Pages & Numbers vs Word & Excel

I've seen many threads on this subject and wanted to add my own observations, which may help someone trying to make a decision on which suite they may need. Personally I use both since they have different strengths and weaknesses. I haven't worked much with Keynote or PowerPoint so I'll skip them.
I work in a WinXP eviroment so Office is what I use 8-5, mostly Excel and Access. At home, I'm a freelance photographer and custom print designer. I've done sales flyers, restaurant menus, advertising, and custom graphics. I've done a lot of custom marketing materials for my work and always fire up my Macbook, showing off what a Mac can do better than any Windows software we have.
iWork is predominantly a typesetting suite. If the end result is to be printed, then iWork really has the better tool set. Pages is easier to work with than Word for working with text boxes, images, backgrounds, and imbedded spreadsheet tables. I find it more intuitive and the tools make more sense, and it's a true WYSIWYG from sceen to printer. Numbers is easier to work with than Excel, again for printed output. Tables and graphs can be moved around to create a more flowing presentation. I also love versions... being able to go back to a previous version is a huge timesaver if a particular layout is not working out. Another plus to iWork is Pages and Numbers for iOS at $9.95 each. I can sync files to the cloud and have access to them on my iPhone anywhere anytime.
If printing is not your goal, or you need to share or collaborate, then Office is the better suite simply because the files will transfer virtually seamlessly between Mac and Windows versions. Many university professors also require .DOC and .XLS files for assignments, and Word has better tools for footnotes, bibliography, and table of contents, and as many reviewers have noted, will handle 100+ page files better than Pages. As for Excel, Numbers just can't compete when it comes to power number crunching on huge spreadsheets. Numbers is great for a budget, grocery list, or pie charts, but if you need to set up complex arrays, multi-point statistics, heavy calculus or physics equations, or need to graph a wormhole, Excel is your tool. For iOS devices, I'd recommend DataVis Documents-To-Go ($9.95 or $16.99 for Premier on AppStore) to work with Office files on your iPad or iPhone.
Amazon has Office Home & Student for $99 single license, or $117 for the 3 user family pack. iWork for $79, $99 family pack. There are free alternatives to both such as OpenOffice but I'm not getting into that debate. I've used OO but I don't like it's interface and the way it works. It's just not Pages or Numbers.
So, for my personal workflow, I prefer iWork for in-house documents, letters, simple spreadsheets, and anything that doesn't need editing outside. For simple documents, I'll just export to .DOC format and check it in Word before emailing or uploading. I share PDF's for printed output that needs approval and I use Office for collaboration files. I actually use Software McKiev's PrintShop 2 ($69.95) for more complex layouts like flyers, business cards, labels, greeting cards, custom envelopes, and advertising graphics. I try to use the best tool for the job since I've really never found a Swiss Army knife suite that does everything well.
If you're a student or writer and need tools for footnotes, TOC's, bibliographies, heavy calculating and graphing, then you'll get better mileage out of Office than iWork. If you're working more with the presentation of information in a printed format, then iWork will probably be easier to get the output you're looking for. Businesses can easily use both as I do.
Both suites have thier fans and haters... all I'm saying is they both will do the job, just some jobs are easier using one or the other.

Well first Congrats on your new Mac!
Honestly its going to be a personal choice... I use iWork at home and for personal use, but I have to use Office for Mac at work. I personally believe iWork is easier to use and seems to be more reliable.
Next thing: Mail or Outlook?
Well I love Mail I would say Mail all the way. Super sleek look and really easy to use.
Now you are asking for an individual breakdown... so here it is:
Excel vs. Numbers: Excel
Pages vs. Word: Pages
Keynote vs. Powerpoint: Keynote
So I would suggest using iWork and Mail.
Wish you Best of luck!
Kevin

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Page numbers in Word TOC not correct; have to open doc and update

I'm using RoboHelp HTML 9 and Word 2010.
I generate a Word doc (.docx) as one of my outputs. The Word TOC works -- that is, if I Ctrl-Click one of the items in the TOC, I'm taken to that item.
A user just came up to me asking why the page numbers are off. Here's what I see.
I use SSL to generate the Word doc.
In the TOC, I look for the topic "Setting Up Comments." It's listed as being on page 30.
I Ctrl-Click that TOC item and it takes me to the topic, but when I look at the footer, it says this is page 28.
If I go back to the TOC, right-click, and choose "Update page numbers only", Word updates the TOC, which now shows the correct page number, page 28.
In other words, generating my printed doc is now a multi-step process:
Use SSL to generate the Word doc.
Open the Word doc and update the TOC.
Save the Word doc.
Shouldn't the TOC be right the first time around? Am I forgetting to do something?

