“Dear oh dear. They really have done it, haven’t they?” Pierre Igot writes for Betalogue. “They have taken what had evolved into a rather decent word processor / page layout application and have eliminated so many useful features that it effectively is now a piece of useless junk, and I honestly have no idea for whom this latest version of Pages is intended.”
“It certainly is not intended for people who, like me, appreciated the combination of simplicity and power that was the hallmark of previous versions of Pages,” Igot writes. “I realize that it must be hard to maintain the right balance between simplicity and power when you try to add more features, more customizability, and so on. But Apple’s engineers appear to have chosen to keep the emphasis on ‘simplicity’ at the expense of ‘power.'”
Igot writes, “They have not just neglected to add features to bring the feature set of the application closer to that of a word processor like Microsoft Word. They have actually removed many features for no apparent reason other than to bring the application in line with its iOS counterpart, which is, inevitably, much less powerful… I guess that, for now, I will continue to use Pages ’09 with all the customizations that I have painstakingly created with AppleScript and Keyboard Maestro. But sooner or later, I will have no choice but to switch to something else.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: No Pages 5.0 is not an unmitigated disaster. Some guy’s third-party macros no longer work. That’s it in a nutshell. 9 out of 10 Pages users will find Pages 5.0 is an unmitigated triumph!
The “Ive”isation in all of the last Apple Software updates is an unmitigated disaster, because it is one thing to have an extreme visual approach in hardware where you can find work arounds for some of the bizarr decisions like a SD Slot on the backside of the device but in software there is no escape, especially if they offer only one strictly interface without any personal adoption only to reach a “clean streamlined design”.
Functionality was never a benchmark for Jonny, and we accepted the negative spinoffs in hardware for years because of the superior Apple software, but in software functionality and not design should be on first position otherwise Apple run into real troubles.
So Jonny Ive is the new Steve Ballmer of Apple, once in the right surroundings brilliant but then in a wrong role with too much power and without any internal opposition absolutely overstressed.
Apple is doing what they fault Android developers for having to do, which is to code to the lowest common denominator. iOS versions obviously couldn’t do some of the more robust page layout features, so they removed them from all of them.
I have several files I have used for years that I am not struggling with on the new Pages for Mac. No longer can I have a ruler down the side, or drag in guides and have things snap to them (at least not that I have been able to find).
3rd party plugins aside, they removed many core features that I loved pages for. I use Google Docs for my word processing needs and I used pages for the Page Layout needs. I was so very excited about the thought of finally being able to collaborate on a page layout program as opposed to just word processing. However, it seems I was mistaken.
Huge underrated & underreported feature of the iWork update… The feature parity & full file compatibility between OS platforms.
Love this
Yes, just like how Windows 8 was attempting feature parity between desktop and tablet operating systems.
How did THAT turn out?
Well, not “just like”.
Microsoft tried to do it by saddling tablets with huge and clunky desktop software.
Apple appears to do it by saddling full-bore computers with cut-down tablet software.
I don’t think Apple’s approach is sound — if that list of missing features is anywhere close to accurate.
MS also saddled full-bore PCs with a cut-down UI more suited for tablets.
Admittedly Apple is only dumbing down desktop apps, not complicating iOS apps… though that’s zero comfort to Mac users.
In a nutshell, they pulled the Format Bar and Inspector from each of the programs in iWork. Coming from a guy that has a blog that praises a lot of the things Apple does, this is *horrible*.
Apple is trying to force the halo of its iOS apps into the desktop apps by giving them similar UI’s, when they are fundamentally different tools. Apple needs to backpedal on these changes or risk losing long-time users.
Office is a dog I am killing one app at a time. Got rid of mail and PowerPoint and never use XL so only got to get rid the worse word processor known to man and the switch will be final. At last! Here’s hoping pages is worth it?
Keynote isn’t bad, but the newest releases of Pages and Numbers haven’t gotten one millimeter closer to displacing Word and Excel. With all the removed features, it’s hard to see why any Mac user would be happy with the “upgrade”. This must be why it’s free — because it brings Mac iWork users down to iOS capabilities.
Pages 5 is a huge downgrade. My suspicion and frustration has proven correct. I think unmitigated disaster is apropos.
No Advanced Find & Replace!!! The inability to find spaces, tabs and carriage returns for tweak the format of docs renders this version useless to me. I was in a cold sweat until I found a copy of Pages 4 off in a separate folder.
