[Green Leaf]

I sat down with Pages and tried to create a simple newsleter to some students I have.

Here are my complaints. I believe they are valid.

First. When you start typing a new sentence, if by chance you don't capitalize the first letter of the first word, Pages doesn't capitalize them for you. I can't find a setting to turn it on. This is a common function in Word which everyone loves.

Second. In Word, when you select FONTS at the top of the page, you can see each style as you scroll down. This makes it really east to visualize and select which font you want to choose. In Pages, I have to click on each type of font to then be able to see its style. Again, another great feature which exists in Word, and is lacking in Pages.

Third. Why is there no easily accessible button for Bold, Italicize, or Underlining? These features we all use daily, but to get them, i have to open a separate menu for Fonts. These should always be accessible directly at the top of the screen. Some of you would say that i just need to keep the Fonts tab open, but i don't have room on my screen to keep it open at all times.

Also, why is there no THESARUS OR GRAMMAR CHECKER? This is a 'word' drafting application, right? If there is one, why isn't the button easily accessible on the top of the screen? Why is everything hidden in a separate cluttered tab?

Why can't i customize the top menu bar? I for one would put these items at the top of ym screen. For those who don't want them, you wouldn't have to. Still, the option should be the consumer! CUSTOMIZATION IS KEY!

Not everything is negative. I really like the THEMES. Although, i'm sure the evil empire of Microsoft will steal this from Apple soon enough.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
First. When you start typing a new sentence, if by chance you don't capitalize the first letter of the first word, Pages doesn't capitalize them for you. I can't find a setting to turn it on. This is a common function in Word which everyone loves.

Thanks for your opinion. It is so much more valuable than everyone else's. I appreciate that you made a new thread to tell us.

[dajk]

First. When you start typing a new sentence, if by chance you don't capitalize the first letter of the first word, Pages doesn't capitalize them for you. I can't find a setting to turn it on. This is a common function in Word which everyone loves.

I hate this feature in word.

Second. In Word, when you select FONTS at the top of the page, you can see each style as you scroll down. This makes it really east to visualize and select which font you want to choose. In Pages, I have to click on each type of font to then be able to see its style. Again, another great feature which exists in Word, and is lacking in Pages.

I know my fonts

Third. Why is there no easily accessible button for Bold, Italicize, or Underlining? These features we all use daily, but to get them, i have to bring a separate menu for Fonts. These shoudl always be accessible directly at the top of the screen. Some of you would say that i just need to keep the Fonts tab open, but i don't have room on my screen to keep it open at all times.

Applebutton B, I and U

[lavar78]

Originally posted by dajk:
Applebutton

...better known as "Command"

[Mediaman_12]

Lots of people coming from Word seam to be missing the fact that Pages is REALLY dependant on text styles, and templates. You want to easily be able to set Italic, bold or underlined text, then create a new template for these documents with a Style containing these elements (then if you later decide that all the italic text would look better in bold red for example, then it's a quick change away).

I also hated the auto caps in Word, (similar to the 'press shift with caps lock on for lower case letters' on the PC).

[benb]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
First. When you start typing a new sentence, if by chance you don't capitalize the first letter of the first word, Pages doesn't capitalize them for you. I can't find a setting to turn it on. This is a common function in Word which everyone loves.

This is the single most annoying feature of Word, right behind auto-formatting lists, auto-creation of hyperlinks, and filling in my name for me.

[Stradlater]

Originally posted by lavar78:
...better known as "Command"

For someone who doesn't know that Command-B, etc. shortcuts to these features, "Applebutton" is probably the best way to describe it to him.

[Mediaman_12]

Originally posted by benb:
auto-creation of hyperlinks,

Why has Apple decided to include this feature in Pages. It's PRIMARY use is for creating PRINTED documents, why on earth would I want to be able to click on an email address in the document I am typing in and automatically create an email to that address. WHAT IS THE POINT, YOU CAN'T CLICK ON A PRINTED PAGE.

[lavar78]

Originally posted by Stradlater:
For someone who doesn't know that Command-B, etc. shortcuts to these features, "Applebutton" is probably the best way to describe it to him.

Good point. Still, I think it's a good idea to give the "preferred" term as well.

