In contrast with the new Word, Pages 08 is already a Universal Binary and launches and runs without any hesitation. It also lacks any legacy code, as it was first offered in 2005, just prior to the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
I thought Pages was built upon the code base for the NeXTstep/OpenStep application of the same name? I recall the banner at the NeXTWorld convention announcing the long-delayed application was finally ready: "Ship Happens".
You used word to create a 12,000 page document? I've seen word become unusable at only 100 pages or so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Abster2core
As you may already know, "To apply a style to one or more paragraphs, select the paragraphs you want to change, or select an entire text box, table, table cell, or shape that contains text. Click the Paragraph Styles button in the Format Bar, and then choose the style you want to apply."
However, to apply a shortcut key to a style, Control click a style and assign a "HOT KEY." Right now, you can only assign a function key, i.e., F1 to F8.
As a major user of Word right since its introduction in my previous life, I have only recently switched to Pages. Primarily, because I found that most of my needs today don't really require most of Words functionality (A few years back, I had to call Microsoft because I couldn't paginate a 12,000 plus page document. Found out 4 days later that I had maxed the application).
Whether or not I upgrade to Office 2008 is now up for grabs. Having purchased and used every version made, I most likely will. However, I have (and being a creature of habit, I use the word lightly), forced myself to get past the basics, i.e., the intuitiveness, of Pages, by printing and studying the 243 page User Guide. (Did the same for Numbers).
A lot is in the User Guide that is not in the Help menu and vice versa.
A little frustrating mind you, but as a developer, I quite understand the issues of creating an application and keeping it simple.
I expect that Apple will increase our ability to customize the application, i.e., if we let them know that we so desire it.
Most likely I'll be moving back to Mac sometime next year but I really can't see myself using Pages; iWork's presentation software looks better than PowerPoint, unfortunately all presentations I do tend to be from a Windows machine.
You can put together your presentation using iWork on the Mac, and then save the presentation as a QuickTime movie. It will play back on your Windows machine, transitions intact. All you need is QuickTime for Windows, a free download.
WordArt has been around for years too. I seem to remember it from using Word on a Windows 3.0 machine back when I was in school (so around 1990-1992). Its not a new feature for Office 2008!
You can put together your presentation using iWork on the Mac, and then save the presentation as a QuickTime movie. It will play back on your Windows machine, transitions intact. All you need is QuickTime for Windows, a free download.
That's certainly a work around but then it loses all the benefits of being an actual presentation; I don't fancy having to remember I need to press play and pause when I'm trying to concentrate on speaking (I imagine rewinding to be fiddly should I need to go back a slide too).
I think the rendering of pages in this article on page 3 is unfair... it makes it seem as if pages is incapable of creating the level of quality word does...
Word processing has changed quite a bit. Back ye ole'd days you would type up your document in say Word Perfect for DOS and print and be done. Then the graphical WYSIWYG concept took off on the Macintosh and Windows tried to replicate it but just made a mess of things. But at the same time, TeX and LaTeX took the stage. Mostly used by Phd's and Math majors; it was originally designed for formula rendering because no other tool at the time was capable of proper mathematical symbols.
I write most of my larger documentation in LaTeX and I've even created templates for quick letters. It generates PDF's with table of contents, index, and kick butt bibliographies. You can insert images, do footnotes, etc. There is even a package to do Presentations called Beamer. It's not as hard as it looks to learn LaTeX syntax.
The reason I learned LaTeX is because Microsoft Word just plain pissed me off. It more often then not, got in my way and prevented me from doing what I needed to do. Re-paginating and screwing everything up, etc. Newer versions of Word just added features but didn't really improve things. LaTeX handles all the page layout for you. You just define the style and type of document you are writing and it handles all the intricate details leaving you to focus on the content of your document and not how it looks.
Pages is a great program for what it does which is making flyers, brochures, newsletters, etc. It's even good for simple letters. But like Word, you will waste time messing around with look and feel and page layout. Just not as much time as in Word.