Your example was not the best, many chapters have such a topic. However, I am seeing issues there.
In another project I am finding the page numbers correct so I will need to do some more digging.
Meantime, given the problem can be recreated using the sample, you should report it as a bug.
Please follow this link.
http://www.Adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=38
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

How to insert page numbers in word

I know how to insert page numbers that appear 1, 2, 3 etc.
But I want to display: 1 out of 6, 2 out of 6, 3 out of 6 or similar - i.e. to have the TOTAL number of pages shown. I can do this in Excel - is it possible in Word? Or Pages??
Thanks,
Steve
2013-06-08

Thanks for the fast, 100% right-on reply! (And I looked, googled… no luck)---
I believe I can do this in PAGES, too-----
REALLY REALLY appreciate the fast and perfect reply--- (I know this is not strictly a "Mac" issue - and nonetheless I got super help from you and appreciate CT's reply too!)
Steve
Saturday 8 June 2013

Page numbering from an Excel file

I would like to use a list from a csv excel file for page numbering.
For example instead of having the pages numbered 1,2,3,4,5,6..... I want them to be labeled one, two, three, four, five six....
I have tried using a data merge from the master page but that doesn't work when I have pages already in the document. For each page it produces multiple pages. If I have 100 numbers in my page number list - one to one hundred - then 100 pages are produce for each page in the document producing hundreds or thousands of spreads.
In short I don't have a clue what I'm doing, HELP.

P Spier wrote:
Put placeholder frames on the master page where you want the numbers to appear. Thread the one on the left to the one on the right. Apply a style to the paragraph marker that includes a "Start in Next Frame" Keep Option so only one number will appear on each page, even if the frame is larger than necessary.
How do I
Apply a style to the paragraph marker that includes a "Start in Next Frame" Keep Option ?
P Spier wrote:
Place the .csv file into the placholders by hovering over the frame area with the loaded Place Gun (the cursor should change to surrounded by parentheses), then hold down Shift + Alt (Opt on Mac) and click inside the frame area. Your list should autoflow to fill the frames on any existing pages, but not add any new ones. This will not work if you have pages with a different master interspersed, though.
I manage to get that to work it took me a lot of time to understand that one has to load the frame in the main pages and not the Master page.
I see one can only fill the frame if it is empty on the master frame. Is there a way that I can add symbles on the sides of the numbers so it looks something like the below example with out including the symbles in the excel file.
One
Two
Three
Four

Cannot insert page numbers in Word for Mac 2008

When I select "insert page number" from the insert menu, nothing appears. I am in email communication with Microsoft support to try to understand why this function isn't working correctly, but so far have no solution, so I wonder if anyone on this list has an idea about what could be happening. I never had this problem with Word 2004, and installed Word 2008 a few weeks ago.
Whitney

The funny thing is that it is ONLY your user account. So I would advise perhaps, after all to reinstall office:
1) quit all office apps
2) remove items (put on desktop but do NOT yet trash!):
a) startupdisk (NOT homefolder!)/library/application support/MICROSOFT (add a "TOP" to Microsoft, by renaming it, so you know it came from the top level start up disk; then move iten "MICROSOFT TOP" to trash - but do NOT empty your trash!)
b) homefolder(this is your actual login account or folder)/library/application support/MICROSOFT (put this second microsoft folder onto desktop, rename to "MICROSOFT SECOND", then move to trash)
c) then go to homefolder/library/preferences/ where you find a THIRD microsoft folder (you can move that straight to trash)
d) stay in preferences and further up, you'll find around 10 or so "plist" items, all starting with "com.microsoft...." (put them all in trash)
FINALLY!: remove microsoft from your applications folder itself (put into trash)
Do NOT empty your trash can, so your old MS items are still in there.
Reinstall office.
That is the safest way I can think of you doing it.
Let me know how you get on.