[DavidHossack]

Originally posted by benb:
This is the single most annoying feature of Word, right behind auto-formatting lists, auto-creation of hyperlinks, and filling in my name for me.

I agree. Truly the worst one is the auto superscript of the "th" in a date. SOOOOOO frustrating and finding the places to switch of the auto stuff takes so long.

Fonts are also better grouped-the font panel is quite good at this. Yes it can be annoying when you have only Bold, italic etc options but some fonts can have more variety and it ends up making your font menu extra long and really confusing.

[phillryu]

The only valid argument you have I think has to do with the WYSIWYG font menu in Word, which can definitely be useful to those who don't have fonts memorized.

Fortunately, first, the Styles drawer and menu display styles in the font they are in, so for most commonly used fonts, you can set up styles and see em there.

Second, there are several third party utilities (from You Control Software, yousoftware.com and Unsanity, unsanity.com) that add such a Font menu to all applications. You might want to check these out. Though they cost money, total costs should still be significantly under purchasing MS Office. Good luck!

[phillryu]

Oh, and about Bold/Italic/Underline, etc. you can add these as "Character Styles" (click the little "a" in the styles drawer) and have them easily clickable and visible there.

[kcmac]

I much prefer using the fonts panel to the drop down list. Plus, in Word if you can see the font style in the drop down, it is one of the things (such as live word count) that slows down the entire app.

Most of the time in fonts, I am really only needing to make the font bold or italicized. Don't need a panel or a list for that.

How about typing a fraction in Word? Really can't stand that either.

[Hi I'm Ben]

Boy there are sure some applefanboy ignorant responses on here.

If this same product were released by MS or another company it would not even be mentioned on this board because it would be incomplete and could not compare to word.

I don't hate Pages, I don't think it's that great at this time.

Not seeing the font or font size? I think that's annoying. I don't care if you "Know what font you're using" A majority of people probably don't. That's super if you're some super elite genius and don't need it.

For me the Bold Underline and Italic option isn't an issue, i know the commands, but for a company that wants to sell iWork to the general public (PC users in particular with the mm) I think it's a bad idea to assume people know how to do this, it should be accessable easier.

Grammar check on Word is mediocre i don't miss it from iWork.

[lavar78]

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
Boy there are sure some applefanboy ignorant responses on here.

If this same product were released by MS or another company it would not even be mentioned on this board because it would be incomplete and could not compare to word.

Why ruin a good post with these two unnecessary comments? Calling someone an "applefanboy" whenever he agrees with something Apple did is so tired.

Other than that, I basically agree with you. OTOH, I think it's unrealistic to think Pages can replace Word for everyone.

[hyperb0le]

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
Not seeing the font or font size? I think that's annoying. I don't care if you "Know what font you're using" A majority of people probably don't. That's super if you're some super elite genius and don't need it.

The styles menu is WYSIWYG. Use styles, and you wont have this problem.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
First. When you start typing a new sentence, if by chance you don't capitalize the first letter of the first word, Pages doesn't capitalize them for you. I can't find a setting to turn it on. This is a common function in Word which everyone loves.

Everyone?! Speak for yourself. Auto-correct is one of the things I absolutely hate about Word and is always one of the first things I turn off (except in the original release of Office X, which wouldn't keep that setting! It would get stuck and turn Auto-Correct back on the next time I launched it, unless I trashed the preferences). Sometimes you want to start with a lower case letter, for whatever reason. The only thing I hate more than this is the auto spell check, where it "fixes" your spelling without even asking first. I remember trying to type up lab reports on a school computer with Word on it, and it would change a chemical formula like NaOH into "Noah" or some related BS. I also remember a music history professor who used PowerPoint slides for every lecture, and you could tell she was using Word to type up the outlines, since every time she wanted to use the word "concertized" it showed up as "concretized", and you know that was because of the auto spell-check (just to test, I typed "concertized" into Word v. X and yep, it autocorrected it to "concretized". ARGH.

[TETENAL]

Stuff like that makes you look like a greater moron than when you just misspell occasionally.

[maxintosh]

I think the most infuriating AutoComplete feature in word by far is AutoList. THIS DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!