Using a good text editor like Macromates TextMate on a Mac along with LaTeX and you can do some amazing things. Click-able table of contents, footnotes, index, and bibliographies. Floating images that position themselves for the best look. I rarely have to force a page break or fix a layout issue. Font kerning and punctuation come out beautiful. Fancy headers and footers are easy as pie. The file format is plain text and you can easily archive the project folder into a Zip to save disk space. You can even get Spotlight to index everything. Working with plain text is extremely fast and efficient. The Mac OS X built-in spelling and grammar checker is all you need. You can work on enormous files with ease. You can break huge documents into smaller ones by including them into a master page. All the Mac OS X UNIX command line tools designed for text manipulation work their magic, regular expressions, etc.
I increased my efficiency more then ten times over using LaTeX then any GUI WYSIWYG application on the market. Of course, you need to touch type! I've written all my papers in LaTeX and submitted them in printed form or PDF. For those professors that demanded MS Word, I was prepared with a fallback Word document but managed to convince them that my PDF's were fine. I use other tools like OMNI Outliner and OMNI Graffle to organize myself and for diagrams. I've given presentations built with Beamer and generally ended up with questions on how I did it. Keynote is still very useful as well.
Anyone who has to write on a regular basis for school, work, etc. Ought to give LaTeX a try. But to each his or her own; you like Pages or you like Word, by all means use what works for you!
"All of those features were in the old Word, but they were easy to miss in all the rubbish buttons presented in rows of icons, from the web page editing tools and archaic print preview button to the mysterious Toolbox button and the button that activates another set of toolbar buttons. With those all stripped away, the more useful features of Word 2008 actually stand out rather than being lost in all the noise."
You know that you could customize the old Word toolbars to include everything you want, and exclude everything you don't want? I use the toolbar icons constantly, having about 50 there. "Rubbish buttons" like line centering, paragraph and document formatting, text color, table borders, etc. Easier than pulling down a menu. I never use the formatting palette - I do it all in the toolbars.
I hope Word 2008 keeps the option to work that way.
One of the comments stated that the user would like hotkeys in OS X for Pages.
At the system-level (i.e., click the Apple in the upper left) go to "System Preferences/Keyboard and Mouse". Go to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab.
Voila, you can not only adjust keyboard shortcuts at the OS-level, but (scroll down) you can create shortcuts per-application. And the application doesn't need to support it. Key-Value Coding, for those developers out there. And the "Key" in "Key-Value Coding" is not a keyboard button....
OS X has object-oriented foundations that predate Windows by about 15 years (think OpenStep, OpenDoc) and if you take the time to investigate it, you will see that Windows is fatally flawed.
Hmmm I wonder if this is why they are starting the MinWin project?
One of the comments stated that the user would like hotkeys in OS X for Pages.
At the system-level (i.e., click the Apple in the upper left) go to "System Preferences/Keyboard and Mouse". Go to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab.
Voila, you can not only adjust keyboard shortcuts at the OS-level, but (scroll down) you can create shortcuts per-application. And the application doesn't need to support it. Key-Value Coding, for those developers out there. And the "Key" in "Key-Value Coding" is not a keyboard button....
OS X has object-oriented foundations that predate Windows by about 15 years (think OpenStep, OpenDoc) and if you take the time to investigate it, you will see that Windows is fatally flawed.
Hmmm I wonder if this is why they are starting the MinWin project?
You know, I saw that, but it asks for "the exact name of the menu command" -- and I'm looking to do a custom style. How would I do that?
You used word to create a 12,000 page document? I've seen word become unusable at only 100 pages or so.
Yep. Around 1991-2. Had to index a document with over 50,000 references. Can't remember what I was using at the time, but it wouldn't go past 10,800 plus pages. Transferred the file to a Macintosh IIfx which I got for one of my graphic guys at about $12,000. However, it didn't help. Called Microsoft and they got back 4 days later to say I had maxed the program.
By the way, interesting reading from the past at http://www.guidebookgallery.org/articles/1980s, particularly on how great Windows was and would be. Didn't realize that Ballmer was back there then. Forgot about Microsoft Write and Paint. Of course why would I remember. I have a Mac guy from day one.
I think it is slightly ridiculous the way microsoft has a tiered product line. They have versions of their software lacking rather necessary tools and functions.
