On 1/1/07 5:31 AM, in article 311220061831518822%
[email protected], "Elliott
I'm with Barry when it comes to mailing newsletter stuff. The world and
his dog has a PDF reader. It is so easy to make excellent PDFs on a
Mac, it leaves you with a no-brain decision.
<snip>
I agree. PCs simply can't open/convert Pages files, and Mac owners aren't
guaranteed to have Pages (and even then, Pages files are large).
My wife uses Pages for an electronic magazine she writes. I have to say
that although Pages is *very* attractive when you first look at it, in
working practice it has some severe weaknesses that consume great wads of
time and irritate intensely. I find it surprising that Apple has left them
in place three years after its release.
More relevant to the original poster, saving to PDF will *sometimes* produce
images -- when printed, not on screen -- that look as though someone has
smeared a kerosene [UK: paraffin]-soaked rag across them. Not quite the
effect that one needs (and not confined to just a few users, as shown on
Apple's "Help" webpages). If I remember rightly, using Adobe Acrobat
reduces, but does not eliminate, this problem.
There are additional problems for non-US users (e.g. with footers, because
Pages relies on modification of templates) when the page size is modified
from US letter to A4. Some templates are less prone to problems than others;
the message is, once you have arrived at a look that you like, don't use
features from other templates.
Having said that, Pages is undoubtedly easy-to-use software for occasional
use if you can accept the shortcomings that manifest themselves when you
start to become semi-expert with it, and providing you test pdf'd Pages
files by printing out.
Just don't fall *too* deeply in love with it. As with all painted hussies,
there can be serious disappointment after a while...
Finally: Pages, like more expensive page layout applications, works most
consistently and quickly by importing text formatted with styles (i.e., not
manual formatting) from a word processor. As a word processor itself, it
may satisfy people who essentially just want a typewriter, but it has
minimal user configurability (e.g. by keyboard shortcuts) and, according to
my friends who are Appleworks users, [far?] lower capability than Appleworks
did (and no spreadsheet).
Cheers,
Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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