Pages is the worst Application known to man

[ignatius345]

I could absolutely see Modern Apple nuking the whole iWork thing.

They did add iWork through the iCloud.com interface over the past few years, though. It's nowhere near as robust as Google Docs, but it seems to me they're at least paying attention to it and keeping it up to date.

You can also collaborate live in the native iOS/iPadOS/MacOS versions, which is fairly new.

I think it's seen as an amenity to the whole ecosystem -- if you buy an Apple device, you have a basic office productivity suite available right away for free. (And actually in the case of Keynote, it's better than PowerPoint).

 

[tpfang56]

I’m coming into this blind but to me using pages, numbers, google docs, is like cutting a normal steak with a fork. Why? The whole-ish universe uses a knife, or in this case Office. I’m all for using the best solutions. To me Macs are great and MacOS is still pretty great but that doesn’t mean everything is great because it’s apple. Productivity/business titles…..Microsoft all day everyday.

I’ve never liked Pages, but Google Docs is all I need to complete my assignments and write basic docs. Being able to convert to .docx or PDF (usually one of the two is required for submission) is super convenient. Being able to access it on any computer is the real boon in case of emergencies.

I’d loathe to actually pay for Word 😂. My school even offers the Microsoft Suite for free, but I think I’d rather write in markdown than mess around with Word. Excel is a different story, though granted, I haven’t really needed it yet and don’t know how to use it. I’ve only heard that neither Numbers nor Sheets can compensate all of Excel’s advanced features.

 

[chscag]

I’d loathe to actually pay for Word 😂. My school even offers the Microsoft Suite for free, but I think I’d rather write in markdown than mess around with Word.

You'll probably regret that when you get out into the real world after graduation and find out that Word is the de facto standard. Take the free offer of MS Office and learn how to use it. Might help you to get a better job offer.

 

[tpfang56]

You'll probably regret that when you get out into the real world after graduation and find out that Word is the de facto standard. Take the free offer of MS Office and learn how to use it. Might help you to get a better job offer.

I hope I’ll be writing code instead of typing documents, heh. Still, knowing the MS Suite is considered a valuable skill in general. I’m curious whether developers need to use Word specifically for in-house documentation or whether it doesn’t matter. Considering the use of code blocks n stuff, a markdown editor of some kind seems better? But I don’t really know.

Either way, I won’t be using Pages. Sorry, Apple.

 

[EdwardC]

I’ve worked as a sales engineer out of my home as a remote employee for the last 30 years. I have been on a Mac for the last 27 of those. Claris Works then the whole iWork thing. iWork Has always done the job for me. I submit all my quotes or related docs either as a PDF or a DWG (CAD) file. Never a problem.

 

[iHorseHead]

If Pages is the worst app known to man then you clearly haven't used any of my apps.

 

[rovostrov]

I switched from Word to Pages in 2017. It took a while to get used to but haven't
regreted makin the move. Pages does everything I need and I like not having to
purchase a new version of office every few years

 

[oakrrl]

Why can't Apple just make a normal program with normal functions?

Pages is a diabolical and unproductive dogs breakfast. It's a total mess and failure. It's ridiculously painful to use.

My current annoyance is that almost every program known to man has a "Save As" function. Oh, not at Apple, we're so cool and different and special. We have the Duplicate function, the most annoying convoluted junk UI ever where you have to then navigate several drop down menus and then select a file, and then move the file. But if you do this AFTER you've used your previous document as a template and close it down before you realise, you lose all your work on that previous document entirely!

I just lost a days worth of work because of this utter crap and I can't get it back. I just deleted it and purchased Word.

Go and learn some remedial software design for F sake!

I agree the "Duplicate" instead of "Save As" is poor UI, but I've gotten used to it. I often duplicate a file and name it "version 2" before working on it. When I forget, I sometimes past the current material into a blank document, then use Page's ability to revert to last-saved version (before edits). Anyway, Apple long ago left UI consistency behind.

That being said, Pages is one of my favorite software programs ever, in 36 years of using PCs and Macs. It's got just the right blend of easy-of-use features without over-bloating; it's my go-to for writing, for a quick line drawing, for cropping and insta-alphaing a photo, for rough page layout. I've recently been forced to go back to MS Word in order to deal with a publisher's edits, and yes it's more powerful but it's such a kludge, SLOW (on a 4.2 GHz iMac with 32 GB RAM) takes three or four steps to accomplish what I can do with a simple keystroke in Pages, and freezes at least once a day.

 

[sracer]

I’m coming into this blind but to me using pages, numbers, google docs, is like cutting a normal steak with a fork. Why? The whole-ish universe uses a knife, or in this case Office. I’m all for using the best solutions. To me Macs are great and MacOS is still pretty great but that doesn’t mean everything is great because it’s apple. Productivity/business titles…..Microsoft all day everyday.

"I'm coming into this blind...." explains the rest of your post and ignores the nearly 100 posts that preceded yours.

I'm interested to see how your opinion will differ (if it does) after you've read those posts.

 

[smetvid]

Pages is actually a very well put together application. Yeah it does a few things differently but many of us actually prefer that. You clearly are used to how Microsoft does things and thats fine but that doesn't mean Pages is bad. It just means you are not used to it. I can create rather impressive graphical page layouts within minutes and much faster than I ever could in Word.