{"slug": "apple-pages", "name": "Apple Pages", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 15, "warners": 4, "score": 3.132, "rising": -1.96, "first": "2026-01-13", "latest": "2026-10-26", "why": "I'll take Apple's Office suite (Pages, etc.) over MS Office any day", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 6, "compare": 1, "warn": 4}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 1, 3, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I'll take Apple's Office suite (Pages, etc.) over MS Office any day", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.apple.com/pages/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Pages", "Apple Pages"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 773481282, "item_id": 48342580, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48342580", "by": "LeoPanthera", "date": "2026-05-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "all of which are excellent", "excerpt": "Other options include Calligra (especially on KDE) https://calligra.org And Macs are bundled with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, all of which are excellent.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products"}, {"id": 760106736, "item_id": 47506671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47506671", "by": "sleepybrett", "date": "2026-03-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Pages is my current go-to.", "excerpt": "I used word for windows 2.0 well into the early 2000s. My needs aren't crazy and I don't think word has added a single feature I've cared about since. Pages is my current go-to.", "context": "", "use_case": "Everyday document writing", "switched_from": "Microsoft Word", "story": "Apple Business"}, {"id": 757443600, "item_id": 47340225, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47340225", "by": "insane_dreamer", "date": "2026-03-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll take Apple's Office suite (Pages, etc.) over MS Office any day", "excerpt": "Most consumers don't use Linux, and MacOS is far ahead of Windows IMO -- and I use all three OSs (and have for 30 years) I disagree that the software leaves to be desired Just an example, I'll take Apple's Office suite (Pages, etc.) over MS Office any day - or LibreOffice.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Neo"}, {"id": 753711753, "item_id": 47106984, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47106984", "by": "bromuro", "date": "2026-02-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "those are a delight to work with", "excerpt": "No, they are also inconsistent: slack, vscode, zed, claude, chatgpt, figma, notion, zoom, docker desktop, to quote some that i use daily. They have all different UI patterns and design. The only thing they have in common is that are slow, laggy, difficult to use and don\u2019t respond quickly to the Window manager. Compare to other software on Mac such as Pages, Xcode, Tower, Transmission, Pixelmator, mp3tag, Table plus, ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "When Code is Free, Why is Claude is an Electron app?"}, {"id": 748033137, "item_id": 46752071, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46752071", "by": "Yoric", "date": "2026-01-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "style sheets are so well integrated in the UI", "excerpt": "I find the UI clunky and a clear regression from older versions. A family member has recently written a book on the latest version of MS Word. It's not their first book written with MS Word. It's also not the first time I give a hand to make sure that typography matches publisher requirements. I find that using style sheets has become more complicated, more limited and better hidden with successive versions of MS Wor", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Europe wants to end its dangerous reliance on US internet technology"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 756959904, "item_id": 47309994, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47309994", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-03-09", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I dearly miss Pages \u201909.", "excerpt": "When I used to use Pages frequently I just memorized all the relevant keyboard shortcuts and turned off the entire toolbar. That\u2019s however entirely unacceptable for most users. The sidebar for formatting they added is strictly worse than the inspector UI in old Pages \u201909. The sidebar is constrained not to overlap with content, but the user can choose to overlap the inspector. It\u2019s strictly better flexibility for user", "context": "", "use_case": "Word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Window Chrome of Our Discontent"}, {"id": 753148113, "item_id": 47071757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47071757", "by": "drcongo", "date": "2026-02-19", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I'd still rather write on something like this than Word, Pages or Google Docs.", "excerpt": "Those were the glory days of word processors, I used to have something similar on the Amiga. I'd still rather write on something like this than Word, Pages or Google Docs.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts"}, {"id": 746628224, "item_id": 46664264, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46664264", "by": "com2kid", "date": "2026-01-17", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The icon is horrible and generic", "excerpt": "I use a Mac daily, have for years now. I did not recognize that the icon in the article was for \"pages\" until it came to the icon with the word pages on it. The icon is horrible and generic and has failed to leave an impression on me over multiple years.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "If you put Apple icons in reverse it looks like someone getting good at design"}, {"id": 746502035, "item_id": 46656377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46656377", "by": "seec", "date": "2026-01-17", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The problem with Pages is that it is extremely mediocre at everything", "excerpt": "Well, that's a very hard question to answer without additional details. If it's graphics/presentation heavy, you most likely will need something like InDesign. If there is a lot of math, you'll need something like Latex (typist). If there are a lot of tables, you probably need something like Word to auto-update embeds from Excel. In general, Word will allow you to control features like footnotes/endnotes, tables of f", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Creator Studio"}]}], "who": [{"by": "aetherspawn", "context": "small business owner", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47509636", "date": "2026-03-24"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["word