I wrote about the things I like about Apple Pages yesterday. Now let me take a look at a few of the problems. None of these are killers for me, in the sense that they are so annoying I want to give up on the thing. But they do grate at times so it's only fair I tell you about them.

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<strong>The look and feel</strong>

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-50-27-tm.jpg"><img class="alignright" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-50-27-tm.jpg" alt="Screen shot 2010-04-07 at 16.50.27.png" width="160" height="88"></a>Pages doesn't go much for toolbars -- which I like. But it pushes you instead towards a separate floating Inspector window that handles everything from page layout to text and even video issues. I found this very difficult to deal with when I was moving over from Word. A lot of it seems counter-intuitive, largely because Pages doesn't work or look as most other word processors do. I still don't understand some of the features.

In truth it doesn't take that long to get a basic hang of things and Pages in general is a <em>lot</em> cleaner to look at than Word, with all its buttons and bars.. But I suspect some people simply give up along the way, or come to the conclusion that Pages can't do much of any interest. This isn't true. It's a fantastic word processor than can typeset a whole book if you want. Persevere.

<strong>Spelling language</strong>

I write in UK English. My Mac is set up to use that as the default language. Pages has a mind of its own about spelling, particularly when you import a document from another program. It seems determined to use US English instead, without asking you. Switching that off involves fiddling around in the Inspector and doesn't work sometimes unless you try repeatedly.

<strong>Double space removal</strong>

A standard task before sending off a manuscript is to remove any double spaces that have crept in through poor typing (lots of them in my case). I have no idea why this is such a problem but for me it will always crash Pages if I try to do this using Search and Replace and clicking Replace All. I can do it one by one. In a single pass -- disaster. Been like that for several versions and Apple never fix the bug, even though it's been reported.

<strong>Hyphenation</strong>

For some bizarre reason hyphenation appears to be on by default. Why, I have no idea. Surely most people write documents that <i>don't</i>&nbsp;require hyphenation than do. I suspect this is just Apple showing off it knows about typesetting (yes, there are fancy kerning and other controls too which are equally unnecessary for the vast majority of users).

<strong>Keyboard shortcuts</strong>

Too many things -- showing and hiding the Comments window for example -- demand the use of the mouse. You can't change that through the program. You can try and change it using the system keyboard shortcuts. But they don't work reliably. For example I have shortcuts set up for show and hide comments (you need one for each this way). They don't work all the time for some reason. They should be in the program from the outset.

<strong>Unnecessary toolbar</strong>

Toolbaritis has gone crazy on Word. But the insistence on showing you stuff is there in Pages too. This is the one that gets me -- the bar that comes up when you've got track changes turned on.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-55-58.png"><img style="padding-left:4px;" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-07-at-16-55-58-tm.jpg" alt="Screen shot 2010-04-07 at 16.55.58.png" width="500" height="33"></a>

I do <em>not</em> need to see that unless I want to, thank you. And there's no way of turning it off short off going into 'full page view'. On the subject of which...

<strong>Ridiculous 'full page view'</strong>

Full page view is handled brilliantly by Scrivener. You just see the words and 'paper' behind it. In Pages full page view shows you the printed page with headers and footers. No one goes into full page editing to see peripheral information like that. Waste of space and quite distracting if you allow it. The thing needs a proper draft view.

<strong>Saving, saving, saving
</strong>

I like to save a lot. Hit the save shortcut all the time. It's because I'm old. Pages takes <em>ages</em> to save. Don't ask me why. It just does. Do something, Apple. Please.

<strong>No autosave</strong>

I'm so used to Scrivener's autosave I forget you need to do a proper save with Pages. Autosave should be standard for most software these days. I know there are addons that will do it but it should be there from scratch. Here's one I'm trying -- &nbsp;<a href="http://www.tool-forcesw.com/foreversave/" target="_blank">Foreversave.</a> Does a lot more than just save -- it will back up versions of your file too. Seems pretty good.

And there the whining ends. These are small things, more due to odd design decisions than omissions usually. We can't be far off a new version of Pages soon. It will be interesting to see what that adds from the point of view of the creative writer.

Pages isn't a Scrivener-substitute for me anyway. But it's a very fine word processor, perfect for that last pre-delivery revision and format check, and one I will always use in preference to anything else.