That “no warning” for the iPad version that the file format changes and you cannot open it in a previous version on the desktop is scary. I’m not about to try it as an experiment.
You only need to see the top topics on apple discussions to see that most people are NOT happy with the upgrade (myself included. Have reverted back to iWork 09. This is a poor upgrade).
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5468056?tstart=0
@MacDailyNews’ Take comment: “No Pages 5.0 is not an unmitigated disaster. Some guy’s third-party macros no longer work. That’s it in a nutshell. 9 out of 10 Pages users will find Pages 5.0 is an unmitigated triumph!
Lets do the Math MacDailyNews… Apple in 2012 announced they had 66 million mac users (i am sure this number has increased since then.) If 1 of 10 (or 10%) users experience issues with pages, that means 6,600,000 users will not like pages… This is assuming all mac users use page, which I bet honestly bet they don’t.
This is unacceptable. Just sayin…
We aren’t talking about a few third-party macros, MDN. Ironically, Pages 5 is now more compatible with MS Word than with Pages 4. A partial summary of the changes that have gutted existing Page Layout users:
REMOVED FEATURES include:
Textbox linking
Select non-contiguous text
Outline view
Customizable Toolbar
135 templates
Capture pages/sections
Drag reorganize pages
Duplicate pages
Delete page
Manage Pages
Subscript/superscript buttons
Select all instances of a Style
Retain zoom level of document
Facing pages
Layout Breaks
Layout Margins
Endnotes
Media Inspector links to iPhoto library on external drive
Media Inspector links to Aperture Library
Alignment Guides
Styles Drawer
Merge Fields
Drag and Drop VCards
Default Start Up page
Vertical Ruler
Style Function key shortcuts
Bookmarks and Links
Images within Tables
Mathtype/Grapher Equations/Formulae within Pages
Import Styles
Clean Import of older .pages formatting
Full User Guide
Search Sidebar
Open Type features
Background Object selectable
Storyboards
Text to Tables
Tables to Text
Tables in Headers/Footers
Word export to iCloud
Export to .txt or .rtf
Multiple Comments view
T.O.C. clean numbering
Character Styles ?
List Styles ?
Selective formating in Character Styles
Insert File Name
Search in Media Browser
Bullet points in comments
Search comments
Two up view
Paste and keep style
Accented characters in Footer
Mail Merge
Mask with shapes other than rectangle
Find & Replace special characters eg paragraph returns
ALTERED FEATURES:
Pages ’09 files previewed on iPad via iCloud are irrevocably converted
Wrap methods have been cut back severely
Documents reconverted back to Pages ’09 lose all template information
Language set under Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar now document wide
Subscript/superscript text is now a convoluted route Gear > Advanced options > Baseline > Subscript/Superscript
Header appears to be multi-column
New file format (but still .pages?) not backwardly compatible
Page numbering method changed
Template file storage location moved …somewhere?
AppleScript Library for Pages 5 has changed with most classes and commands removed which indicates how the feature lists have been slashed
Character Styles are in the Text Inspector under Bold, Italic etc
Tabbing within Table cells appears to be inconsistent, tabbing internally with numbers.
Drag and Drop text only works with .txt files now
Pages, Keynote and Numbers have all languished. The problems they had were not addressed, and features were taken away. There are some small improvements (tracking changes, for example), but in a larger sense this is terrible.
I have been looking forward to this upgrade for so long — it’s like waiting for the Star Wars prequels and getting Jar-Jar Binks.
The iOS version at least (haven’t tried the Mac version yet) does not support linked text boxes, which is highly useful for multi-page documents such as newsletters and brochures. That might not be a disaster for some, but it is for me as I prepare such documents every month in my business. If the Mac version has dropped this feature, I will stick with Pages 09 for now.
Look, isn’t it obvious what they are doing?
Instead if having 3 incompatible versions of iWork (mac app, ios app, online app) there’s now one version that work in 3 scenarios.
If they’ve had to remove anything it’s because whatever they removed was worth it to gain this strategic advantage.
When iWork us updated, putting back these features, all 3 scenarios will be updated as well, just they way it needs to be.
You may be right about Apple’s intent, but their execution is horrid. The iOS app and the Mac app MUST inherently be different applications. So why would you need to remove tools from the Mac app? Just because iOS or web apps have limitations DOES NOT MEAN that Apple should continue to take a dump on Mac users.