Look at Vista. Handicapped up the butt for the Home Basic version. Can't do much with that version. If I were shopping for vista, I'd be completely discouraged to not buy that version because of the lack of everything in that version. But at the same time, I dont have a million dollars to shell out for Vista Ultimate. So the customers most likely settle for something in the middle with some options they get while still wanting more. If I want the home basic version of Leopard or the Ultimate version of leopard, Im buying the same product. Apple delivers products complete and not handicapped. Microsoft is doing this here with different versions of Office.
I've given up on microsoft now, Because they have alienated me way too many times in the past 8 years since I've been managing my own computer. Im not interested in buying a version of Vista, hell I havn't touched my PC in about a year now. Im not going to upgrade to office because I think it is stupid I have to shell out more money for a program that should have been updated 2 years ago with a Universal Binary and this year with support for Docx. I failed a test because I couldn't open the damn file, and my teacher is too stupid to be able to figure it out.
I hate the way they don't offer what the customer needs for a reasonable price. Apple surely is gaining experience with the iWork package, and I hope they keep it up. Apple will catch up to Microsoft and easily compete, too bad there is no iWork for windows. Too bad microsoft has been at this game for over a decade, and Apple certainly is doing amazing for the 3 or so years it has been in the office suite game.
I hate Microsoft. However, Pages is not a serious Office competitor. Moreover, I doubt it is intended to be one. For better or worse, Office is the best Suite of its type on the Mac platform. Do not get me wrong I have tried iWork. Pages has improved, but it is far from stacking up in terms of features and compatibility. I do, however, like Keynote over Powerpoint. This is not to say if you do not have to share editable documents regularly for people, Pages will not suit your needs. For instance, you can easily print a Pages document to PDF and share documents with Window's users that way. However, many organizations (think when searching for a job) only accept word based documents.
From having the opportunity to experience the Beta, I have to say Word 2008 is a vast improvement over the old version. Much of this is attributed not necessarily to new features or being Universal (I do not think Office is a pain to run in Rosette), but just general improvements to the interface. Many of these reviews are not able to give a true sense of these improvements. Trust me, Word is a much more pleasant experience. As such, and perhaps unfortunately, I will continue to use Office.
Up until Office 2007 I use to prefer Wordperfect on Windows. There are many innovative features in Wordperfect that do not exist in Office (especially in terms of editing documents and trouble shooting). I wish Wordperfect would have stayed on the Mac. From my ten minute chance to fiddle with Office 2007, I can say I like the ribbon interface, but I have not used the newest version of Wordperfect to compare.
Comments
I thought Pages was built upon the code base for the NeXTstep/OpenStep application of the same name? I recall the banner at the NeXTWorld convention announcing the long-delayed application was finally ready: "Ship Happens".
As you may already know, "To apply a style to one or more paragraphs, select the paragraphs you want to change, or select an entire text box, table, table cell, or shape that contains text. Click the Paragraph Styles button in the Format Bar, and then choose the style you want to apply."
However, to apply a shortcut key to a style, Control click a style and assign a "HOT KEY." Right now, you can only assign a function key, i.e., F1 to F8.
As a major user of Word right since its introduction in my previous life, I have only recently switched to Pages. Primarily, because I found that most of my needs today don't really require most of Words functionality (A few years back, I had to call Microsoft because I couldn't paginate a 12,000 plus page document. Found out 4 days later that I had maxed the application).
Whether or not I upgrade to Office 2008 is now up for grabs. Having purchased and used every version made, I most likely will. However, I have (and being a creature of habit, I use the word lightly), forced myself to get past the basics, i.e., the intuitiveness, of Pages, by printing and studying the 243 page User Guide. (Did the same for Numbers).
A lot is in the User Guide that is not in the Help menu and vice versa.
A little frustrating mind you, but as a developer, I quite understand the issues of creating an application and keeping it simple.
I expect that Apple will increase our ability to customize the application, i.e., if we let them know that we so desire it.
Most likely I'll be moving back to Mac sometime next year but I really can't see myself using Pages; iWork's presentation software looks better than PowerPoint, unfortunately all presentations I do tend to be from a Windows machine.
