- Microsoft Word for MAC. The program opens with a blank page that is not letter size. I can't seem to change it to letter size. What can I do? Could someone help me. Suddenly my Microsoft Word fo Mac is not opening to a blank letter sized page. It's a weird size that I cannot use. It's almost a square. No matter where and how I change the size.
- Oct 25, 2010 Apple has 'iWork' and that did not come with your iMac. It is like 'Office' but made for Macs. 'Pages' is the program that is like 'Word'. 'Numbers' is the program that is like 'excel' Buy iWork. You will be happy. You can also buy MS Office for mac. You will also be happy. Niether of these come with a new Mac. Both are around $100 new.
But for Microsoft Office users, the need to buy Office for Mac again can be a hassle. If you work in the traditional office environment that runs on Excel and Word, you might have to bite the bullet. But if you’ve outgrown that world and still need to edit and send Office documents every now and then there are alternative options. I wish Microsoft well, I really do, but its upgrade to Word 2016 for the Mac increases the steps I need to take for common operations. When 2008 came out with.docx, I discovered that single-spaced lines I typed—the only spacing used since I got Word, perhaps in 1991—appeared as double-spaced. Like Microsoft Office, Open Office is a suite of programs. One member, Draw, is considered a Publisher substitute. The interface is similar and some of the menus are in the same place as Publisher's. Unmistakably Office, designed for Mac. Get started quickly with new, modern versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote—combining the familiarity of Office and the unique Mac features you love.
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- 1 Is WordPad Compatible With Word?
- 2 Microsoft Publisher Requirements
- 3 The Difference Between PowerPoint, Pages and Keynote
- 4 Putting a PPT for iBooks on an iPad
As one of the world's most popular layout and design programs, Microsoft Publisher turns laypeople into amateur graphic designers. Included with the Microsoft Office expanded package, Publisher is an affordable alternative to the expensive programs that professional designers use. There's just one problem – Publisher only works on PCs. If you've recently converted to a Mac, you may feel a bit lost, but don't worry; equivalent programs are available, and some of them are free.
Apple Solution
One of the advantages of owning an Apple computer is you can use Apple software that seamlessly integrates with the Mac operating system. Visit the Mac App Store and click on the 'Productivity' category to learn about and purchase Pages, a program that many would point to as the most obvious equivalent to Publisher. With layout and design features that meet most design tasks, Pages often comes pre-installed on new macs for free. If you didn't get it for free, it is affordable. It's part of a software suite called iWork, so also take a look at its teammates Keynote and Numbers as well. All three programs can export documents in PDF, DOC and XLS formats.
Microsoft Solution
Perhaps one reason why Microsoft hasn't made a Mac version of Publisher is because it makes a Mac version of Microsoft Word that can do almost as much. Comb through a few tech blogs and forums and you'll see that people lamenting the need for Mac Publisher are usually nudged toward Microsoft Word. It's true that Word does a lot for its Mac users: With drawing tools, text effects and specialty printing settings as well as templates, you can produce fliers, brochures, banners and newsletters that look sharp. Because you might wind up buying Microsoft Office for Mac anyway for other tasks, Word is a cost-effective solution to your publishing needs.
Free Applications
Even more cost effective than Pages or Word is Apache Open Office. It's free because open source programmers produce it – just download it from Apache and install it on your hard drive. Like Microsoft Office, Open Office is a suite of programs. One member, Draw, is considered a Publisher substitute. The interface is similar and some of the menus are in the same place as Publisher's. All Open Office programs save files in their own format, but you can use the 'Save As' command to convert them to DOC, PDF and many other file formats. With Draw, you can do everything you could do in Publisher; in fact, some users prefer to show support for the open source community by using it.
Draw isn't the only free application out there: Scribus, another open source product, has plenty of fans. If your needs are simple, try Bean. It's a lightweight program, but it has all the tools you need for a flier or small newsletter.
Premium Applications
If cost isn't a big concern – maybe you're buying for your workplace – try one of the industry standards if your technical skills can meet the challenge. Adobe InDesign is the workhorse for designers around the globe. Capable of producing anything from a business card to a multisection newspaper to a 10,000-page novel, InDesign offers many complex text and layout features and tools not part of Publisher. By subscribing to Adobe's Creative Cloud, you can use it and all Adobe programs for a reasonable monthly fee. Another big player in the publishing world is QuarkXPress. With a more utilitarian interface than InDesign, Quark is perhaps easier to learn. It is expensive for business licenses, but a copy for educational or nonprofit purposes costs just a few hundred dollars.
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About the Author
Amy Stanbrough is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in 'Bust,' 'Woman's World,' 'Southern Exposure' and many other publications. Stanbrough holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from George Mason University.
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Word Application For Mac
![Program Program](/uploads/1/2/6/8/126872702/843276002.png)
My mother is not anti-Apple. She owns a Mac and an older iPad, but has always been perfectly satisfied with her trusty copy of Microsoft Word. “That’s what everyone uses,” she says.
She may want to think about switching.
The new version of Apple’s Pages word-processing software — part of a trio of applications the company calls iWork that includes a spreadsheet program and a presentation manager — seems tailor-made for someone like her: It’s simple to use, easy to learn and has sharing features that should finally put an end to her complaints about friends who are unable to open the documents she sends them.
