Pages or Word?

[ericsthename]

Hi all... Im picking up my Macbook tomorrow, thought i'd put a quick little question out there: How many of you would recommend Pages over Word? I can get both for cheap through my school's store, and I've used word for mac v.x extensively in the past, but never pages. As a side note, I spend about half my time typing essays and such in french, for which the autocorrections and spellchecker in office are fairly useful but not absolutely necessary.

Thanks

Eric

 

[illegalprelude]

im not sure about different language support but I can tell you I usually do Love pages, im just not as familiar with it as Word but its a good program (im just pretty frustrated as you can see right now). Dont expect to get everything Word has to offer but then again, most dont use 80% of what word has to offer anyways.

still pissed at pages though right now

 

[DakotaGuy]

Hi all... Im picking up my Macbook tomorrow, thought i'd put a quick little question out there: How many of you would recommend Pages over Word? I can get both for cheap through my school's store, and I've used word for mac v.x extensively in the past, but never pages. As a side note, I spend about half my time typing essays and such in french, for which the autocorrections and spellchecker in office are fairly useful but not absolutely necessary.

Thanks

Eric

I hate to say this because it is a Microsoft product, but Pages is not even half the program that Word is. Microsoft does make one good product and that is Office 2004 for Mac. The Education version is a good deal and in the end you will be happy to have it!

 

[MacsomJRR]

Hi all... Im picking up my Macbook tomorrow, thought i'd put a quick little question out there: How many of you would recommend Pages over Word? I can get both for cheap through my school's store, and I've used word for mac v.x extensively in the past, but never pages. As a side note, I spend about half my time typing essays and such in french, for which the autocorrections and spellchecker in office are fairly useful but not absolutely necessary.

Thanks

Eric

The other issue of course being that 99.9999999% of the rest of the world uses Word for just about everything under the sun. Pages is fun and useful in its own way but Word is more practical right now. Get Word.

 

[DakotaGuy]

The other issue of course being that 99.9999999% of the rest of the world uses Word for just about everything under the sun. Pages is fun and useful in its own way but Word is more practical right now. Get Word.

Oh I forgot to add that as well. It is nice to know that you are always completely compatible with the rest of the world as well. No matter how much they try to make programs like Pages or Keynote compatible there are still things that just don't seem to work right when you send these documents off to people on PC's. Also, I like no hassles...you just save it and know that the next person down the road will have no problems opening it and having it look just like you intended it to look.

 

[Project]

Pages is a far more enjoyable experience to work with than Word is for me. Not as many features, but it has had about 20 years less of development time. I cant understand people who complain about the feature set in relation to Word..

 

[johan_tanying]

I suggest you go for Word, especially if you are using different languages (much better Unicode support even when compared to vX), need to compare document versions, using foot-/endnotes, etc etc. The functions you don't need to use, you don't need to learn. But many of Word's functions are VERY handy when the need arises.

If at a later stage you need to do page layout (which is a pain in Word) you should seriously consider learning InDesign - it is not very dificult to get up and running. It is especially worth considering if you have access to an edu discount. In my opinion Pages is (and will be for at least several more years) an OK piece of software for the home user who needs to create some decent looking documents now and then, but nothing remotly professional or demanding in the sense of document size/length and compatibility.

 

[iBunny]

Word is an outstanding product. MS Word for Mac is a far better product that word for the PC. I dont know how its possible, but it is. Pages just lacks.

However Keynote is far superior to Powerpoint in ever aspect.

 

[gauchogolfer]

I have and use both Pages and Word, and I would have to say go with Word. I have a 10 page document with images inputted from iPhoto (which works great with Pages, btw), and it's unbelievably slow. As in, too painful to use. Typing, scrolling, etc. on a new G4 powerbook is not even possible. If I export that same document to Word format, I don't have any problems. Also, I just noticed that in my newest version of Word, all of the image manipulation abilities that Pages now has are present too. So, there's no real advantage for me using Pages, besides the fact that the initial template was easier to set up. After that, it's Word all the time.

Cheers!

 

[bousozoku]

If you would ask me only about MS Word, I'd say that it's a lousy word processor, bloated and broken. When I've done mission-critical work, it's been my adversary, not my ally.

However, in the light of your needs, it's more than enough, perhaps, too much. Pages is not a flexible word processor by design--it's all about design. While you can write anything with it, it's basically the opposite of MS Word. Pages is more concerned with combining graphic content with text. If you were doing manuals or reports needing graphs, Pages would be far superior.

I've written plenty of essays with AppleWorks and it worked quite well so even TextEdit would be fine.

 

[jsw]

I agree with many of the above posts: get Word. Pages is fun to play with, but Word will be more useful more often, especially when sharing documents.

Of course, on the flip side, I do agree that Keynote is much better than PowerPoint. So... while I'd pick Office over iWork '06, Keynote makes that a tough call.

 

[crees!]

Hi all... Im picking up my Macbook tomorrow, thought i'd put a quick little question out there: How many of you would recommend Pages over Word? I can get both for cheap through my school's store, and I've used word for mac v.x extensively in the past, but never pages. As a side note, I spend about half my time typing essays and such in french, for which the autocorrections and spellchecker in office are fairly useful but not absolutely necessary.

Thanks

Eric

I see pages as a non-professional's page layout program. Word is for taking notes. Don't get the two confused. If you're taking notes, use Word or another note taking program. If you want to make a newsletter or fancy resume, use Pages. If your using this for school and taking notes Word has a notebook view which is really helpful in structuring your notes. That's my take on it.

EDIT: Some people are comparing Word to Pages and Powerpoint to Keynote. Yes, Powerpoint to Keynote is a good comparision. Their purpose is one in the same. Word and Pages have different purposes and I wouldn't compare the two.

