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|---|---|
 Pages 4, part of iWork '09 |
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| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. |
| Stable release | 4.0.5 (January 5, 2011) [+/−] |
| Operating system | Mac OS X |
| Type | Word processor / Page layout |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | Pages |
Pages is a word processor and page layout application developed by Apple. It is part of the iWork productivity suite and runs on the Mac OS X & iOS operating systems.[1] The first version of Pages was announced on January 11, 2005, and was released one month later.[2] The most recent Macintosh version, Pages 4, was released on January 6, 2009, as a component of iWork '09.[3] On January 27, 2010, Apple announced a new version of Pages for iPad with an all new touch interface.[4]
Pages is marketed by Apple as an easy-to-use application that allows users to quickly create professional-quality documents on their home computers.[5] A number of Apple-designed templates comprising different themes (such as letters, résumés, posters, and outlines), are included with Pages.[2]
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[edit] Features
Pages is both a word processor and a page layout application. Over 140 Apple-designed templates are included.[6] When Pages is first opened, users are presented with a Template Chooser which allows them to start with a blank document or with a predesigned template – including a résumé, outline, school report, flyer, or envelope – that contains placeholder text and images which can be replaced by dragging and dropping photos from the Media Browser.
Each document window contains a toolbar, which gives one-click access to commonly used functions such as inserting objects (text boxes, shapes, tables, charts, and comments), uploading the document to iWork.com, and inserting additional pages. In addition, the document window contains a contextual format bar that allows one-click formatting of text and adjustments to images. When text is selected, the format bar enables users to choose fonts, text size and color, adjust line spacing and alignment. When an image is selected, the format bar displays tools to adjust opacity, show and hide shadow and reflection effects, and mask the image.[6] A separate Inspector window provides almost all formatting options available for any element in the open document.
Beginning in iWork '08, word processing and page layout are two distinct modes. In word processing mode, Pages supports headers and footers, footnotes, and outline and list creation. Users can collaborate with others on a document. Pages tracks changes by different users by displaying each person's edits in different colors. Users can also add comments alongside the document. In page layout mode, users have complete control over the position of objects on the page. Images and text can be placed anywhere on the canvas.[6]
The Media Browser provides quick access to media of iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, and Aperture. Users can drag and drop music, movies, and photos directly into Pages documents from the Media Browser window.[2]
Pages has a number of other advanced writing tools. The "Full Screen" mode hides the menubar and toolbars, allowing users to focus on a single document without being distracted by other windows on the screen.[3] Mail merge automatically populates custom fields with contact data from Address Book or from Numbers to create personalized documents. For example, if a user wants to send one letter to three different people, mail merge allows them to create a single document with placeholder fields that will be populated when printing.[7] Tables and charts pasted from Numbers are automatically updated if the original spreadsheet is changed.[3]
Pages can import some AppleWorks word processing documents and Microsoft Word documents (including Word 2007's Office Open XML format [8]), and can export documents to rich text, PDF, EPUB and Microsoft Word DOC formats.[9]
Simple and complex mathematical equations can be written for a Pages document with Mac OS X's Grapher, offering similar capabilities to Microsoft Equation Editor (plus 2D and 3D rendering tools only Grapher can use).
[edit] Compatibility
As of August 2010, Pages does not support OpenDocument file format. At the same time, Pages is restricted to Mac OS X operating system only. While there is no program that can view or edit a .pages file using Windows or Linux, some content can be retrieved because a .pages file is actually a bundle. A user can open a .pages file in an unpackaging program, or by renaming files as .zip files in Windows (XP and onwards), and will find either a .jpg or .pdf preview in its entirety for viewing and printing, though only possible if the creator of the .pages file elected to include a preview. The user will also find a .xml file with unformatted text[10]. This process can also be used for users of the 2008 version of Pages to open documents saved in the 2009 version of Pages, which are not backwards compatible. iWork can also export documents into a number of formats; unfortunately, formatting is often lost during the export process. There is no third-party converter available at this time that can change the file type and save the formatting.
[edit] Version history
| Version Number | Release Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | February 2005 | Initial release. |
| 1.0.1 | March 17, 2005 | Fixes isolated bugs and issues causing problems to some customers. It also allowed the deletion of template pages. |
| 1.0.2 | May 25, 2005 | Addresses issues with page navigation and organization. |
| 2.0 | January 10, 2006 | Released as part of iWork '06. Includes new templates, table calculations, photo masking with shapes and freestyle bezier curves. |
| 2.0.1 | April 26, 2006 | Pages 2.0.1 addresses issues with charts and image adjust. It also addresses a number of other minor issues. |
| 2.0.1v2 | May 1, 2006 | Pages 2.0.1 addresses issues with charts and image adjust. It also addresses a number of other minor issues. |
| 2.0.2 | September 28, 2006 | Pages 2.0.2 addresses issues with Aperture compatibility. |
| 3.0 | August 7, 2007 | Pages 3.0 released as part of iWork '08. Introduced compatibility with Office Open XML (Microsoft Office 2007) files. Introduced Change Tracking. Transparency tool for pictures. Pages 3.0 needs only a third (260 MB) of the hard disk space required for Pages 2.0 (760 MB) despite the added functionality. |
| 3.0.1 | September 27, 2007 | Addresses issues with performance and change tracking. |
| 3.0.2 | January 29, 2008 | This update addresses compatibility with Mac OS X. |
| 3.0.3 | February 2, 2008 | Compatibility issues. |
| 4.0 | January 6, 2009 | Released as a part of iWork '09. New features include the ability to edit in full screen view, better compatibility with Microsoft Office, an outline mode, the option to upload documents to the new iWork.com service, and expanded configurability for the "track changes" feature (including the option to turn off change balloons while keeping comment balloons visible). |
| 4.0.1 | March 26, 2009 | Improves reliability when working with EndNote X2 or MathType 6, or deleting Pages files. |
| 4.0.2 | May 28, 2009 | Improves reliability when saving documents. |
| 4.0.3 | September 28, 2009 | Improves reliability with full-screen mode, applying transparency to images, and EndNote citations. |
| 4.0.4 | August 26, 2010 | Adds support for exporting to the EPUB format (for use with iBooks) and fixes problems with tables. |
| 4.0.5 | January 05, 2011 | Improves the readability of exported ePub documents. |
[edit] See also
- List of word processors
- Comparison of word processors
- Microsoft Word
- AppleWorks
- Google Docs
- AbiWord
- WordPerfect
- Desktop publishing
- iWork
- Keynote (presentation software)
- Numbers (software)
- Office Open XML software
- OpenDocument software
- NeoOffice
[edit] References
- ^ iWork System Requirements
- ^ a b c Apple Unveils iWork ’05
- ^ a b c Apple Unveils iWork ’09
- ^ Apple Special Event January 2010 Apple Inc. January 27, 2010
- ^ Apple Pages
- ^ a b c "Apple Introduces iWork '08". 2007-08-07. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/08/07iwork08.html. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
- ^ "Apple Announces iWork '06". 2006-01-10. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/jan/10iwork.html. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
- ^ "Apple Inc. compatibility page for iWork '08". http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/#compatible.
- ^ http://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/26/apple-brings-epub-export-to-pages-with-iwork-9-0-4/
- ^ How to: Edit Mac OS .pages documents in Linux
[edit] External links
- iWork Community
- Pages FAQ Unofficial FAQ based mostly on content from Apple's support forums.
- iWorkTipsnTricks Unofficial iWork Tips and Tricks repository with links to many useful resources.
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