. That's a LOT less wrong than the OP.

BTW, no need to be rude about it, the idea was to point out that more things were wrong with the OP's post then right.
 
Please tell me the steps in assigning a style to a function key (F1 to F12). Never heard of it;

It's on the drop-down list when you click on the triangle in the styles drawer.
 
Apple is bringing some features back to Pages/Numbers/Keynote:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6049

The page also has a link to provide feedback on iWork.

For Pages:
* Customize toolbar
* Vertical ruler
* Improved alignment guides
* Improved object placement
* Import of cells with images
* Improved word counts
* Keyboard shortcuts for styles
* Manage pages and sections from the thumbnail view
 
I do sure that for people who only use Pages for the occasional Letter, CV or Flyer, they will love the simpler layout. But if you use Pages frequently for long documents it's a huge, huge step backwards.
I use Pages for almost everything, documents, layout work. If I can't do it in Pages I use InDesign but find Pages much quicker and simpler to use for straightforward things.
 
In theory everything is an added feature since it's built from scratch. :p

I gave it a go and I must say the new interface is nice and some of the new and improved features are great.

BUT!

Too many of the features are broken and there are bugs galore. In the end I couldn't use it to finish my assignment. I had to switch back.

I don't know how anyone could consider this ready to be released out into the wild. And it has already had an update (5.0.1).

I look forward to when Pages gets the Final Cut Pro X treatment and becomes usable. Until then the old one will suffice.
 
Apple is working hard to get old features back on Pages 5 so I will stay with it for now. :apple:

I won't until they fix it.

As a new user of Mavericks when I recently opened a Pages document, the new Pages 5 grandly opened. "Oh, a new Pages!" I thought happily until I discovered my opened document was missing all of it's bookmarks.

Not to sound overly excited but IS APPLE FRACK'N INSANE?!! It's very fortunate that I still have my copy of Pages 09 and can still use it.

What are they thinking? If you remember years ago they neutered Clarisworks, when they replaced it with Pages. What the heck? <shakes head>

I do sure that for people who only use Pages for the occasional Letter, CV or Flyer, they will love the simpler layout. But if you use Pages frequently for long documents it's a huge, huge step backwards.
I use Pages for almost everything, documents, layout work. If I can't do it in Pages I use InDesign but find Pages much quicker and simpler to use for straightforward things.

I have some long documents with many sections and quickly navigating to a section is important to me. Bookmarks were just too convenient for this purpose, I guess, considering that Apple replaced it with nothing with a like capability. Am I correct in this assertion? This is the kind of thing that shakes my confidence in the wisdom of Apple.
 
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As a new user of Mavericks when I recently opened a Pages document, the new Pages 5 grandly opened. "Oh, a new Pages!" I thought happily until I discovered my opened document was missing all of it's bookmarks.

Not to sound overly excited but IS APPLE FRACK'N INSANE?!! It's very fortunate that I still have my copy of Pages 09 and can still use it.

What are they thinking? If you remember years ago they neutered Clarisworks, when they replaced it with Pages. What the heck? <shakes head>



I have some long documents with many sections and quickly navigating to a section is important to me. Bookmarks were just too convenient for this purpose, I guess, considering that Apple replaced it with nothing with a like capability. Am I correct in this assertion? This is the kind of thing that shakes my confidence in the wisdom of Apple.

I and many others share your experience and feel your pain. Personally, if it weren't for Time Machine I would have several files which would be, essentially, lost.
 
I and many others share your experience and feel your pain. Personally, if it weren't for Time Machine I would have several files which would be, essentially, lost.

Fortunately Pages 09 has eradicated the pain for now. I just don't understand who the yahoo was who decided to eliminate the good Pages stuff. In the name of programming simplicity and "too much work" was it too hard to bring forward?
 
Fortunately Pages 09 has eradicated the pain for now. I just don't understand who the yahoo was who decided to eliminate the good Pages stuff. In the name of programming simplicity and "too much work" was it too hard to bring forward?

The really unforgivable part is that they didn't tell us. When I decided to upgrade to Mavericks and found that I could get the new versions of the iWork software, I thought, great. Then I opened a file in Pages and found all my formatting gone, my fonts gone, etc. I wound up having to rely on Time Machine to recover the original file. You had to learn from experience, as I did, or from someone else's misfortune. I found it really unforgivable on the part of Apple to have removed functionality in the "upgrade" of the iWork software, and especially, to have done so silently.
 
The really unforgivable part is that they didn't tell us. When I decided to upgrade to Mavericks and found that I could get the new versions of the iWork software, I thought, great. Then I opened a file in Pages and found all my formatting gone, my fonts gone, etc. I wound up having to rely on Time Machine to recover the original file. You had to learn from experience, as I did, or from someone else's misfortune. I found it really unforgivable on the part of Apple to have removed functionality in the "upgrade" of the iWork software, and especially, to have done so silently.

You mean they did not have Tim up on strange bragging about how they neutered Pages...and hoped we would not notice? Lol.
 
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