Thank you, Apple for not putting these "features" in. I know how to type and correct my own mistakes (if they are indeed mistakes.)

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by TETENAL:
Stuff like that makes you look like a greater moron than when you just misspell occasionally.

No kidding. Like when I mention in my resume that I once played in a masterclass for Richard Goode, and it wants to change Goode to "Good" - gah! And if AutoCorrect were on, it would just do it, without asking first, and without my noticing.

There's a right way and a wrong way to do spell check, folks:

1. The Right Way - underline the word, and offer suggestions, and require my OK before you change it.

2. The Wrong Way - just change the thing without asking me first, because obviously the software is more intelligent than I am and the software developers clearly were able to imagine every single thing that I will ever do with their software.

But this is all ignoring the real issue, which is that when you start typing a new sentence, and it looks like you're trying to write a letter, Pages doesn't make Clippy pop up in your face and ask if you need help. I can't find a setting to turn it on. This is a common function in Word which everyone loves!

[MartiNZ]

It's interesting seeing all of these anti-Word-auto-correct/complete arguments. I'd tend to agree with most of them - especially with correcting spelling and capitalisation: in my experience, either it was intentional, or I know that I made a mistake and am in the process of backspacing when it fixes it, throwing me somewhat.

However, with Word, you can always press command-z right after it has corrected something for you to have it undo, and then it will leave it as you continue - that is one thing I like about its system .

But the Pages way sounds better overall to me; just with some of the other negative comments about Pages around the place are a bit disconcerting. I might have to try it for myself .

[madking]

I mostly use latex to write documents, or just simple text.
However, I just started work in a Windows-centric company and I
have to use everything. One of the thing that most irritates me
are all the auto-whatever stuff. It's trying to be intelligent but
ends up being annoying.

Tried Pages in the Apple store yesterday, on a Mac mini. I am
quite impressed with the quality of the templates. My friend,
who uses MS word all the time, agreed with me that the templates
are much nicer than anything on Word. I wasn't going to get iWork,
but now, I think I will get a copy just to create some fun documents.
Latex can be tedious sometimes.

[jasong]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
But this is all ignoring the real issue, which is that when you start typing a new sentence, and it looks like you're trying to write a letter, Pages doesn't make Clippy pop up in your face and ask if you need help. I can't find a setting to turn it on. This is a common function in Word which everyone loves!

I am laughing so hard right now that I can't even type. I am using Word to write this so it can fix everything for me.

-- Jason

[kcmac]

Originally posted by jasong:
I am laughing so hard right now that I can't even type. I am using Word to write this so it can fix everything for me.

-- Jason

So Word automatically typed that for you? Where do I find that setting? Now it can type my thoughts!

Now if only Pages could do that....

[Millennium]

In other words, you don't want to have to think about what you are writing. Sorry to say it, but I find the absence of these misfeatures to be Pages' greatest strength, not weaknesses. Word has done so much to damage the writing ability of people during its history that it's good to see a word processor which actually encourages thinking about writing without compromising ease of use.

[lavar78]

Originally posted by Millennium:
during its history that it's good

That was beautiful.

[hyperb0le]

Originally posted by Millennium:
In other words, you don't want to have to think about what you are writing. Sorry to say it, but I find the absence of these misfeatures to be Pages' greatest strength, not weaknesses. Word has done so much to damage the writing ability of people during its history that it's good to see a word processor which actually encourages thinking about writing without compromising ease of use.

I agree completely.

[OptimusG4]

Not sure if it was mentioned, but regarding the fonts...is it so hard to open the font panel and show a preview of the fonts so you can see what the font looks like before applying it?

[parsec_kadets]

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
Boy there are sure some applefanboy ignorant responses on here.

If this same product were released by MS or another company it would not even be mentioned on this board because it would be incomplete and could not compare to word.

I don't hate Pages, I don't think it's that great at this time.

Not seeing the font or font size? I think that's annoying. I don't care if you "Know what font you're using" A majority of people probably don't. That's super if you're some super elite genius and don't need it.

For me the Bold Underline and Italic option isn't an issue, i know the commands, but for a company that wants to sell iWork to the general public (PC users in particular with the mm) I think it's a bad idea to assume people know how to do this, it should be accessable easier.