 

[IJ Reilly]

In my opinion Pages is (and will be for at least several more years) an OK piece of software for the home user who needs to create some decent looking documents now and then, but nothing remotly professional or demanding in the sense of document size/length and compatibility.

I do all of my business word processing in Pages, and I'd call the results far more than "remotely professional." In fact, my documents look much nicer than anything I see coming out of Word.

I can see someone needing a feature in Word that they don't get in Pages, or a need to be completely compatible with other people using Word, but criticisms like this, I just don't follow.

 

[jsw]

I do all of my business word processing in Pages, and I'd call the results far more than "remotely professional." In fact, my documents look much nicer than anything I see coming out of Word.

Absolutely - Pages-produced documents look far better with far less effort.

However, and unfortunately, the export-to-Word in Pages has failed me a few times with respect to work-related documents. Also, I prefer the way Word "works" (the steps you take to do things) - but that's likely because of years of experience with it.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Word and Pages have different purposes and I wouldn't compare the two.

They have exactly the same purpose, word processing. Choose which one you use on the basis of preferences and needs. Free trial versions of both are available, so take advantage of them.

 

[jsw]

They have exactly the same purpose, word processing.

Not entirely.

Looking at the pages describing them, Pages is clearly more layout-oriented, targeted toward more graphical documents, and Word is more business/text oriented.

You can clearly use both for word processing, and that's the core functionality of each, but the focus - and the design and usage of the tools in each app - are clearly oriented towards different audiences.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Absolutely - Pages-produced documents look far better with far less effort.

However, and unfortunately, the export-to-Word in Pages has failed me a few times with respect to work-related documents. Also, I prefer the way Word "works" (the steps you take to do things) - but that's likely because of years of experience with it.

Word document translation is never going to be perfect, since Microsoft owns the file format, so if this is a top priority, then you have to buy from Microsoft. For now, forever. You'd better love where you're going, because there's no off-ramp.

Personally, I'm looking for the edge that makes my professional presentation stand out from the crowd of ugly-to-mediocre documents produced by Word. So I use Pages for the same reason I use a Mac. I already know that using Word on a PC running Windows would be more "compatible."

 

[crees!]

Not entirely.

Looking at the pages describing them, Pages is clearly more layout-oriented, targeted toward more graphical documents, and Word is more business/text oriented.

You can clearly use both for word processing, and that's the core functionality of each, but the focus - and the design and usage of the tools in each app - are clearly oriented towards different audiences.

My point but made much clearer.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Not entirely.

Looking at the pages describing them, Pages is clearly more layout-oriented, targeted toward more graphical documents, and Word is more business/text oriented.

You can clearly use both for word processing, and that's the core functionality of each, but the focus - and the design and usage of the tools in each app - are clearly oriented towards different audiences.

All you are really saying here is that Pages implements graphics handling better than Word. I knew that! Otherwise, there's nothing in Pages to prevent it from being used for business word processing. I know this too because that is how I use it every day.

 

[jsw]

All you are really saying here is that Pages implements graphics handling better than Word. I knew that! Otherwise, there's nothing in Pages to prevent it from being used for business word processing. I know this too because that is how I use it every day.

I feel that Pages is much slower than Word in terms of handling larger documents, and I feel that it's not a viable option when working with groups who use Word exclusively, and especially groups that use the whole Office suite. I also feel that Pages produces much more attractive documents, that it fits the "Mac" usage model better, that it is less expensive, and that it is more enjoyable in many ways to use.

I second your suggestion that users try both versions. Either will do almost anything users will want to do, but the trade-offs require an individual to make the determination of which is best for them.

Edit: PS. I use both; I just use them for different tasks.

 

[bobert1985]

.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I feel that Pages is much slower than Word in terms of handling larger documents, and I feel that it's not a viable option when working with groups who use Word exclusively, and especially groups that use the whole Office suite. I also feel that Pages produces much more attractive documents, that it fits the "Mac" usage model better, that it is less expensive, and that it is more enjoyable in many ways to use.

I second your suggestion that users try both versions. Either will do almost anything users will want to do, but the trade-offs require an individual to make the determination of which is best for them.

Edit: PS. I use both; I just use them for different tasks.

It might well be. Pages certainly can get bogged down, a problem I trust Apple will fix eventually. My documents tend to run in the 10-20 page range, which doesn't seem to present a problem, though, even on my older hardware.

I keep an older version of Office around for "just in case" situations where Pages doesn't do an adequate job translating a document. If I was eligible for an academic discount, I'd probably own the current version of both Office and iWork.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Oh I forgot to add that as well. It is nice to know that you are always completely compatible with the rest of the world as well. No matter how much they try to make programs like Pages or Keynote compatible there are still things that just don't seem to work right when you send these documents off to people on PC's. Also, I like no hassles...you just save it and know that the next person down the road will have no problems opening it and having it look just like you intended it to look.

unfortunately and despite what people think, you can't count on perfect compatiblity between the PC version of Word and the Mac version. At work we get PC Word files from consultants who work on and there are often little formatting issues that get messed up between the platforms.....

when the formatting and layout of a document is an important concern, then you're much better off sending a PDF file instead of a .doc file

 

[rdf8585]

re

Take a look at NeoOffice's office suite. Free.

www.neooffice.org

 

[ericsthename]

follow up

I've had my macbook for the afternoon, and I picked up a copy of office for 5 bucks, as my school has a deal with microsoft that all staff can purchase a "work at home liscence" for the price of the media. The computer also has a trial version of iWork '06, so I will get a chance to try pages out alonside word. I am very interested in the multi-lingual aspect... I will check back about that part of Pages...

Eric