There are plenty of people who will find that Pages does not meet their needs (more on that later). But the company, based in Cupertino, Calif., has rethought its approach to the most boring of computer applications — the word processor — with some impressive results. It particularly shines in three areas: appearance, compatibility and sharing.
To appreciate the improvements, it might be helpful to offer a comparison between Pages and Word.
ROUND 1: APPEARANCE Ever since text-based programs like Word Perfect gave way to the point-and-click variety, companies have crammed more and more buttons into their programs. The latest version of Word has a bevy of tiny icons for every function imaginable.
Pages takes a different approach, with just a handful of icons across the top and a contextual panel that slides out from the right. Editing text? Out pops the buttons for bold, font size and justification. Inserting a table? The panel switches to let you modify the rows and columns. Add a picture and you automatically get options for borders and shadows.
I compared Pages with a version of Office 365 on a Surface Pro tablet. Microsoft groups its icons in different tabs along the top, but they don’t automatically appear when you need them as they do in Pages. And each tab has too many buttons, most of which are not intuitive. Longtime power users will figure it out, but I suspect Mom would be happier with the simpler interface.
■ The decision for appearance: Apple.
ROUND 2: COMPATIBILITY The previous versions of Pages had a serious problem: Documents created on Pages for the Mac didn’t open easily on Pages for the iPad. Even worse, the two didn’t share anywhere near the same capabilities; they supported different headers, graphics, tables of contents and charts. A document created on the Mac looked different on the iPad, which also supported fewer fonts.
But the new version of Pages on a Mac is identical to Pages for the iPad or the iPhone. And the company now has a version of Pages that runs amazingly well in any modern web browser, even on a Windows PC. I opened it on the Surface Pro in Internet Explorer. Mom can start a letter on her Mac, edit it on her iPad and send it to Dad’s Windows XP PC for some final edits. (Dad is afraid of upgrading his system. But that’s a topic for another column.)
In fairness, Microsoft is no slouch in this area. The company has versions of Word for the Mac and the PC, though they look different. And a web-based version of Word, introduced recently as part of the company’s Office 365 software, is a good, pared-down likeness of the desktop counterparts. The company supports minimal editing of documents on iPhones or Android phones, but it does not have a full version of Word for iPads or Android devices. For now, the company reserves that for Microsoft’s own tablets, although it has announced that an iPad version is coming.
■ The decision for compatibility: Tie.
Ms Word For Macs
ROUND 3: SHARING O.K., let’s say it. The reason most people don’t switch from Word is that everyone else they know uses it. Sending a Pages document to a friend who doesn’t have the program installed has been an exercise in both futility and frustration that always leads to the same sentence: “I can’t open that document you sent me.”
The new version of Pages introduces an all-new sharing option, powered by the company’s iCloud service, that works remarkably well. Type in a person’s email address, click send, and that person receives a link to your document. When the link is clicked, the document opens in a web browser that looks like a fully functioning Pages application. (My mom didn’t even notice the difference.) The recipient doesn’t have to have Pages installed or have an iCloud account. It even makes Mac-PC sharing easy. The new version runs just fine in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari on a Windows PC.
Apple has also copied a crucial feature from its competitors, adding real-time document editing to Pages. With a shared document open in the browser-based Pages, multiple people can make changes and collaborate at the same time. The edits appear magically in real time. Word and Google have had this feature for a while, and now Pages catches up in a way that is simpler and somewhat easier to understand.
![What Program Is Like Microsoft Word For Mac What Program Is Like Microsoft Word For Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/8/126872702/858146697.png)
■ The decision for sharing: Apple.
The new version of iWork, which includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote, is free for anyone who buys a new Mac, iPad or iPhone. Others can buy the three programs for $9.95 each on the iPad and $19.95 each on the Mac. The updated features for Pages — the new appearance, sharing and compatibility — also apply to Numbers and Keynote. That makes them attractive options, especially considering that a subscription to Microsoft’s Office 365 Home Premium costs $99.99 a year, and you have to pay every year.
But the Apple programs are not for everyone.
Pages seems like a bad choice for anyone who works in an office environment dominated by colleagues with Microsoft Word on their computers. Even though co-workers could open the Pages documents, they most likely won’t want to, just because it’s not their default. And going back and forth between formats is still a pain in the neck.
The new version of Pages may also frustrate people with highly specific needs. In trying to make the different versions of Pages identical, the company decided to remove many editing and formatting tools that had been in its previous Mac software. There is no way to select noncontiguous text, which makes bulk formatting harder. Vertical rulers are no longer there to help place photos and charts precisely. There is no way to view facing pages at the same time.
Users of the former versions of Pages have complained loudly in online Apple forums. One thread on the Apple support website has 82 pages of complaints. In response, Apple has since said it would begin adding back some of the features it removed. Last week, the company started by putting back the ability to customize the toolbar and restoring slide transitions that had gone missing in Keynote, its presentation software. A support document the company published online says additional features will start reappearing within six months.
And as with any software, there are still frustrations: Creating a document in the web-based Pages, which is technically still labeled a “beta” service, leaves the user wondering just how to give the new document a name. And sending a copy of a document, instead of a link, is more difficult than it should be.
Still, for many people who own a Mac and an iPad, Pages can now legitimately serve as their only word-processing software. They may even find they like it better than Word.