Pages v Word

I use Apple’s Pages word processor a lot at home when I’m working on my laptop. At work (or at home when I’m at my PC) I use Microsoft Word. Apple are great at many things but Pages isn’t their best work. When compared to Word its flaws and weaknesses are many and varied. Here are the ones that most annoy me:

• Adding hyperlinks is easy in Word - hit Ctrl-k and paste in the link - but a chore in Pages. There doesn’t appear to be a keyboard shortcut and, when you find the dialogue, you have to first delete the pre-inserted link (livepage.apple.com) before you can add your own. It’s worse if you want to add a second link, by which time the dialogue is probably already open and your workflow (highlight text, check Enable as a hyperlink, highlight default URL, replace with target) is even more complicated. 
• Many people are very rude about Microsoft’s Ribbon but it’s clear, when switching between the two programs, that it is a lot easier to find the commands you want to use in Word. 
• Text formatting keyboard shortcuts are the same in both programs, which makes life easier, but if you want to use an unusual format, like Strikethrough, you have to open the Styles Drawer or pull it from a tiny drop-down menu labelled “a” - not immediately obvious. 
• And speaking of styles, the range in Pages isn’t very good. Word’s large, friendly icons and readily navigable ribbons make it easy to find the commands you need, even if you’ve spent years acclimatising to Microsoft’s menus. 
• Styling in Word is also blindingly easy. Pages has only 8 text styles and they’re slightly hidden; Word has dozens (although you probably don’t need all that Word offers) and creating new ones is very straightforward. 

There are some features that I like in Pages:

• Full screen editing, which is built into Mac OS X Lion, is rather better than in Word (where it appears to be something of an afterthought). Without the distraction of icons, dashboard or other paraphernalia, text creation and editing proceeds more quickly. 

Actually, full screen editing is the only feature I can only think of that I particularly like about Pages. In all other respects Word is at least the equal, and often rather superior, to Pages and, if I’m honest, I prefer Word, especially for long, complicated documents. It’s not that I dislike Pages, or that I have a particular fondness for Microsoft, it’s just that Word makes everything easy while with Pages you just have to work at it some more; it’s almost as if the software can do what you want but doesn’t quite see why it should bother.

My hope is that Microsoft bring Word (and Excel) to the App Store quickly and for a sensible (i.e. affordable) price. There are good reasons for Office’s commercial success and Microsoft’s monopoly is only a small part of it; in the end, the software’s just damn good.