You can put together your presentation using iWork on the Mac, and then save the presentation as a QuickTime movie. It will play back on your Windows machine, transitions intact. All you need is QuickTime for Windows, a free download.
WordArt looks to be a clone of TextArt, a feature that appeared in WordPerfect 6.1 in the mid 1990s (cf. http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/9505/9505article3.htm) -- I remember using it on a Windows 3.1 laptop.
WordArt has been around for years too. I seem to remember it from using Word on a Windows 3.0 machine back when I was in school (so around 1990-1992). Its not a new feature for Office 2008!
You used word to create a 12,000 page document? I've seen word become unusable at only 100 pages or so.
Sorry but I don't believe you. MS Word handles 120 pages just fine even on a
G3 iBook, 6 yrs old. Not a speed demon, but good enough to get the job done.
You can put together your presentation using iWork on the Mac, and then save the presentation as a QuickTime movie. It will play back on your Windows machine, transitions intact. All you need is QuickTime for Windows, a free download.
That's certainly a work around but then it loses all the benefits of being an actual presentation; I don't fancy having to remember I need to press play and pause when I'm trying to concentrate on speaking (I imagine rewinding to be fiddly should I need to go back a slide too).
</sarcasm>
I've been using Word since... well,
...
And, yes, I use Final Draft, too, but Word is actually more flexible if one has a macro program like ScriptWrite added in.
Hi there,
I appreciate your posts very much.
The main reason I stick with MS Word is that the App is so ubiquitous in
the screenwriting department. It is so easy to collaborate, to exchange
docs, you know. It is a breeze. Any other App, say FD, generates (avoidable)
problems. At least in Euroland. Can't judge for U.S.
To assign shortcuts to often used actions like styles is a must.
If Pages can't do that easily it is not a program for Screenwriters.
Period.
Formula Editor, tier-numbered headings and bibliography support (with custom citation styles allowed). That would be sweet.
it took me about 10 minutes to do this myself
Table of Contents
Table of Authorities
Custom Outline Styles
I write most of my larger documentation in LaTeX and I've even created templates for quick letters. It generates PDF's with table of contents, index, and kick butt bibliographies. You can insert images, do footnotes, etc. There is even a package to do Presentations called Beamer. It's not as hard as it looks to learn LaTeX syntax.
The reason I learned LaTeX is because Microsoft Word just plain pissed me off. It more often then not, got in my way and prevented me from doing what I needed to do. Re-paginating and screwing everything up, etc. Newer versions of Word just added features but didn't really improve things. LaTeX handles all the page layout for you. You just define the style and type of document you are writing and it handles all the intricate details leaving you to focus on the content of your document and not how it looks.
Pages is a great program for what it does which is making flyers, brochures, newsletters, etc. It's even good for simple letters. But like Word, you will waste time messing around with look and feel and page layout. Just not as much time as in Word.
Using a good text editor like Macromates TextMate on a Mac along with LaTeX and you can do some amazing things. Click-able table of contents, footnotes, index, and bibliographies. Floating images that position themselves for the best look. I rarely have to force a page break or fix a layout issue. Font kerning and punctuation come out beautiful. Fancy headers and footers are easy as pie. The file format is plain text and you can easily archive the project folder into a Zip to save disk space. You can even get Spotlight to index everything. Working with plain text is extremely fast and efficient. The Mac OS X built-in spelling and grammar checker is all you need. You can work on enormous files with ease. You can break huge documents into smaller ones by including them into a master page. All the Mac OS X UNIX command line tools designed for text manipulation work their magic, regular expressions, etc.
I increased my efficiency more then ten times over using LaTeX then any GUI WYSIWYG application on the market. Of course, you need to touch type!
Anyone who has to write on a regular basis for school, work, etc. Ought to give LaTeX a try. But to each his or her own; you like Pages or you like Word, by all means use what works for you!
You know that you could customize the old Word toolbars to include everything you want, and exclude everything you don't want? I use the toolbar icons constantly, having about 50 there. "Rubbish buttons" like line centering, paragraph and document formatting, text color, table borders, etc. Easier than pulling down a menu. I never use the formatting palette - I do it all in the toolbars.
