Working with pages08 and Ms office

A lot of my work that i do at university is done with microsoft office word/excell etc...


If i make a document in office word, how easy is it then to take it home, open it in pages then when im done working in pages, saving it back to an office file?

Once im done working in pages do i have to click "export" all the time if i want to save it as an office file?

Is there any better office software for mac that may work better for me to do this? I also have microsoft office installed on windows within parallels that i can use and may be easier for me?

If i use features like the indexing/contents items in either word or pages, will this work and display correctly in the other application? EG word's indexing feature work when opening the document in pages08 and vice versa?

Well there's Office for Mac, which is one way to look at it. That way there's no compatibility issues and whatnot. Whatever opens on the PC, works on the mac.

However, I use Pages for all my Word files and find it quite conveniet. And as for exporting it to .Doc, there's an option of using Applescript and automator to automatically convert all your pages files into word files.

Not sure about the index/contents...

tobywuk, I'm struggling with the same thing. If you are already using Microsoft Office at school, Grimmace it makes sense to use it at home too. It's very expensive, in my opinion. I've just started a 30-day trial of Pages in iWork, and I can't relax into it yet. The Export to .doc is really weird.

I have been a Corel Office user since I was a wee lad. Corel doesn't make Office for Mac anymore, so I run it on Fusion or Parallels. IMO, Corel is much more powerful, easier to format documents, ultimately configurable and customizable. You can even run it in Word mode, so all the menus and toolbars are the same as you are accustomed to. .doc files are almost native, you can select to make .doc format default in WordPerfect. AND the software package is 1/2 the price (at least) of MS Office. I could go on, but if you aren't interested in running a virtual machine, you've got to go with MS Office.

What's so weird? Command+E and Enter!

goobimama said:

What's so weird? Command+E and Enter!

Click to expand...

yeah yeah, this is the second post I've read in the last ten minutes recommending the Command E thing. Not in my version ('08)! Command E is listed in Pages '08 Help as "Use selection for find." I've looked for keyboard customization so far in vain.

The weird part is because you are exporting, you'll have two versions. Go ahead, export to .doc then close the Pages file. It'll ask Do you want to "Don't Save"? Why can't I just save the file as .doc and be done with it?

Okay okay. Maybe that was a shortcut only for Pages 06, cause I see its not there in 08. But still. You can always use applescript or automator to easily convert the file after saving it as pages from right within finder. How difficult can that be? For all the stuff that Pages does, its worth that little effort.

If your making documents with lots of pictures, tables, graphs, text boxes etc... then i find that pages 06 or 08 doesn't open then properly. I would wait for MS Office 2008 which is coming out soon

Pages can still save the file as a .doc for office. You just have to go to : File ->export and it will give you options for a pdf, .doc, trf, or plain text.

If the docs are simple, then you'll be fine. You might want to check out Neo Office too though, you can set that to use .doc format by default, and it is a lot more of an Office clone.

shahvikram123 said:

If your making documents with lots of pictures, tables, graphs, text boxes etc... then i find that pages 06 or 08 doesn't open then properly. I would wait for MS Office 2008 which is coming out soon

Click to expand...

My cousin told me to wait for the new version which is due to be out around Christmas, he works for MS so I can get a deal from him, guess I have to wait.

I thought MS said there going to come out in the first quarter of 2008?

Have MS got a beta out that I can try out?

some people say that MS officce 04 is best, some say Neo office and others say iWorks.

I have iWorks on my macbook at the moment, but im not sure how well it will work when swapping info to and from microsoft word like i will be doing when i start uni.

For the text part some people like the old Appleworks still. It's just another option for you.

The reason I am going to wait for Office, is as I was told the new powerpoint is going to be able to integrate video into presentations.

^^ Keynote already does that... and amazingly well I might add