Pages iPad vs MAC issues

[Evan2]

Has anyone else experienced issues when opening a Pages doc created on the iPad with your MAC?

And I'm not talking the lack of compatibility for the fonts, merged cells, bullet points, etc. More like a messed up document, tables being on new pages, blank pages added at the end with parts of your document on them, etc.

Very annoying!

 

[twerppoet]

No, but I've only done it a few times. If you have any specific examples of what not to do on the iPad to avoid problems on the Mac, I'd love to hear them.

I did it once the other way around with the Story Board template, and while it wasn't perfect it was better than I expected.

 

[Evan2]

One suggestion

Specific examples? Plenty, but I don't have that kind of time. I've toyed around quite a bit with both Pages versions - certainly not as intuitive as what we've been used to on MAC computers.

One huge help I've found out about in the last 2 days: make use of the Show Invisible option in Pages desktop. That won't explain why your doc is perfect on the Pad and not so on the laptop, but that will help re-organizing the doc quickly.

 

[twerppoet]

Thank you. I suppose we should be used to it. I've never seen 100% cross platform compatibility (though PDF comes closest).

It is easy to forget that iOS is a different platform, though I am surprised that compatibility is not better than it is. All of Apple's iOS apps are due for updates, and I keep hoping to hear about them with each new announcement.

 

[Macette]

Pages for mac or Pages for iPad

I was thinking about getting Pages for my iPad 2, it looks like great fun. But I don't have it on the Mac, to transfer files to for printing. So I was wondering would it be wiser to just buy it for the Mac, I know it cost about double for Mac,can anyone tell me what extra is on the Mac version. I really don't want to buy it twice really because I don't need it and I don't know how much I would use it. I don't have a word processing app on the Mac as yet, and I'm torn because Pages looks really good for iPad. Any input much appreciated .

 

[twerppoet]

As long you don't need to be importing/exporting documents to MS Office all the time, either will do fine. On the computer you'll have a far more powerful app than you'll get on the iPad, but it will also be more expensive. On the iPad you'll have portability, but printing the document will require an extra hoop or two to jump through. Not a big deal once you find the method that works best for you.

Page's strength is that it is half layout and half word-processor. It's very easy to set up posters and other non-traditional page layouts; and the desktop version comes with a lot of templates. It's weakness is that it is not Microsoft Word, and therefore not 100% compatible. No mobile app is, but depending on what features you use some are a bit better than Pages.

If you don't see yourself needing a mobile word processor you are probably better off with the full version on the Mac. Even if you need to do a bit of typing on the iPad later. As long as you don't' need to create the whole document on the iPad, layout and all, you can aways use a cheaper text editor on the iPad and copy the text to the Mac later.

If you do need a mobile word-processor, then for start to finish document creation the iPad you won't find a better solution than Pages. My biased opinion, of course. YMMV

If you are looking for a free yet powerful word processor for you Mac, look for either OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Either of these is close to being on par with the MS Office suite for power and are as about as compatible as the mobile apps; which is to say you generally have to re-tweak the documents after importing them. Moving files back and forth between these apps and Page is about the same as from Office, which is to say simple text mostly documents will work without much fuss, but complicated or media rich documents will probably need to be 'fixed' afterwards.

 

[Macette]

As long you don't need to be importing/exporting documents to MS Office all the time, either will do fine. On the computer you'll have a far more powerful app than you'll get on the iPad, but it will also be more expensive. On the iPad you'll have portability, but printing the document will require an extra hoop or two to jump through. Not a big deal once you find the method that works best for you.

Page's strength is that it is half layout and half word-processor. It's very easy to set up posters and other non-traditional page layouts; and the desktop version comes with a lot of templates. It's weakness is that it is not Microsoft Word, and therefore not 100% compatible. No mobile app is, but depending on what features you use some are a bit better than Pages.

If you don't see yourself needing a mobile word processor you are probably better off with the full version on the Mac. Even if you need to do a bit of typing on the iPad later. As long as you don't' need to create the whole document on the iPad, layout and all, you can aways use a cheaper text editor on the iPad and copy the text to the Mac later.

If you do need a mobile word-processor, then for start to finish document creation the iPad you won't find a better solution than Pages. My biased opinion, of course. YMMV

If you are looking for a free yet powerful word processor for you Mac, look for either OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Either of these is close to being on par with the MS Office suite for power and are as about as compatible as the mobile apps; which is to say you generally have to re-tweak the documents after importing them. Moving files back and forth between these apps and Page is about the same as from Office, which is to say simple text mostly documents will work without much fuss, but complicated or media rich documents will probably need to be 'fixed' afterwards.