Page numbers incorrect after conversion from Excel to pdf

Page numbers incorrect after conversion from Excel to pdf
""This above link (thread:834599) is from a case back in 2011 that claims to solve this problem, but it does not solve this problem. I think that customer only cared about having continuous page numbering, not discrete page numbering per sheet.
========================
I still have this issue in Acrobat XI and MS Office Professional Plus 2010. I keep upgrading to no avail. This regression has resulted in a huge time drain for me. If you fixed it, please explain how I can get my hands on the resolution.
Previous versions of Excel and Adobe Acrobat enabled flexibility around the "Page #" of "Number of Pages" (Page &[Page] of &[Pages]) token, depending on context and usage. The "# of pages" token could represent EITHER the number of pages in the workbook OR the number of pages in the tab/sheet, depending on how you generated the PDF:
You could select "Selected Sheets" and then select all or some of the individual sheets in the workbook, and the PDF would honor the discrete numbering of each of the sheets, so the first page of each sheet was p1 and the "# of pages" was the number of pages in the sheet; not the number of pages in the workbook; or
You could select "Entire Workbook" and the PDF would honor continuous page numbers across all sheets, as a single document.
Now, it only honors the total number of pages in the workbook, regardless of the method you use to publish to PDF: saving as PDF, printing to PDF, using "createPDF" from Acrobat plugin to Excel's menu ribbon; selecting all sheets, some sheets, or Entire Workbook; automatic First page number or "1" under Page Setup > Page> First page number. (This last option, btw, does restart every sheet at p1, but it hardly makes sense if the total number of pages is still the total number in the workbook instead of the number in the sheet.)
I spent a lot of time trying each which way that the blog posts recommended and have tried this on multiple versions of Excel and Acrobat now.
NONE of these time-consuming experiments gave me what I wanted.They all insist that "Page #" of "Number of Pages" (Page &[Page] of &[Pages]) is the total number of pages in the workbook or the total number of pages in the selected sheets combined.
The numbering are correct in Excel Page Layout.
The same issue happens when using LibreOffice calc. (Although, I never tested with Libre Office before, so I don't know that it ever worked).
The workaround now is to create PDF for each spreadsheet one at a time, and then compile them using the Acrobat combine/binder feature. All alternatives are extremely time consuming and tedious. It used to be automatic. This is a major regression that has gone untreated for over a year now, maybe two years.
My task takes infinitely more time to complete than it did with previous versions of Acrobat. That means that days are added to my project, when the functionality used to enable a quick pdf generation that was ready for review, now I have to do this very manual time-consuming set of steps to generate a draft. As the project has grown and more tabs are added, my pdf-generation task takes that much longer. We require lots of drafts. It used to be easy and fast. Now it is hard and time-consuming.
In my opinion, the problem is not Excel; it is Acrobat because it was introduced with an upgrade in Acrobat, not an upgrade in Excel. The problem was introduced in Acrobat 9 or 10. Please provide a patch or add-on or something.

If you are setting up the page numbers in Excel, the resulting PDF would display the the page numbers created in Excel. On Excel 2010 support page, (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/insert-and-remove-page-numbers-on-worksheets- HA010342619.aspx#BM2) is stated the following "tip" which indicates by default Excel 2010 starts numbering each tab with 1. Exel's workaround tip is below -
Set a different number for the starting page
Tip To number all of the worksheet pages in a workbook sequentially, first add page numbers to all worksheets in a workbook, and then use the following procedure to begin the page number for each worksheet with the appropriate number. For example, if your workbook contains two worksheets that with both be printed as two pages, you would use this procedure to begin the page numbering for the second worksheet with the number 3.
On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click the Dialog Box Launcher next to Page Setup.
On the Page tab, in the First page number box, type the number that you want to use for the first page.
Tip To use the default numbering system, type Auto in the First page number box.
Also helpful in the same section is the note on viewing page numbers. To see if the page numbering dilemma originates in Excel make sure you are using the Page Layout View see below:
Hide All
If you want numbers shown on pages when you print a worksheet you can insert page numbers in the headers or footers of the worksheet pages. Page numbers that you insert are not displayed on the worksheet in Normal view — they are shown only in Page Layout view and on the printed pages.
Overall it may be easier not to create the page numbers in Excel but instead create then in Acrobat using the Headers and Footers option in Acrobat. I hope this helps - it sounds like a frustrating issue you are experiencing.

Can I view, edit and save microsoft documents such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint using iWork applications such as Pages, Keynote and Numbers on my iPad Mini (16GB Wi-Fi)? If Yes, then can I directly load these files to my iPad mini using iTunes?

