Pages is good!
I'm typing this because I'm avoiding work.
A while ago, I posted an entry bitching about my inability to type "Žižek" properly in Word for Mac X and asking if there were any alternatives - indeed, if it was even possible to type it properly. I received a bunch of very helpful comments, all of which pointed to the ultimate answer: Word for Mac X can't do it. Nope, not at all. Weird, no? It can do a whole lot of other things! Any way, I then started investigating alternatives to Word, and Pages (part of Mac's iWork '06 suite) came up.
When I first bought the Mac, it came with a free trial version of iWork '05, which I was forced to use since the stupid trial version of Word for Mac 2004 wouldn't let me do anything (couldn't save, print, or access 80% of the features). Until laughingwoman was awesome enough to send me a copy of Word for Mac X, I had to get used to using the Pages trial (which allowed me full access but became inaccessible after 30 days). This program did everything. It looked pretty. It was friendly. It never crashed. I would've just bought the iWork '05 suite once the trial expired, but I assumed that it would cost hundreds of dollars like the (legal) version of Word does. So I started using the Word for Mac X and forgot about Pages.
Any way, the point is that Word for Mac X's dislike of Unicode eventually forced me to buy iWork '06, and it is awesome. It has the same disposition as the '05 suite, but more features. Yes, I bought it legally (holy god - I haven't done that in many, many years), and yes it cost me $89 (not cheap, but certainly not the hundreds of dollars I thought it would cost), and it's worth every single freaking penny. I love this word processor, and I don't think I've ever loved a word processing program before.
Look at how sexy its 'comments' feature looks!
I commented-up a dummy file (my lecture notes for the lecture I gave to the schmoopies on silent cinema and signification last term) just to test out the feature. Man, I wish I'd had this program when I was editing the files for UBCinephile (and yes, it exports files into Windows-friendly Word format if so instructed), and fuck, when I was designing UBCinephile. The issue looks good, but I could've made it look a lot better if I were using this program.
I haven't used its PowerPoint-esque companion (Keynote) yet - and I doubt that I ever will - but I saw it in action yesterday when Vickie gave her seminar on M. Butterfly and it looked great.
Any way, point is: if you have a Mac and are unhappy with your current word processing/publishing program, buy iWork '06.
- JJJJS
A while ago, I posted an entry bitching about my inability to type "Žižek" properly in Word for Mac X and asking if there were any alternatives - indeed, if it was even possible to type it properly. I received a bunch of very helpful comments, all of which pointed to the ultimate answer: Word for Mac X can't do it. Nope, not at all. Weird, no? It can do a whole lot of other things! Any way, I then started investigating alternatives to Word, and Pages (part of Mac's iWork '06 suite) came up.
When I first bought the Mac, it came with a free trial version of iWork '05, which I was forced to use since the stupid trial version of Word for Mac 2004 wouldn't let me do anything (couldn't save, print, or access 80% of the features). Until laughingwoman was awesome enough to send me a copy of Word for Mac X, I had to get used to using the Pages trial (which allowed me full access but became inaccessible after 30 days). This program did everything. It looked pretty. It was friendly. It never crashed. I would've just bought the iWork '05 suite once the trial expired, but I assumed that it would cost hundreds of dollars like the (legal) version of Word does. So I started using the Word for Mac X and forgot about Pages.
Any way, the point is that Word for Mac X's dislike of Unicode eventually forced me to buy iWork '06, and it is awesome. It has the same disposition as the '05 suite, but more features. Yes, I bought it legally (holy god - I haven't done that in many, many years), and yes it cost me $89 (not cheap, but certainly not the hundreds of dollars I thought it would cost), and it's worth every single freaking penny. I love this word processor, and I don't think I've ever loved a word processing program before.
Look at how sexy its 'comments' feature looks!
I commented-up a dummy file (my lecture notes for the lecture I gave to the schmoopies on silent cinema and signification last term) just to test out the feature. Man, I wish I'd had this program when I was editing the files for UBCinephile (and yes, it exports files into Windows-friendly Word format if so instructed), and fuck, when I was designing UBCinephile. The issue looks good, but I could've made it look a lot better if I were using this program.
I haven't used its PowerPoint-esque companion (Keynote) yet - and I doubt that I ever will - but I saw it in action yesterday when Vickie gave her seminar on M. Butterfly and it looked great.
Any way, point is: if you have a Mac and are unhappy with your current word processing/publishing program, buy iWork '06.
- JJJJS