Grammar check on Word is mediocre i don't miss it from iWork.

So you're telling me that that one feature would make you spend $400 if you didn't already have Office and you had to choose between the two? And you're accusing others of being "applefanboys"? Don't get me wrong, your point is a good one. A WYSIWYG font menu is a good thing to have, and having to setup your styles before you can use the program is not very desirable. However, that feature is not something that would make me spend the extra $320 for Office. In fact, none of the complaints I've seen yet, put together, would justify that cost. Especially when you throw in all the little annoyances that come with Office.

And I almost never use the grammar checker in Word. It doesn't know enough nuance to suggest when it would be better to use a semi-colon instead of a comma (for example), and if it did I think you would see a lot more people writing documents that just sounded robotic (not to mention that it would probably become annoying too).

[LeeG]

I would be hard pressed to find ayone who thinks this is meant as a REPLACEMENT for word - instead, I think Apple realized that most people don't need the feature set of word, and pages would be easier for the average person to make nice looking documents. More a replacement for AppleWorks than Word.

But, to sum up (at least for me), hated features of word:
- fractions auto-formatting
- autocapitalization
- auto-list making
- auto format (It seems you are writing a letter...)
- auto spellng correct
- auto 2nd, 3rd, 4th

why can't we just type a document, and spell check it before we send/print it like the good old days? Instead we have to turn off all this auto-crap to do that. The good old days of 5.1...

If I wasn't forced to use word I wouldn't. You think Windows is a monopoly? The office monopoly KILLS me. Because I need to send docs back and forth with people who ONLY use Word, and only understand (using that term lightly) word, I have to generate word docs. I also really need the Endnote integration.

Even if Apple tried to make a word replacement, the Office monopoly would prevent its widespread acceptance. Here's what I'd like to see:

1) Microsoft open the .doc format (yeah right)
2) Apple introduce future versions of Pages that read/write to this format
3) Endnote support cite-as-you write in Pages

Alas, this will never happen.

Also, why do modern mac processors choke on scrolling in Word 2004, when my IIsi could scroll in 5.1 without hiccupping?

Lastly, has anyone figured out how to prevent excel from changing (R) to the registered symbol? Undo won't work, so I have had to leave the R-in-a-circle in some of my spreadsheets...ridiculous.

Lee

[f1000]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
Second. In Word, when you select FONTS at the top of the page, you can see each style as you scroll down. This makes it really east to visualize and select which font you want to choose.

I like this Word feature as well, BUT, I like Apple's Font Book in the Application folder even better.

[MacGorilla]

Green Leaf rises from the dead. memo: Pages isn't meant to be compared to Word.

[MartiNZ]

Originally posted by LeeG:
Lastly, has anyone figured out how to prevent excel from changing (R) to the registered symbol? Undo won't work, so I have had to leave the R-in-a-circle in some of my spreadsheets...ridiculous.

Lee

I've just tried it on Excel 2004. Undo does work for me: type (r) and then press space - it changes to r-in-a-circle, then press cmd-z and carry on.

[Green Leaf]

You are impossible. Just admit that Pages isn't that great. AND you are misunderstanding what the POST was all about.

First, many of you have already agreed that a WYSIWYG font menu is a good thing to have, and having to setup your styles before you can use the program is not very desirable.

Second, I never mentioned auto/spell correcting. If you're going to criticize, read the post and GET IT RIGHT!!!! I said "CAPITALIZE the first letter of the first word in a sentence. With this said, why wouldn't you capitalize the first letter of the beginning of a sentence? I find it hard to believe that it bothers any of you! I find it hard to believe that everyone in this forum is typing business letter, family letter or anything else and doesn't need the first letter capitalized. You learned this in 3rd grade!!!

Third, not everyone uses shortcuts for Bold, Underline...... How can Pages make an impact in the business market or any other market without having this basic feature easily accessible at the top of the screen. yes, it doesn't take long to go find it, but it should be readily available at all times. (did you notice i didn't capitalize 'yes'?)

Fourth, to compete in the Educational market, you will need grammar check and a thesarus. Don't even try to tell me that these aren't important.

