Word Vs Pages Mac

I recently (nearly) completed a novel that I started over the summer. If you check my publication history, you can see that the rate at which I have published columns on Low End Mac has dwindled to nearly zero. That's because nearly all my free time for writing has been dedicated to writing a novel.

I'm not here to tell you about the novel (no publisher yet, so no details, sorry), but I can tell you about the experiences I have had writing two different books – the only books I have written in my life – one was written using Microsoft Word; the other with Apple's Pages word processor.

Downloadable quick ref pdfs. We have compiled the most used, and most useful, keyboard shortcuts into a downloadable pdf file. We have two versions, one that shows shortcuts for Visual Studio for Mac, and a version that shows Visual Studio shorts side-by-side for users that have prior experience with Visual Studio when using Windows. If you use Microsoft Word on your Mac, you can save the documents you create and open them in Pages, Apple's word processor. It's a handy feature to use in. The gist of the matter is that Pages is clean, nimble, quick to respond, and limited in functionality – whereas Word can do almost anything if you can just figure out where the command for what you want is hidden. And Word 2004 for the Mac is slooooow as Christmas. Here are some thoughts about my experiences. Using Microsoft Word 2004.

To be fair, these were not scientifically controlled conditions. First, the book written in Word is a school workbook that's full of illustrations and handouts and tables and charts. It is called Conceptual Astronomy I and is published by TeachingPoint. It was the first book I wrote, and that brings along all sorts of technical challenges. The second book is a novel, not nearly so technically challenging a document, and I had the experience of writing the first one behind me.

This article could still be potentially useful to a person contemplating starting a major writing project. The gist of the matter is that Pages is clean, nimble, quick to respond, and limited in functionality – whereas Word can do almost anything if you can just figure out where the command for what you want is hidden.

And Word 2004 for the Mac is slooooow as Christmas.

Here are some thoughts about my experiences.

Using Microsoft Word 2004

I used Word because my publisher requires it. The primary cross-platform issue we kept running into at first was that the default font set for Macs didn't precisely match the default font set on the PC. I had to install a company standard font, and it took forever to get those issues worked out and the documents appearing as they are supposed to in print.

The second issue was that certain embedded graphics, notably QuickTime-encoded TIFF files, did not translate well to a PC not equipped with QuickTime. Rather than install QuickTime on the publisher's machine, my publisher insisted I screen every graphic on every page and send them JPEGs instead of QuickTime TIFFs.

Okay, the boss says jump, you say how high. I got that job done.

Using Word is primarily a function of filtering out which special trick it does that you can't live without and ignoring the rest. In the case of large scale documents, perhaps it's the fact you can shuffle whole sections of text in outline mode. Being able to add and track comments is nice, especially with multiple editors.

Word has powerful formatting functions that allow you to use style templates, but I found them extremely hard to control. Just learning how to use styles could be an entire class all by itself.

Perhaps your most valuable tool is the auto creation of tables of contents based on style-driven headings. Maybe it's the ability to make a header continue using the style from the previous section (or not), or the fact that the search-and-replace function has a built-in tool to help you search for formatting and nonprinting characters and replace them as well.

For me the built-in equation editor was super-helpful, and in a technical document like an astronomy workbook, I used it pretty often.

People write books about how to use Word, and it's clear they're needed.

The primary gripes I had with Word are the same things everyone complains about. First, it tries to do too much for me. I want to stop fighting with the auto-spell check and the tendency of Word to launch into auto-numbering mode when you least expect it. You spend half your time telling Word to just stop already.

Second, because it is so feature-bloated, it is slooooow. Slow to launch. Slow to respond to keyboard commands. Slow, slow, slow. It also has an incredible urge to repaginate the entire document – which at 350+ pages takes something like, I don't know, a week – every time you look sideways at it. Inserting a graphic in a large document triggers a repagination that might take fifteen or twenty seconds to clear; why does that take so long, I wonder?

Using Pages 1.0

In comparison, Pages is snappy, almost spry. I am using last year's version; pretty soon I'm going to get updated versions of both Word and Pages, and we'll see who comes out ahead. I have a ways to go before the novel is finished and another volume of the astronomy book to write (in my copious free time).

Pages uses styles to establish table of contents, which is good. It exports to Word, so I can communicate with the unenlightened. The exported documents, as you would expect, works better when the document has a simple structure.

There's an odd glitch in Pages that could stand fixing. When I learned to type, my typing teacher told me to put two spaces after each period before beginning a new sentence. So I've done that ever since out of sheer habit. Apparently the new rule is one space.* When a two-space interval appears in the middle of a paragraph but also at the end of the current line, Pages sometimes wraps one of those spaces to the next paragraph. So in the middle of the paragraph there's this annoying almost-indented line.

* Publisher's note: I worked in publishing for 8-1/2 years. The rule is one space when using proportional fonts. The old two-space rule was for the monospaced typefaces such as those used when typewriters were invented. At work, we developed a huge Word macro to turn the double spaces in authors' electronic files into single spaces, among lots of other things (fixing so-called dumb quotes among them). I now use TextSoap to clean up double spaces in the documents writers send me for publication on Low End Mac – and HTML won't normally display two spaces unless one is a non-breaking space. dk

Of course, I could just stop using two spaces at the end of each sentence, but I am probably not the only one who has this problem.

