Question about Pages for Mac

I am currently using Pages '09 for Mac. Version 4.3. This is the one that works with OSX Mountain Lion. I never upgraded to Mavericks (and never will) but am considering upgrading to Yosemite, just so I don't fall too far behind.

Has anybody used the newer version of Pages? Currently 5.52? The one that works with Yosemite?

I was just looking at a tutorial for it, and feeling really really downhearted. Not only have they changed the interface to where I'll need to re-learn the damn thing (reinvent the wheel AGAIN), and added tons of new features I'll never use ...BUT it seems they've removed one of the features that is very important to me. Or rather, they've added a feature that is going to have a huge negative impact on how I write.

When I'm editing, I play around with changes. I often revert back to an earlier way of saying something, etc. In other words, I save my changes WHEN I AM READY TO. However, I understand this new version of Pages now 'automatically saves changes.' So that means, if I change a sentence, then want to change it back to what it was before, I'll have to remember the original version, because it will automatically have 'saved' the experimental stage.

Damn Damn Damn Damn Damn. This is really going to screw me up.

I guess what I'm asking, is there any way to disable this function?

I understand this also happens in Scrivener, which is one of the main reasons I've never adopted it. Shit. Just shit. I really think it's about time these developers give users some credit for thinking for themselves. I am perfectly capable of saving my work. In fact, the programme already asks me to confirm that I want to save the new version before I close the document. So why is that not enough? Or at the very least, offer the user the chance to disable the function? Next thing, they'll be forcing us to use auto-correct.

My god. I want to go back to a simple life. Back when I could happily write on my computer, save and organise things as it suits me, and then back up onto devices that suit me at the rate it suits me.

Grrrr. I'm not a Luddite by any means. I just resent being constantly forced to adapt to changes that don't improve my life, and actually make things more difficult or impossible to do.

Just looked up Pages Versions timetable on Wikipedia and discovered this:

Many advanced features that were available in version 4.3, including mail merge, bookmarks, text box linking, advanced find/replace, alternating left-right margins (along with alternating left-right headers and footers), 2-up "page spread" viewing, non-contiguous text selection, and robust Applescript support were not included in version 5. Also, many of the templates available in version 4.3 have been removed in version 5.

I use all of these italicized things. This is very very upsetting. What are they thinking of???

 

Mavericks came first and then Yosemite. Have you mentioned the order correctly that you wish to upgrade? Mavericks was a solid, very stable, Mac OS. I loved it. Everything a Mac aficionado expects out of a Mac OS.

Yosemite, however...

 

To be honest, I'm perfectly happy with Mountain Lion and my present form of Pages. I don't see any reason to upgrade at all. However, I know what happens when you fall behind. There isn't any point in upgrading to Mavericks, because that has already been abandoned—however good it might have been. (And I've heard some horror stories from Apple friends of mine about Mavericks as well.) No I don't want Yosemite, but I'm afraid Apple users will be stuck with it till they come up with something else. Kind of like Windows Users got stuck with Windows 8, which everybody hated.

I bought my computer brand new back in September 2013, from the Apple store in Glasgow ...which makes it only a year and a half old. Since then, there have been two major upgrades of the operating system. I mean, when is this going to end? I'm so fed up with change for change's sake. I feel like I never do anything that's really new, but have to constantly reinvent the wheel just so I can keep moving.

As for Pages. Surely a wordprocessing system is basic, and doesn't need constant redesign. I mean, a violin is a violin, isn't it? Maybe the 2015 Violin should have three strings instead of four, but in case traditional stuck-in-the-mud violinists object, we'll tack a percussion section onto the back of it. New is Good. Right?

 

New is good for the people selling New. You could switch to Windows, which isn't updated as often, but every other upgrade sucks hose.

You might also consider free, open source options if they're avalaible for Mac. Upgrades tend not to be as dramatic, since they aren't trying to get you to buy the new version.

 

BTW, Jan, Scrivener does allow you to turn this function off. You can also chose when it saves back-ups. But... when it's on, Scrivener keeps a given number of older version that you set.



Here you can see the last five versions of each of my WIPs. So if I were to make some changes during a writing session and then decided I was having a rubbish writing day and I didn't want any of what I had written that day, I just revert to the last backup, which is the WIP as it was when I opened it on this hypothetical, ill-begun, rubbish writing day.

 

Oh, that is SO helpful, @Wreybies! So if I want to, I can just untick the 'turn on automatic backups' and that means nothing will be saved until I choose to save it? That's exactly what I'm looking for. This is very heartening. I'm starting to warm to Scrivener again. That was one of the issues that put me off. I bought a large manual for Scrivener, but it was awfully complicated, and I couldn't find an answer to that particular question, and at the time I didn't need it. Pages does what I want it to do at the moment. But now it appears they've made big, and for me unwelcome, changes in the new version of Pages. So I'm definitely in the market for Scrivener.

