It is with great excitement and trepidation I view new versions of core software. So it was with Pages 5.0 for my Mac. Although I was excited to see some of the new features (e.g. enhanced iCloud synchronization), the program took a major step backwards in productivity enhancement. In fact, the whole suite of products (Numbers, Pages, and Keynote) are sad remnants of their former selves. Most of the articles I’ve read tout the fact the iWork Suite was rebuilt from the ground up, setting the foundation for the future. I, personally, was surprised and saddened at how feature-poor the original release truly was.

For the time being, I’m moving back to Microsoft Word, until the features I’m dependent upon get fixed. Before I made this decision, I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to stay with Pages–here are some of the workarounds I came up with.

Some of the problems I’ve encountered:

1. Zipping Files-Writing for me is usually a collaborative activity. I send versions of software back and forth with collaborators (sometimes by email). Unfortunately, Pages zips any file I decide to transfer. Google intercepts these zipped files, refusing to transmit them (because of their potential for containing malicious content). Solution: I tried using DropBox to transfer information back and forth with collaborators. Word allows me to transfer the files as needed.
2. Papers / Pages interplay- With the previous version of Pages I could wait until my paper was in its final state before formatting my bibliography. No more. The new version of Pages does not play well with Papers 2 (side-note, Papers 3 has been released, but I’m avoiding upgrading for the time being). Solution: If I wanted to stay with Pages, I would now have to format my bibliography in plain text, then import the file with the bibliography into Pages for final formatting. By using Word, I can keep my old workflow (formatting my bibliography as the very last step of my writing process).
3. Comments - Writing includes sending comments back and forth between collaborators. The implementation of comments and reviewing is sorely lacking in Pages 5.0. Even worse, if one attempts to export the Pages document into Pages’09, the majority of the comments are lost. I haven’t found an acceptable work-around in Pages. Microsoft Word’s commenting features are intact.

As much as I hate to say it, for the foreseeable future, I’m moving back to Microsoft Word for my manuscript and grant writing. I hope Apple focuses significant resources on bringing back productivity enhancing features of Pages and Keynote. Until then, they’ve lost me.