Look, i love apple just as much as all of you, but if you settle for 'average' then you'll get an average product. These changes are NEEDED. I want Pages to be used by everyone! And it's missing much needed features now. Stop defending Apple and tell them that these are things we need and want. I know when the next version comes out and these features are put in, then you'll be saying "oh, these are great". But to sit here and give me grief....come on!

[The Oracle]

Green Leaf is the notorious troll Kelly Hogan. Just search for that troll and you'll have all the info you need to make an informed decision about the clone Green Leaf.

[OptimusG4]

So let me get this straight. You have to rely on software to capitalize the first letter of your sentence? In 3rd grade we learned this yes, but we also used pencil/paper. The paper didn't automatically change the first letter of the sentence to its capital, we had to do that ourself. It's not that hard to proof read the paper before printing it out as a final copy to catch mistakes.

[lavar78]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
I said "CAPITALIZE the first letter of the first word in a sentence. With this said, why wouldn't you capitalize the first letter of the beginning of a sentence? I find it hard to believe that it bothers any of you!

iWork is currently made up of Pages and Keynote.

Iwork? What's that?

[Green Leaf]

I don't rely on that feature, but a basic word editor (which is what Pages is) should have it.

Apple is great at making things easier. Being able to make text bold, or alligning text type features should be built in at the top of the page so that you don't have to open any other tabs or windows. The features we use on a daily basis should be easily accessible.

That's my point! Apple dropped the ball on this one.

I know if Microsoft forced you to open other windows to do these basic features, you ALL would be complaining....but since its Apple, you get defensive.

After reading these posts, i think i should invest in ChapStick because you guys are smooching the big one!

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
I don't rely on that feature, but a basic word editor (which is what Pages is) should have it.

Apple is great at making things easier. Being able to make text bold, or alligning text type features should be built in at the top of the page so that you don't have to open any other tabs or windows. The features we use on a daily basis should be easily accessible.

That's my point! Apple dropped the ball on this one.

I know if Microsoft forced you to open other windows to do these basic features, you ALL would be complaining....but since its Apple, you get defensive.

After reading these posts, i think i should invest in ChapStick because you guys are smooching the big one!

Better than sucking the big one, eh kelly Hogan?

[Green Leaf]

I honestly don't know who Kelly Hogan is.
Anyway, i mentioned smooching, but you went straight to sucking. Something you want to tell us?

Free thinkers lead this world, not followers like u.

[Chuckit]

Pages ought to do all of its processing on the GPU. It can divide the text up into 128 x 128 matrices of letters and send it to the graphics card for spell checking. This would speed things up immensely, and is completely technically possible. I can't believe those morons at Apple would intentionally cripple Pages like this!

[mrmister]

"Apple dropped the ball on this one."

Obviously they didn't "drop the ball"...they made a choice. We can all debate whether the choice made sense, but obviously they didn't just forget autocapitalization...they choose not to implement that.

[Hi I'm Ben]

Originally posted by lavar78:
iWork is currently made up of Pages and Keynote.

Iwork? What's that?

Being a critical idiot is annoying.

[lavar78]

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
Being a critical idiot is annoying.

I wasn't being a critical idiot. I was giving him an example where you wouldn't want to capitalize the first letter of a sentence. That's why I quoted what I did. Sorry that wasn't as clear as I thought. I debated making the "i" bold, but I figured it'd be too hard to see.

Haven't you seen articles where sentences start with things like "Iphoto"? That's probably this "feature" at work.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
I honestly don't know who Kelly Hogan is.

Kelly Hogan was a troll on these boards quite some time ago (I think it's been two years). This was his original alias -yes, he was male- but he has posted under several others.

I believe you, by the way. Most trolls have a unique writing style that they can't mask very well, so it's easy to spot them when they switch aliases. This doesn't necessarily mean that their writing style is any good -though it sometimes is- just very predictable. In any case, I don't feel Kelly in your writing style.

Free thinkings lead this world, not followers like u.

Just be careful: who is the freethinker, and who is the follower? Are we slavishly devoted to Apple, hanging onto their every product, or are you the one devoted to an archaic interface paradigm that has led you to think about how your writing looks more than about how well-done it is and what it means?