Great information thank you.. I have put the iWork free trial on the mac to check it out and see how it works. I would only buy Pages only for mac if any. If I was to put OpenOffice on the mac and I bought Pages for iPad is it possible to send stuff from iPad to mac for printing. :/ Is any of the free word pro apps for mac compatible with Pages on iPad . I really would enjoy Pages on iPad seeing as I would only be using it for enjoyment and not business, but it would be great if I could send any creative work I managed to do , to the Mac to print . Still need advice plzzzzz.

 

[twerppoet]

There are several methods to print from the iPad. Importing the document to another word-processor would be about the most inconvenient. The easiest, and cheapest, would be to simply email the document to your computer as a PDF, and print that. I'll paste my usual spiel about printing below. About the only method that I don't recommend for use with pages is the part about using a third party app; though if you mail yourself the PDF and then open it on the iPad, that would also probably work (depending on the app)


--------------------

Some printers are directly compatible with AirPrint on the iPad. Be absolutely certain the printer supports AirPrint before buying. Some printers may require a firmware update to work. These are usually available on the manufacturers site. If you get this kind of printer you can print directly from within apps that support the feature, which is many.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4356

Of course some of us already have printers and do not want to buy a new one. There are several ways to do this.

One is to use a printing app on the iPad.

Most (or all) other print apps can only print pictures and/or files that have been copied to that app via Open In or other method. Print n Share used to be able to print from AirPrint enabled apps if it was loaded the background. It lost this ability with iOS 5. It may still work with iOS 4 if you get it before the app is updated in the App Store. Several printer manufacturers have their own apps for their printers. In general those apps will probably have the best results, quality wise.

The second method is to load a program on the computer that will emulate an AirPrint compatible printer. Your computer must be on and have the printer available to it. The cheapest (free) is Airprint Activator. More features can be had with FingerPrint (mac and windows) and Printopia (mac only).

There is a third way. A few printers (mostly HP's again) can be set up with their own email address. PDF attachments can be sent via this address to be printed. The last review I saw (several months ago) said it could be quite slow (big files not recommended), and sometimes the emails got lost and never printed. The advantage was that you could literally send/print from anywhere you have an internet connection.

There is a new wrinkle for small business owners and those with more than one printer who would like all their printers to work, but don't want to leave a computer on all the time. The Lantronix XPrintServer is a small box that connects to your network and is supposed to detect and make all your wireless printers available to iOS as AirPrint printers. I haven't seen a full review on it yet, so do your research.

 

[v2real4u]

Can someone explain to me what jailbreak is I see a lot oboist with people mentioning it ?

 

[twerppoet]

Can someone explain to me what jailbreak is I see a lot oboist with people mentioning it ?

Go to the Hacking area on the forum and read the sticky posts. These will either be highlighted in blue at the top of the list of threads (on the web site), or have a separate tab at the top left (on the app).

 

[Macette]

There are several methods to print from the iPad. Importing the document to another word-processor would be about the most inconvenient. The easiest, and cheapest, would be to simply email the document to your computer as a PDF, and print that. I'll paste my usual spiel about printing below. About the only method that I don't recommend for use with pages is the part about using a third party app; though if you mail yourself the PDF and then open it on the iPad, that would also probably work (depending on the app)

--------------------

Some printers are directly compatible with AirPrint on the iPad. Be absolutely certain the printer supports AirPrint before buying. Some printers may require a firmware update to work. These are usually available on the manufacturers site. If you get this kind of printer you can print directly from within apps that support the feature, which is many.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4356

Of course some of us already have printers and do not want to buy a new one. There are several ways to do this.

One is to use a printing app on the iPad.

Most (or all) other print apps can only print pictures and/or files that have been copied to that app via Open In or other method. Print n Share used to be able to print from AirPrint enabled apps if it was loaded the background. It lost this ability with iOS 5. It may still work with iOS 4 if you get it before the app is updated in the App Store. Several printer manufacturers have their own apps for their printers. In general those apps will probably have the best results, quality wise.

The second method is to load a program on the computer that will emulate an AirPrint compatible printer. Your computer must be on and have the printer available to it. The cheapest (free) is Airprint Activator. More features can be had with FingerPrint (mac and windows) and Printopia (mac only).

There is a third way. A few printers (mostly HP's again) can be set up with their own email address. PDF attachments can be sent via this address to be printed. The last review I saw (several months ago) said it could be quite slow (big files not recommended), and sometimes the emails got lost and never printed. The advantage was that you could literally send/print from anywhere you have an internet connection.

There is a new wrinkle for small business owners and those with more than one printer who would like all their printers to work, but don't want to leave a computer on all the time. The Lantronix XPrintServer is a small box that connects to your network and is supposed to detect and make all your wireless printers available to iOS as AirPrint printers. I haven't seen a full review on it yet, so do your research.

Thank you very much for all the information. I will take time to think about which device to put pages on.. Thanks for taking the time to explain, much appreciated .

 

[twerppoet]

No problem.