BEST WORD PROCESSOR FOR iMAC

[David1354]

I like Pages for writing files but a problem if sending to colleague for our club newsletter as he is on Windows. I tried LibreOffice but again some problems as colleague can open it but experiences compatible probs with photos in my document jumping around and ending up misplaced in the file he receives. I know I can save PAGES to a pdf file but I want to send a WORD file. Any cures/comments please resolve?

 

[ferrarr]

Will the others need to edit the file after save it and send it to them? If not, you could instead export it or save it as a PDF?

 

[lclev]

I you can export a document from pages as a word document. I have a colleague at work who uses pages and sends them to me as a word document.

How to quickly save Pages files in Word format - CNET

Lisa

 

[chscag]

I like Pages for writing files but a problem if sending to colleague for our club newsletter as he is on Windows. I tried LibreOffice but again some problems as colleague can open it but experiences compatible probs with photos in my document jumping around and ending up misplaced in the file he receives. I know I can save PAGES to a pdf file but I want to send a WORD file. Any cures/comments please resolve?

You're going to get many suggestions including LibreOffice, Open Office, Free Office, etc. Out of all of them, Free Office is probably the closest you're going to get to keeping the Word format. I love Pages because it's easy to use and lays out very well with Mojave and Catalina. But Pages does not export well to the Word format especially if you have images, borders, indents, etc.

Actually, none of the above do it very well but Free Office is about the best. I keep a current copy of Word handy (Office 365) because it's the only app that truely imports older Word documents and keeps the original format intact. I have documents in archive that I use that were made with Office 95 and 97.

Anyway, I suggest you give Free Office a try: www.freeoffice.com - FreeOffice for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I like Pages for writing files but a problem if sending to colleague for our club newsletter as he is on Windows. I tried LibreOffice but again some problems as colleague can open it but experiences compatible probs with photos in my document jumping around and ending up misplaced in the file he receives. ...I want to send a WORD file.

Pages will allow you to save a file in Word format.

When you finish your document in Pages, do this:

File menu --> Export To... --> Word... --> and you will get a choice of the older .doc format or the newer .docx format

In my experience, though, Pages only does a fair job of translating your complex formatting to Word format.

I very much prefer:

Free Office (free)
www.freeoffice.com - FreeOffice for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android

Free Office has the best handling of Word files (both saving and opening) that I've seen outside of Word itself. In fact, I've yet to see it do less than a perfect job.

If you for some reason don't like Free Office, here is a Web site that lists all of the Word processors for the Macintosh:

Macintosh Word Processors
Macintosh Word Processors

 

[Slydude]

I like FreeOffice. In fact I liked it enough to pay the paid version (the Softmaker Office Suite). I routinely save files that I must open in MS Word (Windows version) at work. I've only run across two issues thatI have not taken time to fix yet:
1. One document uses a template that has a watermark. When I open the Word document in the Softmaker suite the text of the watermark has been replaced with the words "your text here".
2. The problem document is a table that has an interesting printing issue. When printed from within the Softmaker suite, part of the first column does not print properly. If I save the document as a PDF and pull that PDF into Preview it usually prints fine.

I think both problems can be fixed rather easily. I just haven't taken time to troubleshoot it.

 

[chscag]

Did you download the latest Service Pack for Softmaker Office? I believe it adds some fixes and other things.

My problem with Softmaker Office is that it does not render older Word documents correctly - especially those with various indents, changing margins, etc. I've had to redo those documents to get them back to original format. Also, it misses on many fonts that MS uses. I know they also sell a font pack but am not sure if that would work. To make a long storey short.... I gave up on Softmaker Office and am using Office 365 Word. Office 365 Word opens and renders all my old Word docs correctly. And I have docs that go back to Office 95 and 97.

 

[Rod]

Q. BEST WORD PROCESSOR FOR iMAC ? Ans. Microsoft Word.

Despite all of the fabulous work done by open source projects the answer remains the same because a. it is the most used world wide and therefor the most universally compatible and b. because Microsoft have the resources and continue to invest them in making the program the best.

For the outlay purchasing Microsoft Office for MacOS was still worth it for me in 2018 as opposed to the subscription for 365 so that's what I have.

 

[Slydude]

Did you download the latest Service Pack for Softmaker Office? I believe it adds some fixes and other things.

My problem with Softmaker Office is that it does not render older Word documents correctly - especially those with various indents, changing margins, etc. I've had to redo those documents to get them back to original format. Also, it misses on many fonts that MS uses. I know they also sell a font pack but am not sure if that would work. To make a long storey short.... I gave up on Softmaker Office and am using Office 365 Word. Office 365 Word opens and renders all my old Word docs correctly. And I have docs that go back to Office 95 and 97.

I think I grabbed the update you're talking about a couple of days ago. This has been a low priority issue for me because I don't have to print the document often. Editing works well.

 

[David1354]

I like Pages for writing files but a problem if sending to colleague for our club newsletter as he is on Windows. I tried LibreOffice but again some problems as colleague can open it but experiences compatible probs with photos in my document jumping around and ending up misplaced in the file he receives. I know I can save PAGES to a pdf file but I want to send a WORD file. Any cures/comments please resolve?

Many thanks to all who responded. Very helpful

 

[chscag]

@David:

If you upgrade to Mojave, you can download and install the latest version of Pages (10.0) which vastly improves it. Apple has slowly been improving their iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) to where they are almost up to par with Word, Powerpoint, and Excel.

 

[MacInWin]

If you have multiple machines and multiple users, the subscription price for Office (Including Word) is $7/month for five licenses. That worked out for me as I have 5 systems and now have Office on all five. MS recently changed it from Office365 to Microsoft365, or plan to do so in April sometime.

 

[Rod]

@David:

If you upgrade to Mojave, you can download and install the latest version of Pages (10.0) which vastly improves it. Apple has slowly been improving their iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) to where they are almost up to par with Word, Powerpoint, and Excel.

I have to second that, I do use Pages for a lot of private projects and it has improved greatly in the last few versions.