Pages software problem

[MacNasty]

I do my word processing on my Mac Pro with Pages. Never had a problem. I open a file the other day, went to save it and Pages froze. Couldn't save or close the file or close pages. At this point I tried force quit which also didn't work so I shut down my Mac and rebooted. Now when I try to open Pages a "Tables" box opens first (the one for columns and rows) and then Pages crashes and I get the "Pages has shut down unexpectedly" box. I am using Mountain Lion version 10.8.5 on a Mid-2012 Mac Pro 3.33 GHz 6 core Intel Xeon with 20 GB RAM. I have tried to use Time Machine to go back a few days to an earlier Pages with no success. Is there a preference file or startup file that is causing this "Tables" box to open? Something I can erase to get my Pages back? It's Pages 4.3 and I really didn't want to update when what I have worked well until now and there is no guarantee that an update to a new version won't behave the same until this problem is rectified.

 

[chscag]

I'm using the newer version of Pages so can't really help with which Plist may be giving you a problem.

I have tried to use Time Machine to go back a few days to an earlier Pages with no success.

Going back a few days might not be good enough. Have you tried going back further in time?

 

[MacNasty]

Yes. Took it back an entire week. Same result. Apparently whatever Time Machine overwrites, it was not the file causing me trouble.

 

[chscag]

At this point and since you've had no luck with a Time Machine restore, I suggest removing Pages and reinstalling. Do you still have your iWork 09 CD?

 

[MacNasty]

Unfortunately my Pages 4.3 was a download from the "App store". I had used iWorks '08 on my Mac Book Pro but it was incompatible with Mountain Lion on my Mac Pro. I was hoping someone would know which startup file might be causing the problem since there is no backup disc to fall back on and Apple is generally less than helpful with software they've replaced with newer versions. I have no intentions of upgrading to Yosemite so...

 

[chscag]

Unfortunately my Pages 4.3 was a download from the "App store".

No problem. Go to the App Store and select "Purchases". Enter your Apple ID and password and you'll be presented with all your purchases. When you select Pages 4.3 there should be a notation next to it that says "download". Go ahead and download it.

 

[MacNasty]

Well. App Store will work to update my purchased software to version 5.5.2 which it lists as compatible with OSX "10.10" or later. There is always the option of buying an iWorks 9 disc on Amazon but I really was trying to avoid that.

 

[chscag]

I don't blame you. The new version of Pages for Yosemite is "dumbed" down from what you're used to with 4.3. Many folks have complained about Apple removing items from the new version that were available in 4.3. I use Pages only on rare occasions as I really need to use Mac Word 2011 in order to remain compatible with other folks in the work that I do.

You can give the new version of Pages a try if you wish as it will not overwrite your older version. It moves the older version (4.3) to a separate folder and makes the new version (5.5.2) the default. The only problem with that is it will want to update your older Pages documents to the newer format. And it's one way. Once the older Pages documents have been updated, they can no longer be read by 4.3.

 

[johnodd4]

Honestly i am sorry to say that redownloading it doesn't work when apple updates it's apps you can only get the updated versions from the app store which won't run in mountain lion at all you need iWork 09 cd sorry

 

[MacNasty]

Thanks. All good stuff to know about the newer Pages version that I was ignorant of. More reasons to avoid it.