Pages '08 Review

[Mayo]

Pages '08 Review


It's written by an attorney so it has a couple of legal-specific comments. But I think that it is a good review for anyone interested in how Pages measures-up.  He spends some time covering its usability compared to and compatibility with...   Word.

Keynote '08 Review

Numbers '08 Review

[Gregg]

I skimmed over it looking for references to AppleWorks. Not found...
Microsoft Word is mentioned a few times.
Last I knew, Pages would not open an AW6 "word" file.
But, Numbers will open an AW6 spreadsheet file.

[Mayo]

The review does not address previous AW file compatibility.

Pages will open AppleWorks 6 files.  Older files... No Go. I find it strange that Apple chose to orphan its own document format...

On the other hand, I don't find myself using those old documents much, if at all... We are talking about documents that are at least five years old. It is relatively simple to open an old file in AW and copy/paste into a Pages document.

At some point you have to be willing to cope with some upgrade issues or you will be stuck using something like... OS 9.

My experience has been that the move to OS X and the updating of most of my apps over time has been painless, especially when compared to earlier OS upgrades.  And the pay-off in increased functionality and reliability has been surprising to me. And I was a guy who was perfectly content with OS 9 until 10.3 was introduced and I determined that OS X was finally mature enough for me to make the move...

[Gregg]

QUOTE(Mayo @ Dec 1 2007, 01:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pages will open AppleWorks 6 files.

Didn't work for me on my son's iMac or at The Store with a more "mature" X.

QUOTE

At some point you have to be willing to cope with some upgrade issues or you will be stuck using something like... OS 9.

As far as AW6, I don't feel "stuck" at all. It does everything I need it to do. The only frustration I have, and minor at that, is with browsers for OS9 becoming obsolete.

QUOTE

My experience has been that the move to OS X and the updating of most of my apps over time has been painless, especially when compared to earlier OS upgrades.  And the pay-off in increased functionality and reliability has been surprising to me.

Really! You're just trying to tempt me. :shame:
Painless, you say? You got them for free??

QUOTE

I was a guy who was perfectly content with OS 9 until 10.3 was introduced and I determined that OS X was finally mature enough for me to make the move...

I can be very patient.

[Mayo]

I open AW 6 word-processing files on my Intel iMac without a hitch. Files created before 2001 will not open, so I assume that they were made with earlier AW versions... (Get Info doesn't provide me with the AW version that created the file...)  Posts at the Apple forums confirm that others can open AW 6 files using Pages.  I cannot account for the problems you describe.

"Painless" as in "trouble-free." Are you telling me that your reluctance to upgrade boils down to money?

[Paddy]

To confirm Mayo's experience - I just opened an Appleworks document created in '03 (AW6, I presume) with Pages 2.02. Haven't got iWork '08, but it's supposed to be able to do this as well. I'm using 10.4.10 on this Mac.

[Gregg]

QUOTE(Mayo @ Dec 3 2007, 01:09 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"Painless" as in "trouble-free." Are you telling me that your reluctance to upgrade boils down to money?

In a way, I guess. I hate the thought of trashing a bunch of software that I paid good money for, and which still works for me just because one other "free" program is no longer performing.