I hope Word 2008 keeps the option to work that way.
At the system-level (i.e., click the Apple in the upper left) go to "System Preferences/Keyboard and Mouse". Go to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab.
Voila, you can not only adjust keyboard shortcuts at the OS-level, but (scroll down) you can create shortcuts per-application. And the application doesn't need to support it. Key-Value Coding, for those developers out there. And the "Key" in "Key-Value Coding" is not a keyboard button....
OS X has object-oriented foundations that predate Windows by about 15 years (think OpenStep, OpenDoc) and if you take the time to investigate it, you will see that Windows is fatally flawed.
Hmmm I wonder if this is why they are starting the MinWin project?
One of the comments stated that the user would like hotkeys in OS X for Pages.
At the system-level (i.e., click the Apple in the upper left) go to "System Preferences/Keyboard and Mouse". Go to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab.
Voila, you can not only adjust keyboard shortcuts at the OS-level, but (scroll down) you can create shortcuts per-application. And the application doesn't need to support it. Key-Value Coding, for those developers out there. And the "Key" in "Key-Value Coding" is not a keyboard button....
OS X has object-oriented foundations that predate Windows by about 15 years (think OpenStep, OpenDoc) and if you take the time to investigate it, you will see that Windows is fatally flawed.
Hmmm I wonder if this is why they are starting the MinWin project?
You know, I saw that, but it asks for "the exact name of the menu command" -- and I'm looking to do a custom style. How would I do that?
You used word to create a 12,000 page document? I've seen word become unusable at only 100 pages or so.
Yep. Around 1991-2. Had to index a document with over 50,000 references. Can't remember what I was using at the time, but it wouldn't go past 10,800 plus pages. Transferred the file to a Macintosh IIfx which I got for one of my graphic guys at about $12,000. However, it didn't help. Called Microsoft and they got back 4 days later to say I had maxed the program.
By the way, interesting reading from the past at http://www.guidebookgallery.org/articles/1980s, particularly on how great Windows was and would be. Didn't realize that Ballmer was back there then. Forgot about Microsoft Write and Paint. Of course why would I remember. I have a Mac guy from day one.
Look at Vista. Handicapped up the butt for the Home Basic version. Can't do much with that version. If I were shopping for vista, I'd be completely discouraged to not buy that version because of the lack of everything in that version. But at the same time, I dont have a million dollars to shell out for Vista Ultimate. So the customers most likely settle for something in the middle with some options they get while still wanting more. If I want the home basic version of Leopard or the Ultimate version of leopard, Im buying the same product. Apple delivers products complete and not handicapped. Microsoft is doing this here with different versions of Office.
I've given up on microsoft now, Because they have alienated me way too many times in the past 8 years since I've been managing my own computer. Im not interested in buying a version of Vista, hell I havn't touched my PC in about a year now. Im not going to upgrade to office because I think it is stupid I have to shell out more money for a program that should have been updated 2 years ago with a Universal Binary and this year with support for Docx. I failed a test because I couldn't open the damn file, and my teacher is too stupid to be able to figure it out.
I hate the way they don't offer what the customer needs for a reasonable price. Apple surely is gaining experience with the iWork package, and I hope they keep it up. Apple will catch up to Microsoft and easily compete, too bad there is no iWork for windows. Too bad microsoft has been at this game for over a decade, and Apple certainly is doing amazing for the 3 or so years it has been in the office suite game.
From having the opportunity to experience the Beta, I have to say Word 2008 is a vast improvement over the old version. Much of this is attributed not necessarily to new features or being Universal (I do not think Office is a pain to run in Rosette), but just general improvements to the interface. Many of these reviews are not able to give a true sense of these improvements. Trust me, Word is a much more pleasant experience. As such, and perhaps unfortunately, I will continue to use Office.
Up until Office 2007 I use to prefer Wordperfect on Windows. There are many innovative features in Wordperfect that do not exist in Office (especially in terms of editing documents and trouble shooting). I wish Wordperfect would have stayed on the Mac. From my ten minute chance to fiddle with Office 2007, I can say I like the ribbon interface, but I have not used the newest version of Wordperfect to compare.