Can I view, edit and save microsoft documents such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint using iWork applications such as Pages, Keynote and Numbers on my iPad Mini (16GB Wi-Fi)? If Yes, then can I directly load these files to my iPad mini using iTunes? Also, once I finish working on these documents, can I download these back to my Computer.

Sorry, forgot to say:
Thank you so much to EVERYBODY/ANYBODY who may reply with helpful information,
Bob :) :) :)

Why iCloud only allows store documents created by Pages, Numbers or Key Note ? How can I "iCloud" documents created with Word Mac or Excel mac??

Why iCloud only allows store documents created by Pages, Numbers or Key Note ? How can I "iCloud" documents created with Word Mac or Excel mac??

Oscar66 wrote:
Why iCloud only allows store documents created by Pages, Numbers or Key Note ? How can I "iCloud" documents created with Word Mac or Excel mac??
iwork for ios accepts for upload and also happily opens all your Microsoft office files, from Office97 standard doc/xls/ppt to the 2011 versions of docx,xlsx,pptx and various other of these format extensions.
Notice : the upload feature in www.icloud.com is only active if you in fact own these apps on your iPhone/Pad/pod. it is not a feature of iWork for the Mac ( iwork09 ) which itself is not icloud capable at all.

How can I exchange my pc created documents on Excel, Word, and PowerPoint with my mac and my Pages, Numbers and Keynote created content with my pc? I need to create and edit between both.

How can I exchange my pc created documents on Excel, Word, and PowerPoint with my mac and my Pages, Numbers and Keynote created content with my pc? I need to create and edit and exchange between both types of operating systems.

Your Windows system will not open any Pages, Numbers or Keynote documents. No applications exist for Windows that can open those formats. You will need to export your documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats, respectively, before you'll be able to view and edit the documents on your Windows system. The iWork documents can natively open Word, Excel and PP documents, though there are limitations on what can be imported (for instance, Numbers does not support all possible Excel functions). Consult the documentation for the relevant iWork application for details on importing and exporting.
If you are asking how to get the documents from one system to the other, then there are several ways to do that, including file sharing, using an external drive (hard drive, USB flash drive), or emailing the documents to yourself. Which would be best for your situation I can't say without more details about your usage.
Regarsd.

I had pages, keynote, numbers but recently purchased office suite of word, excel, powerpoint. I want all files to be opened by office software. how do I do that?

When I open a previous file from pages, I want it to open in word. I dont want to work in the apple applications of pages, numbers and keynote. I now have the office suite. If I delete the apple softwate, willI lose these documents? Goal is to get ride of pages, numbers and keynote for good and replace with word, powerpoint, excel but concern is that I will not be able to open files originally developed in apple apps.

Good question.
This answers your question ... from Finder help:
Choose an app to open a document
You can select a specific app to open a document. Do this if you prefer using a certain app or if you don’t have the app that was used to create the document.
HidePermanently change the document’s app
Select the document and choose File > Get Info.
In the Info window, click the triangle next to “Open with” to expand the section.
Choose an app from the pop-up menu, or choose Other to locate a different app.
If you want to use that app to open all documents of the same type as the current document and created by the same app, click Change All.

How to get the page numbers of a word/mpp/execl doc using Java?

Hi,
I meet a problem in Java programming. I want to get the page numbers of a Word/MPP/EXECL/PDF document. For exmaple, if a PDF docment have 10 pages, I need get the 10 . How to get it using Java?
Please advise me as soon as possible if you have any good suggestions! Thanks!
Yin

There are several good tools that allow you to access COM objects from Java. Here are two of the better ones:
Bridge2Java
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/bridge2java
J-Integra
http://www.linar.com/
Both of these tools will allow you to access MS Office products (including Word and Excel) via COM interfaces.

If I have word, excel, and powerpoint on my computer already, when i update to mavericks and get pages, keynote, etc., will I still have my word, excel, and powerpoint?