For the record, I have long wanted someone to build a word processor like this. Some, like Nisus Writer, have come close by not using toolbars (though they still used keyboard shortcuts), and of course there's the old standby of LyX, which really goes whole-hog but doesn't have a good interface to match. Pages is merely the next logical step for me: semantic word processing, a good interface, and a company behind it which has some actual teeth.

Anyway, I don't have Pages, and I don't intend on getting it yet, because iWork doesn't have many of the tools I need. That doesn't mean, however, that I can't recognize a good product when I see one.

[leperkuhn]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
I sat down with Pages and tried to create a simple newsleter to some students I have.

Here are my complaints. I believe they are valid.

First. When you start typing a new sentence, if by chance you don't capitalize the first letter of the first word, Pages doesn't capitalize them for you. I can't find a setting to turn it on. This is a common function in Word which everyone loves.

Second. In Word, when you select FONTS at the top of the page, you can see each style as you scroll down. This makes it really east to visualize and select which font you want to choose. In Pages, I have to click on each type of font to then be able to see its style. Again, another great feature which exists in Word, and is lacking in Pages.

Third. Why is there no easily accessible button for Bold, Italicize, or Underlining? These features we all use daily, but to get them, i have to open a separate menu for Fonts. These should always be accessible directly at the top of the screen. Some of you would say that i just need to keep the Fonts tab open, but i don't have room on my screen to keep it open at all times.

Also, why is there no THESARUS OR GRAMMAR CHECKER? This is a 'word' drafting application, right? If there is one, why isn't the button easily accessible on the top of the screen? Why is everything hidden in a separate cluttered tab?

Why can't i customize the top menu bar? I for one would put these items at the top of ym screen. For those who don't want them, you wouldn't have to. Still, the option should be the consumer! CUSTOMIZATION IS KEY!

Not everything is negative. I really like the THEMES. Although, i'm sure the evil empire of Microsoft will steal this from Apple soon enough.

Guess it depends how you use it. I like the speed of pages, easy PDF export, and the way it does lists.

I like.. umm.. how in word it shows the fonts. That's it.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
You are impossible. Just admit that Pages isn't that great.

What? Just because you postulated it?! Just because you think this doesn't mean anyone is obligated to agree with you. And frankly, if you want to condemn Pages as an app, you're going to need to find better arguments than these.

First, many of you have already agreed that a WYSIWYG font menu is a good thing to have, and having to setup your styles before you can use the program is not very desirable.

Yeah, and this is your only valid point. As others have already mentioned.

Second, I never mentioned auto/spell correcting. If you're going to criticize, read the post and GET IT RIGHT!!!! I said "CAPITALIZE the first letter of the first word in a sentence. With this said, why wouldn't you capitalize the first letter of the beginning of a sentence? I find it hard to believe that it bothers any of you! I find it hard to believe that everyone in this forum is typing business letter, family letter or anything else and doesn't need the first letter capitalized. You learned this in 3rd grade!!!

Okay:

1. You aren't always typing a business letter or a family letter. Sometimes you are doing something more out of the ordinary, or less formal, and you don't want the opening capital letter.

2. Others have already pointed out that some proper nouns can start with a lower case letter (such as iMac, or certain members' screen names on forums such as MacNN). If you want to start a sentence with one of these, you need to lose the opening capital letter.

3. In some situations (such as typing class notes on a laptop) you want to use a lot of abbreviations. Abbreviations, as you know, often end with a period. If the abbreviation isn't one that Word already knows (like etc. or something common), it interprets that as the end of a sentence and capitalizes the next word. Not nice.

4. It is just poor design to make decisions for the user and "correct" the user without permission, because this is assuming that the software is smarter than the user. This is not the case, and the user may have a different task in mind that the designers of the software did not foresee.

Third, not everyone uses shortcuts for Bold, Underline...... How can Pages make an impact in the business market or any other market without having this basic feature easily accessible at the top of the screen. yes, it doesn't take long to go find it, but it should be readily available at all times. (did you notice i didn't capitalize 'yes'?)

Do you really use the mouse to use Bold, Italic, or Underline? ⌘-B, ⌘-I, and ⌘-U are much more efficient. The buttons are basically a waste of space. And this is coming from a guy who does prefer to use the mouse in many situations.