processing", "formatting transcripts", "formatting notes", "everyday document writing", "web browsing and office docs", "letter writing"], "compared": [{"slug": "microsoft-word", "name": "Microsoft Word", "co": 6, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "libreoffice", "name": "LibreOffice", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "apple-numbers", "name": "Apple Numbers", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "keynote", "name": "Keynote", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "obsidian", "name": "Obsidian", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "xcode", "name": "Xcode", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "visual-studio-code", "name": "Visual Studio Code", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "notion", "name": "Notion", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47504112", "title": "Apple Business", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46601157", "title": "Apple Creator Studio", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250200", "title": "Why Notes will never let us edit Markdown", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49731395", "title": "A coffee shop owner used AI to make a menu poster. Then came the angry DMs", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48341578", "title": "Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48080439", "title": "Notion or Obsidian or Apple Notes?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 2, "warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1, "recommend": 3}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"compare": 1}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 804006306, "item_id": 50250394, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250394", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-10-26", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Otherwise, I paste into Pages and kick up the paragraph spacing.", "excerpt": "Notes blows away line breaks. Use Text Fixer. [0] I use it every day to make video transcripts readable. Such tools pop up and go away as ad or other revenue fails to pay the bills. Two modes: > Convert line breaks to paragraph breaks (it makes paragraphs by converting single line breaks to double line breaks) > Add a paragraph break after sentences (for text with absolutely no line breaks, this can dramatically incr", "context": "", "use_case": "formatting transcripts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why Notes will never let us edit Markdown"}, {"id": 795714961, "item_id": 49732185, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49732185", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-09-16", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "set up a simple grid (say, Pages on a mac or Libre Office or Scribus)", "excerpt": "The article contains a rather beautiful example done via camera (and product photography demands that you get the froth and lighting just in time and just right) decorated by an artistic employee. The owner had to resort to her standby Canva when the employee left, but lacking time due to a newborn. To me, having followed all kinds of embedded links over to Vermont and Germany, the latter example being extraordinaril", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A coffee shop owner used AI to make a menu poster. Then came the angry DMs"}, {"id": 773481282, "item_id": 48342580, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48342580", "by": "LeoPanthera", "date": "2026-05-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "all of which are excellent", "excerpt": "Other options include Calligra (especially on KDE) https://calligra.org And Macs are bundled with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, all of which are excellent.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft degrades functionality of perpetually-licensed offline products"}, {"id": 769290673, "item_id": 48080667, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48080667", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-05-09", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I copy such notes into Pages and increase the line/paragraph spacing.", "excerpt": "Re: Apple Notes. There is no way to adjust line spacing, so paragraphs look (according to reddit commentators) super crunched or smooshed. To make notes really readable, one must insert a blank line. I copy such notes into Pages and increase the line/paragraph spacing. I have not explored synching in Pages other than just posting to iCloud drive. And I have not adopted notion or obsidian since trashing Evernote. My s", "context": "", "use_case": "formatting notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Notion or Obsidian or Apple Notes?"}, {"id": 760154176, "item_id": 47509636, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47509636", "by": "aetherspawn", "date": "2026-03-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "A few months ago, on a price hike announcement for Office365 posted here to YC HN, I made a comment that MDM is expensive, had high MOQs (Mosyle, Jamf) and fundamentally still doesn\u2019t work as well as Windows and Intune. I also lamented that Microsoft keeps hiking prices and that it\u2019s silly we\u2019re normalising $20+ per user per month when we used to pay once for these things. I lamented how Apple hardware is now the sam", "context": "small business owner", "use_case": "word processing", "switched_from": "Microsoft Word", "story": "Apple Business"}, {"id": 760106736, "item_id": 47506671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47506671", "by": "sleepybrett", "date": "2026-03-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Pages is my current go-to.", "excerpt": "I used word for windows 2.0 well into the early 2000s. My needs aren't crazy and I don't think word has added a single feature I've cared about since. Pages is my current go-to.", "context": "", "use_case": "Everyday document writing", "switched_from": "Microsoft Word", "story": "Apple Business"}, {"id": 757443600, "item_id": 47340225, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47340225", "by": "insane_dreamer", "date": "2026-03-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll take Apple's Office suite (Pages, etc.) over MS Office any day", "excerpt": "Most consumers don't use Linux, and MacOS is far ahead of Windows IMO -- and I use all three OSs (and have for 30 years) I disagree that the software leaves to be desired Just an example, I'll take Apple's Office suite (Pages, etc.) over MS Office any day - or LibreOffice.