Sponsored in part by... Bare Bones Software Yojimbo 1.5 from Bare Bones Software: Your effortless, reliable
information organizer for Mac OS X. It will change your life,
without changing the way you work. Download the demo or buy it
today! <http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/>

 [F] TidBITS  / TidBITS  / TidBITS Talk  /

iWork and other applications

[hhbv807]hhbv807 (apparently) - 02:28pm Jan 25, 2005 PST
via email

Before I purchase iWork (especially Pages), I want to understand how
it plays with other applications. I know that Applescript is barely
supported at all, and that's a huge mark against it. However,
Apple's description of Pages includes the following:

"you may have information you'd like to appear in your next Pages
document that already exists elsewhere. It could be a series of
columns from a spreadsheet..."

Does this mean that Pages will let me imbed an .xls document? Also,
since Pages has some sort of graphing function, does this mean that
Pages can reference data that is stored in an Excel document, or
Filemaker, or what?

H.


Mark as Read
  OutlineAll MessagesOlder MessagesOldest MessagesNewest MessagesNewer Messages

wbauer186 (apparently) - Jan 26, 2005 7:54 am (#1 Total: 4)  

Reply to this message
via email  

Photo of Author
Posts: 4
Re: iWork and other applications

Here is a review of Pages from MacWorld:

<http://tinyurl.com/6fjl8>

---
http://billbauer.net

Sue Boettcher - Jan 26, 2005 7:54 am (#2 Total: 4)  

Reply to this message
 

Photo of Author
Posts: 37
Re: iWork and other applications

I have Pages, and although I will admit I haven't tried the charting thing, it looks very similar to putting a chart in Keynote. (Or Powerpoint, for that matter.)

Dunno if that helps any...

tarcher (apparently) - Jan 26, 2005 9:16 am (#3 Total: 4)  

Reply to this message
via email  

Photo of Author
Posts: 8
Re: iWork and other applications

On Jan 25, 2005, at 3:28 PM, Hudson Barton wrote:
> Does this mean that Pages will let me imbed an .xls document? Also,
> since Pages has some sort of graphing function, does this mean that
> Pages can reference data that is stored in an Excel document, or
> Filemaker, or what?
>
> H.

No. Pages imports Microsoft Word, but not Excel. I don't have Filemaker
to check it, but it's not mentioned at all in the documentation.

I tried making a spreadsheet in AppleWorks, but Pages wouldn't import
it, either.

---Tim Archer

bigstevemac (apparently) - Jan 27, 2005 10:37 am (#4 Total: 4)  

Reply to this message
via email  

Photo of Author
Posts: 24
Re: iWork and other applications

>> Does this mean that Pages will let me imbed an .xls document? Also,
>> since Pages has some sort of graphing function, does this mean that
>> Pages can reference data that is stored in an Excel document, or
>> Filemaker, or what?
>>
>> H.
>
> No. Pages imports Microsoft Word, but not Excel. I don't have Filemaker
> to check it, but it's not mentioned at all in the documentation.
>
> I tried making a spreadsheet in AppleWorks, but Pages wouldn't import
> it, either.

As far as I can tell, Pages simply lays out tables, as distinct from
spreadsheets. I haven't turned up any calculation functions; it seems that
Pages simply displays the contents of cells without performing any
operations on them. As a result, it doesn't, as far as I can tell, import
data from programmes such as Excel and FileMaker, which do (or at least can)
perform calculations.

This ties in with what has been observed elsemessage about Pages, that it is
an entry-level design programme, intended for those who have no need to
crunch industrial-strength numbers.

Biggles




  OutlineAll MessagesOlder MessagesOldest MessagesNewest MessagesNewer Messages


 [F] TidBITS  / TidBITS  / TidBITS Talk  / iWork and other applications




Add a message

To add a message to this discussion, you must be a registered user. Enter your email address below. If you have an account associated with the email address you enter, you will be prompted for your password. If not, you'll be able to create a new account with no fuss.

Enter your email address:

Submit