Just out of curiosity, have you upgraded to Yosemite yet? Many of the complaints about Yosemite that I read about came from people who tried the beta version when it first came out ...I think back in October. It was full of glitches, many of which have apparently been fixed before its official launch (whenever that was.) The main complaint I've heard about the official version (from MacFormat magazine) concerns the brightness of the screen. It's apparently quite uncomfortable to work with on a large Mac screen. The writer of the article did say there were ways to mitigate this problem, but I do hope they work this into any upgrades they offer. I'm not quite ready to upgrade, so I'll wait a bit. I'm considering buying a laptop (Macbook Air) to supplement my desktop—and that would come with Yosemite. Sometimes it would be nice to just sit on my bed and work.

 

Yes, unfortunately I did.

The issues I have with Yosemite are two, and these may seem like laughable nit-picks to people using older computers out of frugality, but those people are not me and I am not them. I am, and have been, a fan of Job's Era Mac computers for one simple reason. Reliability. A Mac always works. It never has a bad day. It never has a "hang-over". It never, ever, ever, ever even gets the sniffles. Never. Period. End of. It never gets "hung up", which is a situation were the processor gets tied up in some calculation and everything stalls for a few seconds and then catches back up and all is well if you just leave it alone for a minute. No. Not even that. A Mac computer is ever ready, ever faithful, Starship Enterprise beautiful, and as stalwart and unfailing as Geordi Laforge, who was patently overlooked and deserved higher rank than he had while all the other senior officers where constantly falling to the foibles and caprices of their groins .

That is what a Mac is to me. And that is not what Yosemite offers me. Yosemite feels like a Windows OS. (This is problem #2) It has given in to the gauche gaudiness of "candy glass" edges and little animated tricks for every little function that have slowed the machine down (which is problem #1). The little spinning rainbow-ball that is equivalent to the spinning hourglass on PC's, that was once so rare to be seen one could think of it as a unicorn, is now as common as a goat. It feels cobbled together and hastily made. It feels unprofessional.

Steve Jobs would never have allowed this OS to be released. Ever. People can hate him for the tyrannical martinet and perfectionist that he no doubt was, but I don't I care. I don't care one iota. I could not not be paid to care. His product was always science fiction perfect. Anyone who tried out a "Mac" during the years of his exile did not, in fact, own a "Mac". They owned a vile abomination birthed of the putrid conjugation of leprous, syphilitic usurpers. Those machines are no more Macs than a "Harley" from the AMF years of '73-'76 is a real Harley.

</rant>

Goodness, who knew once I started typing that all that was in there.

Anyway, my machine hasn't crashed or died or anything fatal like that. It just seems like Yosemite will be the starting point of a trend where the reason I have been a faithful patron of the brand will fade away and Macs will eventually just be like any other computer, giving in to the flavor of the month trends and silly gimmicks and - worst of all - planned obsolescence. The kind of customer who I happen to be, will be left out in the rain. I am willing to pay more for a product that meets my standards, but this product doesn't seem to be on the horizon anymore.

BTW, my newest Macbook Pro (laptop) is the same age as your computer, so we're working with similar hardware specs, you and I. My iMac and Mac mini are from 2011.

 

Oh, I've already almost reached that point myself. I feel that users like myself and probably you to a large extent are no longer being serviced very well. Sometimes I think we're actually being laughed at. Silly old codgers. Want to write books? When you could be arsing around finding different ways to communicate with your friends and buying stuff via iPhones, pads, watches and glasses? And being told every minute of the day where you are, and what you are doing? Well, guess what, old fuddy-duddy, your days are numbered.

It was interesting to read a wee article in MacFormat a while back, written by the editor. I have thrown the magazine away (after keeping all the tips, etc) so I can't quote from it. But basically, he said he likes having a Mac and can't imagine using any other system BUT ...he doesn't love his new Macs the way he used to love the older ones. It's just a tool, that he needs to get by, but it no longer feels like a friend.

I know that probably sounds silly, but it's not. The Steve I miss is Steve Wozniak, and for me Apple lost a great deal when he left. He was the bridge between the device and the user. He designed the Classic interface, which for me is still the one I'd go back to in a second if I could. He's the one who made me want to buy Macs.

I remember when my husband and I used to read MacFormat (back in the 90s) and dream about buying the latest Mac and getting the latest Mac upgrades. Now we groan every time one of them comes out. Not because we fear change, but because we've learned that the changes don't benefit us the way they used to. Now they just make things more difficult and less pleasant. And WAY WAY WAY more complicated than they need to be. Who'd have thought Apple would end up copying the Windows interface? But they have, to a large extent. Maybe to make Windows users feel more at home, but ....Geez.

With Wozniak at the interface, what we got was a friendly, easy to figure out computer system. With powerful features under the hood. But they were under the hood. The necessary stuff was right there, easy to access and easy to figure out. Apple also wrote great manuals that came with each machine, in case you needed them. Telling you in easy to follow steps how to set up, run your machine, and learn the fancy stuff after you had mastered the basics. Occasionally I did refer to the manuals, but most of the time I was able to figure things out for myself. Now they don't make decent manuals any more, and I REALLY need them.

It's as if they've turned everything that used to be good about Apple on its head. And that started happening long before Steve Jobs left the scene. Mac products became tools for consuming, not tools for creating. And I'm sorry, that's the way they're still headed.

The only good thing is, as you say, they are good machines. When that goes ...phhtt...