I have word, excel, and powerpoint on my computer already. I have seen some people with the new maverix, and they use keynote and pages. I do not want to use those programs, so I am wondering what will happen if I update tot mavericks. I DO NOT want to loose word, excel, and ppt, so does anyone know if all my stuff will stay?? Or will I be forced to use keynote, pages....?

ilovedoggies wrote:
I have word, excel, and powerpoint on my computer already. I have seen some people with the new maverix, and they use keynote and pages. I do not want to use those programs, so I am wondering what will happen if I update tot mavericks. I DO NOT want to loose word, excel, and ppt, so does anyone know if all my stuff will stay?? Or will I be forced to use keynote, pages....?
No, you do not have to use keyote, Pages and Numbers. As long as your Office Version is current (2004 will not work anymore). You will not lose them, although be sure to backup your system before updating in case anything should go wrong. I personally am not a hugh fan of Keynote and Pages and work with Office for Mac most of the time.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Pete

Page numbers display as 5 of 1 and 2 of 2121 in a PDF that was created from a Word 2003 document

We merge several Word 2003 documents into 1 larger document that we then convert to PDF. The page numbers in the Word document display properly - 1 of 21, 2 of 21, 3 of 21, etc. We then convert that merged document to PDF by right-clicking the filename and choosing "Convert to Adobe PDF". For those of us with Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.1.3, the page numbers in the converted PDF file display as 1 of 1, 2 of 1, ... 21 of 1. Those with Acrobat Professional 8.1.3, they display as 1 of 21, 2 of 2121, 3 of 212121, etc., each page adding another total number of pages to the total. There is no change in the result if using v8.0.0 or 8.1.4 Does anyone have any ideas???

Unless you have a specific reason to upgrade to OFFICE 2007, I would not recommend it. I hate it -- have it on two computers. I have had problems creating PDFs reliably from WORD 2007 and PPT 2007, at least with graphics. The conversion seems to want to split graphics up into several parts rather than leave it as one. It does not happen with WORD 2003 and so assume this is some sort of issue with OFFICE 2007. You can get the graphics fine if you use the MS plugin for PDF creation, but then you have to deal with the MS version of a PDF. If you want to try it on one computer in your office, I would do that before you make the change. However, if what you have meets the need, then why change unless there are specific items that you are looking for and don't have.
OK, that is my opinion. I am sure there are counter arguments. If I had the preference on my newer machines, I would have OFFICE 2003. Bill

Page numbers from MS Word cannot be deleted in pages

A colleague sent me a MSWord (Mac) document that I opened in pages 09 and started working on it. I need to delete the page numbers that were put in on the MSWord document. I guess they were put in using the automatic page numbering feature in Word. However, In the Pages09 document they are not in the usual footer location. It almost looks like they are part of the page background. They are not selectable and cannot be removed. It I choose to add page numbers using Pages, they numbers appear in the usual footer location—in addition to and not supplanting– the unselectable page numbers brought over from MSWord. Does anybody know a solution to this?

Loren,
The persistent content usually is a Master Object. So, you were right to begin with: Format > Advanced > Make Master Objects Selectable. One would think that if this is always the solution, it would be a simple matter to now select the tenacious item and delete it. The problem is that sometimes the object while now selectable is still not accessible.
This Master Object can hide behind the Header box, as though the Header was a solid glass wall. Deselecting the Header function, in the Document Inspector, will give you access, but it will also irretrievably delete your Header Content. A better way, I have found, is to change the header Margin figure in the Document Margins Pane of the Document Inspector.
Once you have moved the Header, Footer, or whatever else might be sharing the space, off the persistent page number, you can click on the page number Object and hit Delete. Now you can put back whatever you had to move, and you should be good to go. Consider yourself lucky if your Pages header doesn't fall over the old Word Header.
Jerry

How do I use page numbering and a text block in a footer in Word with the Report Generation Toolkit?

I am creating a Word document with the Report Generation Toolkit, and LabVIEW 8.2.1. In the report I am using a template that has page numbering enabled in the center. When I try to add a text block to the left side footer, it eliminates the page numbering and adds my text on the left side. I found "Set Report Footer Text" and "Word Set Page Numbering" vi's that may be the clue to this. When I use these two vi's I either get Page 1 of 456789-001 on the left side, or if I reverse the order I get only 456789-001(text) in the left side with nothing in the center. What I would like to achieve is 456789-001(text) on the left footer, and Page 1 of 2 in the center. Is this possible and if it is, then how can I do it?

Hi SciManStev,
I have attached a vi where you can see how they can be made to work together. You have to design it such that one follows the other. If you don't design it that way, it results in a race condition and only one of them get executed.
Good Luck!
Warm regards,
Karunya R
National Instruments
Applications Engineer
Attachments:
SciMan1.vi ‏14 KB

Pages & Numbers vs Word & Excel

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