This is the very core of the complaint that Mac users have had ever since iOS took over the strategic direction at Apple: there are clear and obvious bloat and feature removal in Mac apps. That is completely unacceptable to Mac users, and it’s why professionals have been so critical of Cook’s steering of Apple away from the Mac platform toward the subscription-computing based future of iOS and iCloud. Dumbing-down of the power that a lot of older Apple Mac products used to offer is just unsulting. After 5 years, this is the best Apple could do with iWork !?!?!?!?
I knew PageMaker like the back of my hand. I used Quark and InDesign. I found the old version did a pretty damn good job at page layout. I was hoping for a couple of changes like, convert text to outlines. And maybe a one handed change view. Throw in a surprise or to cleaning up the steps it took to get to a menu setting. Then I think it would rock.
I’m very disappointed. I never use the word procession part. Only the page layout.
I won’t use it unless they start upgrading now that it’s rewritten from the ground up like Final Cut X. Someone said the guides where still there. Yes but only when you select something and move it, then you get the privlage of seeing guides. Well in real production world, I would like to have it like it was. Only horizontal rulers??
Geez they better get started. I have hundreds of documents that I won’t move to the new version.
In fact I’ll just delete it altogether. My 2 cents.
MDN – What about a survey…
THE NEW IWORK IS…
It’s not “unmitigated”. In 5 years or so, Cook & Co will get around to addressing the Mac users’ concerns. Meanwhile, all application development seems to be aimed at dumbing down Mac apps to match the lower capabilities or expectations of the iOS crowd. PATHETIC, Apple. DO NOT HIDE AND REMOVE FEATURES. Even Microsoft knows not to regress significantly on capabilities.
Saying that Pages 5 is an unmitigated disaster is an understatement. Maybe it isn’t a disaster for you, but you are not the measure of all things. It is a disaster for people who use it professionally every day.
It’s like having a busboy interrupt your meal to throw your unfinished dinner into the trash. It’s like walking past a church and seeing your fiancée inside, getting married to another guy. It’s like thinking that you had a good builder and a sturdy house, then when a hurrricane hits, you find out that it’s really a beach house on a sandbar. It’s like returning to the shop to pick up your car, only to find that they removed the tires and wheels to give it a sleeker look. And they won’t put them back.
Every single feature I rely on every day is gone, and there are no workarounds. The fact that you can still type with it is not reassuring. Yes, I can still use the old version, but for how long? What happens when I buy a new Mac? What happens to my files?
Their motto is “Think DIfferent.” Someone suggested that it should be changed to “What Were They Thinking?” I think it should be changed to “Were They Thinking?” They certainly weren’t paying attention to us.
Pages 5 is an unmitigated disaster.
“No Pages 5.0 is not an unmitigated disaster. Some guy’s third-party macros no longer work. That’s it in a nutshell. 9 out of 10 Pages users will find Pages 5.0 is an unmitigated triumph!” —MDN
You’re full of it, MDN! Please don’t turn into a dull-witted Apple fanboy who thinks Apple can do no wrong!
According to the comments I’ve read from eperienced Pages users, the new Pages has unfortunately removed a number of features (like adding images to headers) that make the program much less useful than it used to be. But hey… 14-year-old girls need word processors, too!
If something similar happened to Pixelmator 3.0, you can bet they’d have a different take.
The features removed from iWork aren’t esoteric/professional. Heck, exactly how “professional” was iWork to begin with?
Here’s an idea…you want to have file format parity? Either add the features to the iOS version, or at least allow it to open/view but just not edit specific areas of a doc, but don’t take away existing features from your already 4 year old desktop application.
And for some reason you do do the unthinkable, don’t take away the ability to coexist with the older version of your software…allow to save in the old format…just like the old version allows.
I’m new to posting on MDN, but not new to MDN. I’ve spent many years here as a quite observer. I’m often very entertained by the comment feed. And feel as though some of you are like brothers and sisters-constantly bickering, belittling and slamming one another-reminds me of my childhood-the good ole days. But today I felt inclined to chime in today.
I’m very fortunate to work for a non-profit organization that uses Macs exclusively. Everyone that I work with uses Pages everyday, as do I. After spending a couple of hours with Pages 5 yesterday, I can say that there are a lot of cool new feature, but overall came across disappointed. At my office we use Pages for both word processing and page layout. Here’s where my disappointment lies.
