Word Vs. Pages?

Jon Martin · 03-10-2008, 08:50 AM

Does anyone have any preferences between Word and Pages?

Both came pre-loaded on my iMac in 30 day trials. I like them both, I think I prefer Pages as far as speed and ease of use (and the fact it is half the price).

Since I do a lot of writing, has anyone run into any problems as far as the exporting of Pages in Word format?

Are there any issues on that end I should be concerned with before I commit to one of the other?

Thanks.

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Ronald Epstein · 03-10-2008, 10:57 AM

Jon,

This is a good question that I also look forward to someone
answering.

I prefer PAGES because of its neat templates. However, I
rarely use it because I am constantly sending documents to
PC users and I always thought that anything produced in PAGES
would not be compatible.

Now, if anyone is saying that documents in PAGES can be
saved and exchanged in WORD format, then I would be very
happy to learn about that.

DaveF · 03-10-2008, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Now, if anyone is saying that documents in PAGES can be
saved and exchanged in WORD format, then I would be very
happy to learn about that.

Apple is saying that

I've switched to iWork for personal use; I need to read Office documents but I don't need to save or share them with others. For personal, hobbyist use, I've found Numbers and Keynote good and great, respectively. I've not used Pages yet, but I'd expect it to be better than good for personal use. But of course, it depends on what "writing" involves -- that ranges from unformatted words on a page to cross-referenced, illustrated, multi-chapter books.

Carlo Medina · 03-10-2008, 01:02 PM

At work (PC) I use Word 2003, then 2007 exclusively. At home, I use iWork '06, then '08, exclusively. For the times I have taken stuff home to work on, I have not had problems reading Word files at home (i.e. loading a Word doc onto Pages, though I haven't tried using the .docx format yet) nor exporting to .doc from Pages and reading that stuff at work.

Now I don't get into crazy formatting use, I occasionally use bullets, etc. so perhaps some of the more fancy formatting might suffer, but for normal every day use I haven't had a problem.

FWIW, I love Pages's ability to create ligatures on the fly, and the display of fonts is unmatched on the Mac, that's why I use Pages at home instead of Word (and I have Office 2004 for the Mac).

Joe Casey · 03-10-2008, 04:38 PM

Yes, Pages will import and export Word documents. I can't, unfortunately, use Pages for work as the formatting can get quite garbled when exporting (indents, bullets, tables, etc), and some fonts won't port properly. Same applies to Numbers and Excel, only worse. Even though I have iWork '08, I use Office exclusively.

ErichH · 03-10-2008, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Casey

Yes, Pages will import and export Word documents. I can't, unfortunately, use Pages for work as the formatting can get quite garbled when exporting (indents, bullets, tables, etc), and some fonts won't port properly. Same applies to Numbers and Excel, only worse. Even though I have iWork '08, I use Office exclusively.

I get the same results. Until they fix these problems, I have to stick with Word, where I keep many contracts made over the years, and reuse/edit a number of the same for repeat clients.

I love the scaled down look and native speed of Pages, but it's not ready.

DaveF · 03-10-2008, 09:04 PM

I'm revising my resume. I gave it a quick go in Pages, found that its outlining features are far inferior to Word's and have returned to Word for now.

The lesson, of course, is to spend some time with the tools on your specific tasks to see if it's a good tool for your job.

(and I'll give Pages another go later.)

Jon Martin · 03-11-2008, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Casey

Yes, Pages will import and export Word documents. I can't, unfortunately, use Pages for work as the formatting can get quite garbled when exporting (indents, bullets, tables, etc), and some fonts won't port properly. Same applies to Numbers and Excel, only worse. Even though I have iWork '08, I use Office exclusively.

Thanks, that is what I was worried about.

I guess I'm not done with Microsoft after all.

Christian Behrens · 03-12-2008, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Martin

Thanks, that is what I was worried about.

I guess I'm not done with Microsoft after all.

There is always NeoOffice.

-Christian

Ted Todorov · 03-19-2008, 02:39 PM

Is Neo Office better at Word compatibility than Pages? I'm still using Microsoft Office X and have no intention of upgrading to the new version. I do have iWork, and use it routinely to open Word/Excel/PowerPoint docs, but I do only very light editing.

XCode, TextMate and TextWrangler on the other hand get a regular workout...

Darren Lewis · 05-07-2008, 05:13 AM

Last month I made the switch from iWork '08 to Mac Office 2008

I need to share a lot Word and PowerPoint documents and although Pages can import from and export to Word it can't natively edit Word documents. It just became too much hassle with Pages. I'd import a word doc, make some changes and then have to save as a Pages document to edit later, then export back out to Word when I'd finished. I also use Word 2003 and Word 2007 at Work (PC) so it's easier to stick with one software app that I know.

I think that if you don't need to share doc/xls/ppt very often then iWork08 is great, but if you need to share and work on a lot of Word files, then Mac Office 2008 is the better option.

Pricing is not too dissimilar if you get the Home Edition of Mac Office 2008 vs iWork 08.