iWork Pages: what is it designed to be ?!

B

boyfarrell

Registered
Hello everybody,

I bought iWork recently because I need to make some news letters for my work.

However I'm still trying to figure out what it's purpose in the big picture. I mean I can see apple will want to make an all mac MS Office replacement but I just don't feel comfortable using Pages as a word processor. Does anybody else feel the same way?

Will they make a proper word processor and call it Words? But then whats the point in having two very similar application?

Hmmm... this is confusing maybe somebody can clear it up.
 
Pages is not a Microsoft Word competitor -- it bears very little semblance to Word other than the common word-processor-like interface.

If you're into making newsletters, Pages is kinda cool. If you like to mix graphics and copy, Pages is kinda cool.

The things it isn't are a fully-fleged word processor, a power tool, and a competetive office tool. Think of it as a "creative, simple publishing wizard."

If you like to make pretty brochures and neat-looking newsletters quickly, you'll like Pages. If you try and use it as a replacement for Word, you'd be just as well off trying to substitute Adobe Illustrator for Word.
 
it is, strictly speaking, a desktop publishing program, not a dedicated word-processor. it doesn't strike me as a killer app as i think the paradigm for such desktop-publishing is a dated one, but the reason for it's creation was to make some impact on the amateur notice-board contributor, who's school-boy efforts make notice boards etc very displeasing to the eye...

'desktop publishing with an incredible sense of style' i think is how apple put it.
 
Rightyo, that clears it up. Cheers. I should rush out and patent 'Words' me thinks!

So you think there is a proper word processor on the way. Will they compete with MSOffice?

For me LaTeX makes the best looking documents, it would be nice to see a word processor (no necessarily using the latex engine) that was automated in such a was so that you can just get on with typing your document, but still have all the fancy draggable editing, spell checking, picture insertion, etc that you get from a word processor.

All the wisiwig latex software I've used to date some how seem cheap, I don't work well with it. Not really sure what software I'm decribing here, but I've just got a feeling that there's a gap in the market here somewhere.
 
I personally _don't_ think Apple will add a word processor. Pages _is_ their word processing application. It'll evolve and change, features will be added and the interface streamlined.
I don't think Apple wants to create the Office killer. Rather, they want to have a solution in place that gives a first time user a place where he or she feels right at home. A Mac mini, iBook or iMac does all of the basic stuff a new computer user needs if it has iLife and iWork installed. And once iWork is complete (spreadsheet and database application still missing), my guess is it'll come bundled with every Mac - or at least every consumer Mac, like AppleWorks still is now.
 
I see Pages as a MS Publisher-alternative for the Mac, rather than a Word alterntive. Before Pages, the Mac didn't really have a decent consumer-grade, template-driven desktop publishing app.

I agree with Fryke, iWork probably won't see a Word Proessing app added. I personally think Apple are more likely to enhance (or replace) TextEdit into a Word-competitor. There is no way people will switch from Word to an apple app, but if it came free with the OS...
 
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