Fourth, to compete in the Educational market, you will need grammar check and a thesarus. Don't even try to tell me that these aren't important.

Word's grammar check is a PITA. It marks so many things that aren't even wrong (like using the passive voice - funny, I wasn't aware that there was a rule NEVER to EVER use it, just not to overdo it) that you quickly start to ignore it. Especially if you are red/green colorblind like me and can't tell if the underlines are red or green so you would know if it was a misspelling or not. It's annoying. I always turn it off.

As for the thesaurus:

http://www.m-w.com/
http://www.thesaurus.com/
http://www.bartleby.com/62/

[Green Leaf]

Yes, i understand that "iMac" shouldn't be capitalized.....But we should still have the OPTION to turn this feature on or off. A feature that doesn't exist at the moment. Options Option Options.

You also helped me prove my second point. Pages (a word document program) doesn't come with a THESARUS. That's messed up. Seriously, think about it!

Why should i have to download a separate program to use a thesarus?? Again, this should be part of the the program.

You are all in DENIAL. In case you couldnt find a synonym for DENIAL using Pages, here are a few:

abnegation, abstaining, adjuration, brush-off, cold shoulder, contradiction, controversion, declination, disallowance, disapproval, disavowal, disclaimer, dismissal, dismissing, disproof, dissent, forswearing, gainsaying, nay, negation, negative, nix, no, nonacceptance, prohibition, protestation, rebuff, rebuttal, refraining, refusing, refutal, refutation, rejecting, rejection, renege, renouncement, renunciation, repudiating, repudiation, repulse, retraction, turndown, veto

WOW, these would be helpful when writing a paper. Common sense (which you lack) tells me that people might want to use 'different' words and their computer writing program should be able to suggest some. YES AS A BUILT IN FEATURE!!!!!!

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:
You are impossible. Just admit that Pages isn't that great.

Actually, I think it's the best thing to happen to a word processor since the GUI. In fact, I think it's even better, since it stands to undo the damage wrought by Word.

...and having to setup your styles before you can use the program is not very desirable.

Before you can use it? Why? You can easily start with the defaults and then change then whenever you want. The whole point of styles is that when you change a style it affects everything which has that style, so you don't have to go back and redo formatting on text from before that change was made.

I find it hard to believe that everyone in this forum is typing business letter, family letter or anything else and doesn't need the first letter capitalized. You learned this in 3rd grade!!!

It's called the Shift key. Are you really so lazy that you can't perform one lousy keystroke? As for not wanting to capitalize the first letters in sentences or proper names, you're going to curse that feature if you ever need to write about e. e. cummings, who never capitalized his name.

Third, not everyone uses shortcuts for Bold, Underline......

Because they've beentaught to think this way by a damaging paradigm that forces them to think about what things look like, rather than what they mean. It's time to undo that damage. Define meaning, and let the formatting take care of itself.

yes, it doesn't take long to go find it, but it should be readily available at all times. (did you notice i didn't capitalize 'yes'?)

Yes, I noticed that you're too lazy to hit the Shift key or proofread your own writing.

Fourth, to compete in the Educational market, you will need grammar check and a thesarus. Don't even try to tell me that these aren't important.

It's the educational market. You know, where they're supposed to be teaching the students to write correctly and look up synonyms for themselves? This is the best thing to happen to the educational market in ages, as far as that goes.

Look, i love apple just as much as all of you...

'Love' Apple? Quite the contrary; I may be a fan of their products, but I've never held any love for Apple the company. They just happen to be the ones to have finally introduced a word processor which is easy to use while not dumbing down the writing process.

These changes are NEEDED.

Not only are they not needed, they're not wanted. Let me spell this out for you: I do not yet use Pages, and if they add these features in then I will not use it in the future. I want a program thatis easy to use, but I do not want a program that does my thinking for me, and I hold those who do in no small contempt.

I want Pages to be used by everyone!

So do I, because then people will think about writing again.

[Ganesha]

Originally posted by Green Leaf:

Why should i have to download a separate program to use a thesarus?? Again, this should be part of the the program.

Because the Thesaurus functionality is already provided via Sherlock in (10.3), and is moving to a dashboard widget in 10.4...