I've been using Microsoft Word as my main Word processor for ages. But I've always been on the look out for something different. It has nice features, to be sure, but so many features that it tends to overwhelm. I don't need a lot of fancy stuff, but I do need a Word processor that works - and a little page layout every now and again.
When Pages first came out, I gave it a whirl. On my Mac it bogged down in long documents. The letters began to appear LONG after I typed them. Not good. But I just did today's homily in the new Pages '08. That is a very fine program. I sailed along with no trouble whatsoever. David has warned me before that I thought other things would replace the MS Office suite and each time I've headed back to Redmond. Time will tell, but I really think that I've found a worthy replacement - at long last.
14 comments:
I've decided to give Pages a chance. Whether it will become my sole word processor will depend on how it handles Hebrew fonts and footnoting.
I am eagerly waiting for the release of Office 2008 and will probably get it no matter what since we get it free at the sem. Time will tell how good it is.
Free is always a good deal for a Lutheran, even if it is a Microsoft product.
I really like Pages '08. I've been using it since '05, though some of our church's stuff is still on the now orphaned AppleWorks. Pages '08 seems to have fixed some of the difficulties of prior versions. It handles all the Greek and Hebrew fonts just fine. I haven't used it to produce any highbrow stuff since I'm just a lowbrow cook in a local diner. It integrates beautifully with Keynote and the iLife programs. Use it for a while; you will learn to love it. Explore the Inspector; there is a ton of functionality buried in there.
I really like using Corel Wordperfect. I have found it simple and easy to use, although I'm starting to look at Pages since Rev Cwirla's post.
CPH no longer accepts, or receives, any files from authors or contributors that are not in WORD. The hard and simple reality is that WORD is King and wandering off to the freebies and/or WordPerfect is just a royal pain for any professional uses of files.
Unfortunately, the Evil Empire has a lock on Word Processing.
I've used half a dozen word processors over the year.
Any Mac users remember WriteNow? That was the most elegant and fast word processor I've ever used.
Or any Mac users remember FullWrite Professional? Awesome program. Way ahead of its time. It was basically Quark with full word processing functionality.
But, I've always had to return to Word.
Your son is right, Bill, sorry to say.
Ah, but Paul, the beautiful thing about Pages is that it saves in .doc. You wouldn't even know it was created on another system. Especially not the simple stuff that authors send into you guys - by simple I mean without heavy formatting. Y'all do the big formatting there.
I enjoy NeoOffice which is a freeware processor etc. Good stuff.
I'm all for NeoOffice, but I've lately been using Mellel, and it's fantastic. It is a word processor designed for a *writer*. It's lean and fast. And it's the only word processor for Mac that can handle Hebrew unicode fonts and complex script (i.e. mid-east) languages. The only disadvantage is that it's not supported by the Evil Empire, though you can export to .doc .
I met the Mellel guys last year at Expo, my dad bought their system.
I'm all for Open Office. I like free, underground stuff. Well, it's not really underground, but you know what I mean.
CPH only accepts Word? Why only one thing? Oh, that's right, the mauve people....;-)
To echo the above comment, I'm a huge fan of Open Office. It utilizes ubiquitous file formats. With M$ Office 2007/8, the evil giant has made this move already. Gone are the days of .doc welcome Open XML .docx. What this means is that Microsoft has no longer bound itself to proprietary file formats. Thus when technology changes, your documents will be able to be accessed. Remember Appleworks, ClarisWorks, FileMaker, or Lotus 1-2-3, it's real fun trying to open those documents especially if you don't have an appropriate converter. However XML depends on the document itself to define how it is formatted (the instructions for the indents, tables, etc, are all in each document).
I know that this has been a long/drawn out comment, Pages is almost there... but not quite.
I have been a Mac user since 1990, at the time using Word 5 and WriteNow. I probably have too many word processors in OS X. I really like Mellel for writing anything with Greek and Hebrew; its style sheets are far better than Word, and autotitling and notestreams are unique. The primary needed things but expected in the next release are cross-references and indexes.
I also have Word 2004 and use when someone on the Windows side refuses to accept anything but. I keep NoeOffice up-to-date, but don't really use it. Nisus Writer is finally beginning to be a player in OS X (much like it was in pre-OS X era).
Two other programs that I use for combination word processing/page layout are: Papyrus and Ragtime, both are cross-platform. 18 months ago I published a book (including ~100 pics) using Papyrus, doing everything including the final PDFs for the printer; the printer used Windows, but had no problems. Excellent, fast, and stable. Ragtime has high end page layout, word processing, integrated spreadsheet, and a display option, a low end Powerpoint.
Rich
I would like to suggest LaTex to you but you have to be geekish to use it. The nice thing is that it is free and you can use your text editor for it.
My friends even use it for writing CVs and recipes.
LPC
WriteNow rocked! Sadly, it never made the leap to OS X.
Pages exports/imports to Word without a hitch. The evil empire is none the wiser, and we don't have to sully our machines with a Bill Gates product.
Umberto Eco, the semeitoician and author, makes this comparison: PC is Protestant - egalitarian, everyone on his own; Mac is Catholic - wholistic, mediated, everyone does it the same way, and loves it.
LL, we are NOT the mauve people, we are the BLUE people. Do try to keep this straight.
:)
Hmmmm....ok, as usual, after my bloviation and pontification...I'm intrigued by "Pages" -- was ist das?
And Ben M. ... you'll have to show me this other program you are talking about.
Cwirla, you are a fine Mac Evangelist!
Post a Comment