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Neo"}, {"id": 756959904, "item_id": 47309994, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47309994", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-03-09", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I dearly miss Pages \u201909.", "excerpt": "When I used to use Pages frequently I just memorized all the relevant keyboard shortcuts and turned off the entire toolbar. That\u2019s however entirely unacceptable for most users. The sidebar for formatting they added is strictly worse than the inspector UI in old Pages \u201909. The sidebar is constrained not to overlap with content, but the user can choose to overlap the inspector. It\u2019s strictly better flexibility for user", "context": "", "use_case": "Word processing", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Window Chrome of Our Discontent"}, {"id": 756035970, "item_id": 47252248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47252248", "by": "mikestew", "date": "2026-03-04", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "running the Numbers/Pages/Keynote apps", "excerpt": "I'm typing this on a 2012 MBP with 8Gb of RAM. That seemed like plenty when I bought it, and I did dev work in Xcode on the thing. Granted, it can only run Catalina, but it still gets the job done for what I use it for now. \"Now\" being web browser and running the Numbers/Pages/Keynote apps, which is about what anyone buying the Neo is going to do with it. After 14 years of service, though, he'll get to retire soon, p", "context": "", "use_case": "web browsing and office docs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Introduces MacBook Neo"}, {"id": 753711753, "item_id": 47106984, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47106984", "by": "bromuro", "date": "2026-02-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "those are a delight to work with", "excerpt": "No, they are also inconsistent: slack, vscode, zed, claude, chatgpt, figma, notion, zoom, docker desktop, to quote some that i use daily. They have all different UI patterns and design. The only thing they have in common is that are slow, laggy, difficult to use and don\u2019t respond quickly to the Window manager. Compare to other software on Mac such as Pages, Xcode, Tower, Transmission, Pixelmator, mp3tag, Table plus, ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "When Code is Free, Why is Claude is an Electron app?"}, {"id": 753148113, "item_id": 47071757, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47071757", "by": "drcongo", "date": "2026-02-19", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I'd still rather write on something like this than Word, Pages or Google Docs.", "excerpt": "Those were the glory days of word processors, I used to have something similar on the Amiga. I'd still rather write on something like this than Word, Pages or Google Docs.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts"}, {"id": 752567328, "item_id": 47035458, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47035458", "by": "criddell", "date": "2026-02-16", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Pages for letter writing", "excerpt": "I'm your opposite. I use Pages for letter writing, Word for documentation, PyCharm for Python, Visual Studio for C++, VSCode for Javascript, Outlook for email, vi for bash and config files, SublimeText for markdown and html, OneNote for todos and project planning, Obsidian for my work log and outlines, the Notes app for on-the-go capture, etc...", "context": "", "use_case": "Letter writing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vim-pencil: Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing"}, {"id": 749593008, "item_id": 46849563, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849563", "by": "divbzero", "date": "2026-02-01", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "This anecdote from history feels timely given the recent shift of Apple\u2019s iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) from being bundled with Macs to being a freemium subscription. https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/28/apple-updates-keynote-numbers-pages/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple: Our philosophy is to provide software for our machines free (1976)"}, {"id": 748033137, "item_id": 46752071, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46752071", "by": "Yoric", "date": "2026-01-25", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "style sheets are so well integrated in the UI", "excerpt": "I find the UI clunky and a clear regression from older versions. A family member has recently written a book on the latest version of MS Word. It's not their first book written with MS Word. It's also not the first time I give a hand to make sure that typography matches publisher requirements. I find that using style sheets has become more complicated, more limited and better hidden with successive versions of MS Wor", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Europe wants to end its dangerous reliance on US internet technology"}, {"id": 746628224, "item_id": 46664264, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46664264", "by": "com2kid", "date": "2026-01-17", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The icon is horrible and generic", "excerpt": "I use a Mac daily, have for years now. I did not recognize that the icon in the article was for \"pages\" until it came to the icon with the word pages on it. The icon is horrible and generic and has failed to leave an impression on me over multiple years.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "If you put Apple icons in reverse it looks like someone getting good at design"}, {"id": 746502035, "item_id": 46656377, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46656377", "by": "seec", "date": "2026-01-17", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "The problem with Pages is that it is extremely mediocre at everything", "excerpt": "Well, that's a very hard question to answer without additional details. If it's graphics/presentation heavy, you most likely will need something like InDesign. If there is a lot of math, you'll need something like Latex (typist). If there are a lot of tables, you probably need something like Word to auto-update embeds from Excel. In general, Word will allow you to control features like footnotes/endnotes, tables of f", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Creator Studio"}, {"id": 745623072, "item_id": 46601442, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46601442", "by": "nottorp", "date": "2026-01-13", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Pages once a month for an invoice", "excerpt": "I use Pages once a month for an invoice :) Not sure why tbh, my other invoices are done in LibreOffice.", "context": "", "use_case": "invoices", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Creator Studio"}]}