[HandyMac]

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I hadn't even thought about the standards problem. ... ODF support is heavily rumored to be part of the system in 10.5. If it is a system component, perhaps that is why Apple is waiting for 10.5, rather than hacking together a separate ODF filterset just for Pages on 10.4.

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Thanks for the tip; that is indeed very interesting. As the comments on the linked page say, Open Document is the way to a user-friendly (rather than corporate lockdown) computer future. As noted in another article in today's Macworld, Micro$oft is, naturally, doing its best to torpedo the idea, by promoting its own "open" format -- controlled, of course, by guess who?
That TextEdit will have such capability, however, doesn't necessarily ensure that Pages will also. I've already discovered at least one important capability in the current TextEdit that Pages 2 doesn't have -- setting exact leading (line spacing). If text in different fonts, sizes or scripts is mixed in a line, in Pages that line's spacing will be determined by whatever is largest in it -- a glaring difference in the middle of a paragraph. Just about every other word processor since 1990 has been able to constrain all lines in a paragraph to a particular spacing, generally defined by points. Even TextEdit can do it, but not Pages; which is why I find its marketing as a "page layout" app ridiculous.
I haven't tried Pages 3 yet, but from the manual it looks like it might finally have gained this rudimentary capability. I'll be interested to see if you can now adjust the text wrap around pictures, another capability without which Pages can hardly be considered any kind of page-layout app.
Meanwhile, I've also noted that if text is copied from TextEdit and pasted into Pages 2, it flows differently -- thus requiring going through an entire 15 page document to clean up widows & orphans that I'd already fixed in TextEdit. You'd think the developers of TextEdit and Pages might talk to each other now and then, so the apps could be based on the same text engine? I mean, they are from the same company, meant to run in the same OS, qu no? Guess not. It's stuff like this that's turned me off proprietary software.

[swokm]

Yeah, I don't have a clue why Apple buries this but:
http://www.apple.com/iwork/trial/
Why not just try it? That is what I'm doing. Previous Pages trial showed me that I couldn't use it. This one... I don't know.
Some weird random little gaps, but overall very much like old Word. Even the menu structure. I'll see in 30 days, I guess.

[A.C._Rempt]

I've been using the trial for a a few days, and I like it. It does a great job opening old Word documents, and it does it a lot faster than previous versions of Pages did. I also like the new format bar on the top since now it's easier to make basic changes like font size, etc.
I was looking at Nisus Writer Express for awhile, but I think I'm going with iWork. Pages works well, and the other two apps are gravy for me. Nice package.

[Fixx]

It is wonderful that it has now word processing mode. Most writers prefer not to write using page layout app, be it as lame as any..

[jstephe]

Now that we have Numbers, can we do a Mail Merge using data in Numbers?

[reyespoint]

No mail merge with anything other than Address Book. Sorry.
-Jeff Battersby

[Hurley42]

I have just switched over from Word, finally! One big issue I have is the clunky functioning of the dictionary and thesaurus. This is so odd to make a common feature so difficult to use. I suspect that Steve Jobs does not actually use Pages on a regular basis, otherwise the clunkiness would not exist.
I will say that at least Pages '08 works much faster and better than Word 2004. I look forward to Pages '10 in hopes the interface will continue to improve.

[Schmadrian]

I know I might be taking the easy way out, so please forgive me for asking this question here...
I have long been a WordPerfect user. (I'm a novelist/screenwriter) Only using Word when required.
Do you know if Pages can read WordPerfect files?
I suspect I'll be upgrading to a new MacBook Pro soon, and will lose my access of my countless WordPerfect files, so I was wondering if Pages was an option.
Thanks in advance!

[reyespoint]

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I have long been a WordPerfect user. (I'm a novelist/screenwriter) Only using Word when required.
Do you know if Pages can read WordPerfect files?

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Pages does not read WordPerfect documents. I've had good luck using MacLink Plus to convert complicated WP legal docs to MS Word with pretty good results. You may also want to see if your version of WP can save a doc in Word format.
-Jeff

[jbh001]

I too am a long-time WordPerfect user. Having had to use MS Word at work, I can honestly say that I prefer the way Word does a few things, but overall I still prefer WordPerfect to Word on everything else. OpenOffice just isn't quite "there" yet for me.
I too am disappointed that Pages '08 doesn't support ODF or WPD formats.
Since I am loathe to abandon or convert all my legacy WordPerfect files, my kludgy work-around is to use WordPerfect via Windows 98SE running under Parallels.
It would be great if Corel would re-examine its Mac and Linux strategies. I'd think that a lot of porting groundwork would have already been done simply by virtue of the existence of WordPerfect 8.0 for Linux and Corel Office for Java. It is telling that when Corel announced WordPerfect Lightning, there was a substantial clamor for them to offer a Mac version.
It would be nice if the next release of WordPerfect (WP14 ?) supported ODF. Then with my kludge of Parallels > Windows > WordPerfect, I could at least use the latest version of WordPerfect. I haven't upgraded to WP X3 because I sense that the next version's release is fairly imminent. Perhaps Corel is waiting until Vista SP1 is released before coming out with WP 14. This would also get them some time to polish their Open XML filters/converters.

[Schmadrian]

So it looks like it would be a good idea if I began converting all my WP files to Word...or RTF...whatever...in advance of going to an Intel unit, where I lose my ability to access WP...unless I go to a Parallels-type situation.
rolls up his sleeves

[jbh001]

If you're going to use Parallels, and you are in the market for a new printer, make sure to get one with a built-in network connection (10/100baseT) instead-of/in-addition-to a USB connection. Printing via USB under Parallels is spotty. Printing via Bonjour is slightly better, but Bonjour requires at least Windows 2000. The best solution is to hang your printer off the network rather than having it attached directly to the computer via USB; there are too many sharing/device-availability issues with USB & Parallels.

[cafemelo]

I just bought a MacBook Pro and Neo Office works on it quite fast and reliably. I launches in 15 seconds on new Macs and opens WordPerfect documents quite nicely. Give it a try.

[Dan Frakes]

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So it looks like it would be a good idea if I began converting all my WP files to Word...or RTF...whatever...in advance of going to an Intel unit, where I lose my ability to access WP...unless I go to a Parallels-type situation.

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As someone else mentioned, you might try MacLinkPlus Deluxe. At $80, it's not cheap, but if you've got a good number of old WP files, it may be worth it.