It is no secret that I have been a fan of Pages, and I am always trying to convince people that Microsoft Word (in most cases) is something you just don’t need.
Despite my best efforts, though, there are still those that think that Word is the only processor out there, that it is needed to communicate with the outside world, and that Pages will somehow be different or lacking because it is free.
So here, in my series (if indeed two posts constitute a series) of articles about Apple’s productivity suite, is a guide in creating and formatting a document in Pages and sharing it wth the outside world.
With any luck, if you are a home Word user (the best example of computer-based Stockholm syndrome I can think of), you’ll see a few familiar functions, and hopefully, this will be enough to convince you that Pages is all you need.
Let’s start at the beginning and create a new document.
Open Pages, and you’ll be asked to create a new document.
Clicking on New Document will bring up the Template Gallery, and it is here you can choose some gorgeous templates or simply click on Blank.
Clicking on Blank produces a blank page… eerily similar to Word.
What is not the same, and I am sure you have already noticed this, is how clean and uncluttered the interface is. All you generally need is the toolbar on the right-hand side of the page— this controls all your font choices, styles, colours, and alignments. To see it, you click on the Format button…but importantly, you can hide it when you don’t need it by, again, clicking on the same button.
From here, you can simply start typing, and that too is exactly the same as that $150.00 sinkhole… Word.
If needs be, you can also insert pictures into your document.
You do this using the Media button.
This menu allows you to choose a photo, a video, a shape, or a table… all sorts really. But generally, people only ever want to add either a) a photo they have in their Photos library, b) a photo lying about on their Mac somewhere, or c) a table.
So let’s start with how to add a photo from your Photo library.
Simply insert your cursor where you want the file to appear and click on the Media button at the top of the screen and select Choose Photo or Video
You can then go to any Album, choose the photo and voila!
How you position that photo and the effects you might want to add to it is the subject of another article or you can find more tips here. Needless to say the Arrange button on the right of the window is your best friend right about now.
Inserting a photo that is lying about on your Mac is very similar.
You start with the Media button once again, but this time you use the Choose File option and then locate where the rogue photo lies on your Mac.
Once you have inserted your photo from either your Photos library or a folder on your Mac. You can change its style by, once again, going to the right-hand side of the page and choosing how the picture looks in the Style tab. Have a play!
Now…to saving.
The greatest challenge – and I use that term very loosely – is when you want to save a document.
It really comes down to asking yourself this simple question…
Is this document for someone else AND, if it is for someone else – do I want them to edit it?
If the document is just for you, then just save it to your Mac or the iCloud drive in the usual way…in the Pages format.
If the document is for someone else AND all they have to do is read it, then send it as a PDF.
You do this by clicking on the File menu, then choose Export To then choose PDF.
Here you can add a password or some additional notes before you click on Send a Copy and choose Mail (or Messages if you prefer)
If the document is for someone else AND you want them to edit it, then send it as a Word document.
You do this by following the steps above but choose Word instead of PDF
Now that we have covered the basics, you might want to mention you can do all sorts of other things with Pages.
It also does…
Headers and footers.
Table of Contents
Page Numbering
Mail Merge
Oh, and just in case you were wondering… Pages will open all your old Word files as well.
In fact, I cannot think of anything it cannot do that Word does aside from costing you money and not wishing for the sweet release of death.
I hope this has gone way to show you that Word, in many cases, is just not needed and the $385.00 (or $150 a month at the time of this article) could be spent on something a lot more fun— like a root canal.
