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What's the hubub bub?
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Stepping backward to move forward
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When Apple released the first major update to their iWork suite in over four year I like many of you applauded. When they made it free with any new Apple products I was shocked (and as I've discussed at length a bit concerned for the future of paid software).
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During the announcement and demo at Apple's iPad event there was a lot of mentions to the fact that the new versions were brining feature parity between the Mac, iOS, and iCloud versions of the apps.
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To this many people also applauded
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I was again concerned because one way to achieve this would be to reduce the features to a lowest common denominators.
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I expressed this concern not long after the event, some dismissed me, but now we know unfortunately that my suspicions were not unfounded
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Recations to Apple's move have been mixed
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Many are outraged. Espeically "power" and business users
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Other's see the the long term logic in Apple's decision, even if they are too disappointed that features were cut
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I find myself extremely sympetheic to those who are upset, but being only a casual user of iWork. The change benefit me more than hurt. And I think that was how Apple saw it.
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One argument I heard made is that Apple needs to do a better job of explaining the reasons for these overhauls in advance
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They need to set expectations to avoid the kinds of backlash they have been seeing in the media
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This kind of move by Apple is now pretty well part of their playbook
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Consider QuickTime X
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Consider iMovie '08
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Consider Final Cut Pro X
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Apple obviously made the painful decision to put cross-device feature parity at the top of the list when building these new versions.
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I think the fact that they left the old versions installed after the upgrade process proves that they knew the new versions were not going to be accepted by all the customers.
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Like with FinalCut Apple has now come forward publicly and said they will be working to bring back many of the last features over the next six months. Will all your favorite lost features return? Time will tell.
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For now, I though it would be good to look over what has changed, so at least you know what to expect if you ventuer into the new version of pages
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Pages
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No going back, well sort of.
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The very first thing to know is that, as mentioned, when you update Page you will get the new version in your Applications folder, but the old version will be there too
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Applications > iWork '09 > Pages
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Once you open an existing document in Pages 5.0 (Pages '13). It will be updated to a new format and you can't open that version in Pages '09
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There is a File > Export To > Pages '09… option
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What are you missing?
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Some notable items
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Selection of non-contiguous text
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Outline view
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Can't customize tool bars
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Organizing pages in the thumbnail view is gone
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No duplicate page option
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No more floating inspector palette (the sidebar changes contextually)
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No vertical ruler
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Facing pages
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Superscripting/Subscripting text
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No linked text boxes.
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Another site has an extensive list of 56 removed features
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Apple has a support article with a list of some of the features that will return in the next six months.
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Customize toolbar
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Vertical ruler
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Improved alignment guides
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Improved object placement
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Import of cells with images
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Improved word counts
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Keyboard shortcuts for styles
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Manage pages and sections from the thumbnail view
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What's new
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The best advice I have heard regarding Pages 5.0 is to treat it as a whole new application. Do not think of it as an upgrade to Pages '09.
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As mentioned previously the floating Inspector palette is gone and has been replaced by a sidebar now called the 'Format Panel'
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Nothing will appear in the 'Format' panel until you've selected an item in the document
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The panel will adapt dynamically depending on what parts of your document you're editing.
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It does still have 'tabbed' section and subpanels
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When editing text the top of the panel has the 'Styles' sector which drops down
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The Main text edting tabs are
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Style - Test and paragraph formatting
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Layout - Settings for organizing thoughts in tabs, columns, indents, and borders.
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More - In there you'll find pagination options among other things
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Document Setup is also handled in the new sidebar
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In the tootbar you'll see the 'Setup' icon next to the 'Format'
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When you access Setup it will load in the same sidebar as the formatting tools (remember, no more floating palettes).
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There are two tabs
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'Document' - Let's you select the printer, page size, orientation, headers, margins, etc.
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'Section' - Control header and footers, page numbering, add new sections.
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In the 'Document' settings there is a checkbox called 'Document Body'
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It seems unassuming, but actually controls a big part of your dcoument.
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When checked all your pages have a continuous body textbox that runs from page to page.
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The 'Document Body' basically setups your Document as to 'Word Processing' document (vs. a Page Layout Document).
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When it's on, you need to insert or remove 'Page Breaks' if you want to add or remove pages. You can't delete pages in the Thumbnail view.
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Even contextually the 'Insert' menu will change. It has 'Insert' > 'Section' at the top if you're in a document with the 'Document Body' on and if it's off it will give the 'Insert' > 'Page' option.
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Unchecking the option in a document that has a 'Document Body' will warn you that removing it will remove all body text and inline objects from your document.
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One cool thing about the Document Settings being contextual is that as you change properties like margins in the sidebar you'll see the adjustments take effect in real time on your document on the left.
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Sections can have independent headers & footers, numbering, etc.
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Styles
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Now when you adjust the formatting of a paragraph that already has a style assigned, a little 'update' button will appear next to the style in the Format panel. Click that and that will update that style throughout your document.
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Sharing and Collaboration via iCloud
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Under the 'Share' button in the toolbar there is a new 'Share Link via iCloud' option.
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This only works for Documents that you've saved to iCloud.
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If it's saved locally you will be prompted to move it. Be careful as this does move, and not copy, the file. So, if you had in Dropbox or in your Transporter then it would no longer be available in those services.
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You might consider copying the document in the Finder first then moving it to iCloud for sharing.
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You also still have the 'Send a Copy' option which let's you send a copy of the document in Pages, PDF, Word, or ePub formats via. AirDrop, Email, or Messages.
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Collaboration
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Under the 'Share' button you can select 'View Share Settings…'
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It will begin sharing the document (via iCloud) and give you a link to send to collaborators.
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Additional collaborators can currently only work in the Web version, not in Pages on their Mac. Let's hope Apple changes that.
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Collaboration is also very slow and clunky at the moment when going from a Mac to the web interface.
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When going from Mac to iCloud and vice versa there is no real-time indication of editing an refreshes are required when changes are made on either side
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on the web interface you get a horrible dialog
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on the Mac it just reloads the document
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If you are working from iCloud to iCloud it's a much better experience.
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Still, the collaboration also has no ability to make notes or track changes.
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The features are still BETA and hopefully Apple will improve things quickly.
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Building for the future
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It might seem to many that Pages has lost a lot more than it gained with this upgrade.
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I think for some that might be true, but again that is why Pages '09 still works and Apple left it untouched.
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For those who can use it and work within the current limits, Pages 5.0 is a big deal. Especially if you need to share documents between iOS and other users.
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The ability to move from desktop to tablet, to iPhone, and back and not lose a step will be a big deal for a lot of use.
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Plus I really think things will get better and quickly. Apple has even publically commited to it which is a good sign.
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