1. Rulers–The ruler only shows up at the top of the page. Now having rulers on both sides of the document isn’t that big of a deal when using Pages as a word processor, but at our office we have completely quit using InDesign for our page layout designs. Initially it was a shock for people that had been using InDesign, PageMaker, Quark when we switched, but after about a month of using Pages, everyone said work was easier and more enjoyable. Having a functioning ruler is a must for us. I find it interesting that the button in Pages 5 shows the ruler being on both the top and side, but when you push it the ruler only shows up on top.
2. Alignment Guides– I’ve read what others have said about this. It is true, in the preferences, you can turn “automatic” alinement guides on, but you can no longer create your own alignment guides. It was easy to click on the ruler on either side of the document and drag out the alignment guides to your own needs. Having visible and controllable alignment guides aren’t as import as they used to be when everything was done for print, but they are still important for precise placement of graphics, text boxes and other media.
3. Page Layout- Again, I’ve read what others have posted. This is more of an annoyance than a disappointment. When creating a new document and wanting to use Pages to create a layout design, you must go and and turn off the Document Body. Basically once you do this Pages starts to operate more “normally”. This isn’t that big of a deal. I’m sure Apple software designer felt it was less confusing for the majority of users to streamline document setup by getting rid of the choice as to which type of document you want to create. I’m cool with that-it’s just a little more work to setup a new page layout setup. If this is your only complaint about Pages 5.0, please turn off the Document Body in the Setup section and you will start breathing normally again.
4. Pages 5 feels more like Word. I’m not sure if I can quantify this because its more of a feeling than an exact feature. So take this one with a grain of salt. Previous versions of Pages always had a way of getting out of your way and letting you do things quickly and without much fuss. I have a loathing of Microsoft Word–it’s always trying to figure out what you are trying to do and then goes ahead and does it for you and it gets it wrong most of the time. I feel like Pages 5 is also trying to anticipate my next move and for the majority of the time it gets it right, but not all the time. It’s probably premature for me to judge the app on this “feeling” only using the app for a few hours, but that’s what I felt.
I have a deep love for all things Apple. I’m invested deeply into this amazing company. I (we) will continue to use Pages 4 for now with the hopes that Apple will take the feedback they are getting and add these much missed features back. I do think the headline is absurd-Pages 5 is not an unmitigated disaster, but it’s not all that it can and used to be.
Turning on/off document body text, still does nothing for the inability to now link text boxes together so text flows from one to the next. Without this, Pages really isn’t a page layout app anymore.
“This document can not be opened because it is too old.”
So now Pages can’t open documents written in Pages! What a disaster. All my important files “can’t be opened!”
Trust me- you’re better off.
Hm…I’ve gotten the new Pages, and while it’s taking some getting used to, it does everything I ever did in Pages 09. Sure, there’s a few things I don’t like-that sidebar is annoying; I like my buttons and stuff at the top-but I’ll adjust to it. As a writer, I’ll get used to it-and I STILL like it much more than MS Word.
What?! There’s no features missing – maybe these feature are missing on the web app?
This all begins to sound a bit like the bad feelings when Apple did its number with FCP – I was among the more pist-off – today, and after several reiterations by Apple, I use FCP X just about everyday all day. It has long been an Apple issue that, every once in awhile they’ll decide to make a 90 degree turn and not give users fair warning – and then, after lots of belly aching and carrying-on, most users discover that essentially new product’s advantages often out weigh the disadvantages.
For me and my department Pages is still much preferred over Word.
The only difference from the FCP uproar is that far, far more people use Pages than FCP, and it was clear from the beginning that FCP X would eventually be the more powerful program. Pages 5.0 only gains collaboration features and a common file format with iPhone, iPad, and iCloud. Those features are interesting, but they are not worth deleting virtually all of the features that made Pages 4 an excellent, simple desktop publishing program.
I am not playing Chicken Little–I have been exploring 5.0 for a day-and-a-half and it just does not cut it. Yes, there are workarounds for some of the dozens of missing features, but only at the cost of reduced functionality and increased complexity. Some things are simply impossible to work around, like the elimination of text flow and any easy way to set vertical alignment.
My wife edits newsletters for small nonprofits. Neither they nor she can afford a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud or Quark. When Apple dropped support for PageMaker and other DTP programs with Rosetta, thousands of people like her moved their small businesses to Pages because it did everything they needed. The existence of the low-cost Pages prevented the development any comparable, popular, and simple third-party Mac desktop publishing software.
