Is Word standard really so important?

Question

Hi everybody,
It was a long time I was looking for a good word processor running on Mac OS X, when iWork '05 was delivered. I bought it without testing it's applications because it was an Apple software and 'cause I really think that Apple's applications run better than the others under the Apple operating system. Then I used Pages comparing it with Mellel, Nisus Writer Express and of course Word.
It was an Apple application concerning the ease of use and the approach to the different functions, but it seems to me that everybody (even in this discussions space) tends to compare always Pages to Word's functions. Also Apple uses to promote the Pages's compatility with Word. It is clear that Word is the standard in word processing, that this application exists for more than 20 years and that 99,9% of "writers" use it. But, and here my question, do you really think that Pages can grow year by year only adding function that make it more similar to Word. I hope that Apple will add in the next future some innovative way to productivity basing on it's ability to "create the future" (see for example iTunes or iPhoto), otherwise the switch will fail...
Let me know what you think about this.
Daniele

Answer 1

Hullo Daniele_A:
Well you just stick to your guns, there: I couldn't agree more.
Pages is new and different - with a real sense of style. It must never become bloated as Word was, and I think many specialist requirements might better be handled with Apple or Third Party plug-ins to ensure that this never happens to it. With Word you had to plough through a whole heap of guff you'd probably never use to get anything done at all, and then the wretched thing seemed to impose its own corporate look on anything you tried to do.
If it ever became a standard, it was only a de facto one - and frankly I think it was rubbish. But maybe I'm biased because I had to use it with Windows, and that kept crashing between auto-saves, just as you had the right wording - which of course you would forget while you re-booted the whole caboodle. Still no thanks, never again, not even on a Mac
So Pages has a few teething problems (time they were dealt with, Apple) and everybody's got wish-lists for it. But bottom line, it's beautiful. A joy to work with, and lets you get on with it. Word? The word is Word is history.
As to "writers" - well publishers had better start accepting documents in Pages, or Pages will let us pass them by. Pages is a writer's liberation; neither more nor less. We can see how our work will look in print, and stipulate what we want done with it. I predict it will revolutionise writing and publication.
Cheers.
iBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.4)