Which is the better Word processor - Pages or AppleWorks

[Mikuro]

Originally Posted by fryke

users of AppleWorks that need some of the features not present yet in iWork, will have to use the old thing...

Can you give some examples of some of these features? You mentioned something about shift-return, but I'm not sure what that means (I tried hitting shift-return in AW with a variety of differently-justified lines, but I didn't notice any effect).

And what exactly are the advantages (besides aesthetics) of moving from AppleWorks to Pages?

For now I feel like I'm probably better off sticking with AW, but...something inside me keeps pointing to Pages and shouting "shiny! New! Me want!"

[fryke]

Hm. As I've said, I'm only using it for typing my stories. I've created a template that works for me, and I'm not looking for the really important features like serial letters (dunno what they're called in English) or even large documents etc.

The Shift-Return issue is the following (and I don't know whether AppleWorks does this correctly...):

If you have a paragraph like this one (but justified), the last line of it is usually "left" not "justified". Applications like InDesign give you full control about this, you can have the last line "centered" or "right" or "full justified".
Now what I'm doing here is: I've created a new line inside the same paragraph. The above line that ends in ("full justified".) should be "left", not "justified" in Pages. But it is, if you put a Shift-Return there. (Only a "Return" creates a new paragraph, a "Shift-Return" creates a new line in the same paragraph.) It's a simple bug in Pages that should be solved - but isn't yet.

[Canada-Man]

Good old Mariner Write is the best. Much more than AppleWorks, Pages and MS-Word.

[ApeintheShell]

I use Pages to create newsletters and send them out to the family. I think the application ignites that spark of creativity that Appleworks did not. I've only used Keynote a couple times for presentations. I think there was the potential to make templates and use them but it never caught on with the mainstream crowd. I have not yet written papers in Pages so I could not tell you my experience.
Appleworks is great for reports except for the missing grammar check. Otherwise, both iWork and Appleworks compliment each other.
I would also like to see Apple create another drawing/painting program of there own similar to Adobe Photoshop Elements or Corel Draw.

[RacerX]

Well, I've been using TextEdit as my primary word processor for quite a few years now, and with all the third party services that I have added, it does pretty much everything I need.

Of course where it comes up short, Pages picks up... but I, personally, don't use Pages. When I need more than TextEdit I turn to Create (a couple weeks ago I wrote a 77 page document which I typed out in TextEdit and then put into Create for layout with table of contents, chapters, etc.).

As for AppleWorks... I don't really use it, but I also wouldn't want to go without it on my systems just yet either.

[RacerX]

Originally Posted by ApeintheShell

I would also like to see Apple create another drawing/painting program of there own similar to Adobe Photoshop Elements or Corel Draw.

Apple has told Andrew Stone that they don't plan on getting that far into that type of software. Before Apple released Pages they assured him that it was no substitute for Create.

And Create is a great page layout, illustration and web design app based on Apple's APIs. And Stone Design just released iMaginator which is based on Apple's CoreImage APIs.

I'd rather Apple not get too involved in areas where there are already great third party solutions. As long as they are making an environment were these apps can be easily made (and are being made) then Apple is doing a great job.

[mindbend]

The answer to this thread's question is easy: Appleworks.

Appleworks is more of a true word processor, where Pages is more of a page layout app. Yes, there is overlap, but each one is better than the other in those areas.

My limited use of Pages tells me it's really just a niche application. It's page layout for idots, my apologies to all the idiots.

Personally, I wouldn't use either (Appleworks or Pages)for word processing OR page layout, but I'm an egotistical jerk who scoffs at anything short of InDesign for layout. And since I don't do any real word processing, Word is plenty good for me. So would Appleworks be I guess, but I actually like Office in general.

[lurk]

One funny thing with all the people knocking pages as a word processor. If you just load up the blank template you basically have a Word clone with none of the annoying junk (although there is some new junk). I use it to write all sorts of boring Word documents daily with more retained sanity than normally would be expected. What would you want it to doe that it doesn't?