So, now that Pages is a dead man walking as a page layout program (if they could implement text flow on a tablet or in a browser, they would have done it), all those people are up the creek without a paddle. Eventually, an OSX upgrade is going to break Pages 4.3, even if users can avoid corrupting their existing files by accidentally opening them in Pages 5.
Since you are all so clever, what do suggest we do now?
“Since you are all so clever, what do suggest we do now?”
Start evaluating other softwares and find one that looks like it will offer a little stability for the future. I’m going with Word and Publisher (in fact all of Office 365) under Windows 8.1 under VMWare Fusion because I can’t risk Apple destroying any more of my work than they already have.
I will be evaluating Windows 8.1 under Fusion and looking closely at the other software tools I’ve an investment of time and skill-development in under OSX. The Adobe Creative Cloud suite is immediately available to me under Windows and I’m in the happy position that I can afford to buy Windows versions/alternatives to the other Mac application and utility software I use. I might move to running it all as a bootcamp partition (although the battery management and some other system management stuff apparently leaves a lot to be desired). I might eventually go with Office 365 and Adobe CC on a PC under Windows when my RMBP finally dies, OSX has turned into iOSX and Apple has become synonymous with lowest common denominator.
Right on. Apple has left us no choice but to use other solid software alternatives. I happen to like iWork’s and I am a power user. I have mac Office 2011 and indesign for layouts but loved the iWork’s and iPad integration. I ported my full real estate development proformas from excel to Numbers and took it with me on my iPad to make changes and see immediate results. Retired my macbook pro. iWork’s was a pro tool!
What’s frustrating with the iWork’s and FCP change is that it was totally unnecessary. No benefit from the changes. No additional power, no additional functionality…Quite the opposite. The changes are more like an apple executive making changes to look busy and be self important and not even a “lowest common denominator” direction.
“My wife edits newsletters for small nonprofits. Neither they nor she can afford a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud or Quark.”
If you’re in the UK have a look at ctxchange.org, techsoupcanada.ca in Canada, techsoup.org in the US or techsoupglobal.org elsewhere. Creative Suite 6 is £130 to qualifying charities/nonprofits; Creative Cloud isn’t (yet) available.
I’m voluntary tech support and general IT dogsbody for a small UK charity and the ctxchange.org process is simple, quick and hugely helpful.
“My wife edits newsletters for small nonprofits. Neither they nor she can afford a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud or Quark.”
If you’re in the UK have a look at ctxchange.org, techsoupcanada.ca in Canada, techsoup.org in the US or techsoupglobal.org elsewhere. Creative Suite 6 is £130 to qualifying charities/nonprofits; Creative Cloud isn’t (yet) available (at least in the UK).
Only one thing can do
lots of negative feedback at
While I’ll need a bit of time to get used to the new version of Pages, Numbers & Keynote I CAN say NOW that I don’t like some of what I see…… While using Pages this afternoon I more than just a bit felt like someone had slipped a copy of ms word onto my MacBook Air. There is WAY too much of a ‘wordiness’ feel for my like.
‘Instant Alpha’ has been buried a level deeper than before. You can no longer paste images into items that have been defined as ‘Media Placeholders’. You can no longer duplicate a page by clicking on a thumbnail and hitting ⌘-D. All the different things like this make working in Pages slower and more tedious than before…… Maybe Apple should slap a big “BETA” sticker on iWork too……….
Now that I have spent some time with it, I find that I like it. But then, I loved the new FCPX when it first came out. I am a simple home user who doesn’t need all the advanced parts. Goodness knows, dictation is an absolute dream.
So, like with FCPX, I will have to honor the disappointment of those who lost a lot, but still keep my pleasure at this simple software that does what I want.
Hugh
What is clear is that Tim Cooke doesn’t use his own products. If he did he, would say ” hey guys, I can’t even add a header and footer in Numbers”. Wow! In a mult-page (when printed) document and NO header and footer.
Not to mention that the ipad update will not save to numbers09 so all your old spreadsheets can’t be taken on the road and worked on with the ipad.
What Tim Cooke doesn’t understand is that all these devices integrated with each other was what made them special. To strip all the desktop features to have the ipad read it better breaks the integration and function model. We’re back to import/export versions to make the integration connection…the Microsoft model I thought I left behind. With this numbers version, there’s no way Tim can produce professional level spreadsheets now without using Microsoft excel…chuckle