The only other glitch I've encountered is when printing out draft copies of my novel – which I've had to do at an ink-suckingly frequent rate – Pages leaves blank a page in the center that uses a two-column table suddenly appearing the one and only time in the book. Oddly, when I just print that page alone instead of with all the other pages, it comes out fine. I suspect it might be an out-of memory error.

Conclusion

If you are writing a controlled-structure document like a textbook, Word might be the way to go because of its outline mode. Seagate backup plus 4tb desktop external hard drive for mac. Most textbooks (note that I said most and not all) are well organized, structured, and sequential. Word's writing tools lend themselves to support that sort of writing pretty well. But for writing just for writing's sake, bereft of all the bells and whistles of modern word processing and you just want to get the words on the dang page, Pages is hard to beat. Program to edit pictures on mac.

For purists, you might look at WriteRoom, a program that lets you type in full screen mode, using green letters as an old CRT would in the early days of personal computing.

I will return to this topic and be writing more Mac Lab Report and Lite Side columns as my schedule adjusts this spring . . . hope you missed me!

Publisher's note: Word 2004 was the last PowerPC-only version and is thus incompatible with OS X 10.7 and later. The same most likely applies to Pages 05 (1.0) as well, as Pages 06 (2.0) was released in January 2006 with the first Intel-based Macs.

Keywords: #microsoftword #word2004 #pages1 #pages05

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searchword: wordvspages

Microsoft 365 service is quietly taking up on the offline Office productivity suite. Most companies and enterprise solutions use Microsoft Office apps to get things done. At home, you might be using the Apple Pages software to create and edit documents. Since both Microsoft Word and Apple Pages are different apps, you need to convert the document file type before making changes.

The process works in both ways. You can convert Apple Pages documents to Word file as well. During the process, you need to keep certain things in mind so that the formatting doesn't change drastically while completing the document.

It's also useful for those working on the same document between PC and Mac. If you've created a document on Microsoft Word but want to edit it on a Mac, you'll find that your Mac does not come with Microsoft Word. Instead, Apple's built-in word processing software is called Pages.

While you could just purchase and download the Microsoft Office suite for your Mac computer, it's also quite easy to convert a Word document into Pages. In this post, we will talk about how to convert Word documents to Pages and vice versa. You can use both the Word web and Mac app to complete the process. Let's get started.

Microsoft Word Vs Mac Pages

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How to Convert Word Files to Pages on Mac

If you are fully invested in an Apple ecosystem and don't have Microsoft apps such as OneDrive or Microsoft Word, you two options. You can either download these apps on Mac to open the saved Word documents or use the Office web to download the Word documents.

We will stick with the second option as it's quick and doesn't require you to download additional apps (after all, the Microsoft Word app on Mac weights more than 1GB) on the Mac. Follow the steps below to download and convert Word documents to Pages on Mac.

Step 1: Visit Office Online on the web and sign in using Microsoft account credentials.

Step 2: Here, you will see all the Office online apps and recently used documents.

Step 3: Use the search bar at the top to open the word document that you want to convert.

Step 4: Open the document using the Word web app and tap on the File at the upper left corner.

Step 5: Select Save As and Download a Copy on your Mac.

Step 6: Now, open the Apple Pages app and go to File > Open. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Command + O to open the file from the Mac.

Step 7: Locate to the Word file and open it on Pages.

Step 8: Paint option in mac. The software will automatically convert the file type from Word to Pages during the opening process.

Based on the type of document and content, you will the Apple Pages software removing some incompatible components from the Word document. For example, the default Calibri fonts will be replaced by different ones in Pages.

Unlike Word, you will see all the major editing options on the right side. The ability to add images, table, links, etc. are the top. Similar to Microsoft Word, Apple Pages also offers solid templates.

Make the necessary changes to the Pages, and all the changes will be store in the Pages file.

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Convert Apple Pages File to Microsoft Word Documents

If you have to share the Apple Pages document with colleague or friends, you need to make sure that it's a Word file and not the Pages one as the Word file are most compatible with other word processor apps. Here arethe step-by-step directions to convert Pages document to Word file.

Step 1: Open the Apple Pages app and select the file that you want to convert and share.

Word Vs Pages For Mac

Step 2: Make the necessary changes and give it a final look.

Step 3: Tap on the File menu at the upper left corner.

Step 4: Select Export to and tap on the Word option.

Step 5: The following menu will ask you to add a password for further authentication.

Step 6: Tap on the Advanced Options and select the extension option such as .docx or .doc.

Step 7: Select Next and save it on the device.

Your Apple Pages document is successfully converted to the Word file. Now, it's ready to share with other users.

That's not all. You can easily convert these Pages documents to PDF, Plain Text, and even directly publish them to Apple Books.

Before you start sharing your document, it's advisable to look it over carefully. Formatting may have changed, and you may have to fix it. There's always a chance that so much happened during the export that you can't use your document.

Apple Pages To Word

#pages

Convert Documents on the Go

Microsoft Word (.docx) is one of the oldest and most recognizable document that is compatible with several other programs. When working on the Mac, you need to convert it to Pagesto make changes in the Apple Pages app. After making necessary changes,don't forget to export it as a Word file before sharing it with others.

Next up:Are you getting confused between Apple Pages and Microsoft Word? Read the post below to find the differences and pick the better option for you.

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Files saved using the PAGES format are not supported outside iWork Pages. Learn how to convert to the PDF or DOCX (Word) formats on PC, Android, and iOS.