I recently downloaded the trial version of Apple’s iWork ‘08 which contains three programs: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Over three posts, I’ll document my experience and eventual decision whether or not to buy iWork.

Pages

Starting with a blank page, I had to “unlearn” a bit as there is no ubiquitous Tool palette as in the Adobe Creative Suite programs. There’s a row of what I’ll call “primitives” at the top: Text Box, Shapes, Table, and Chart. Just below this row is a Format bar which presents different options depending on what’s selected on your page. Pretty much all composition is achieved by clicking and dragging, so I just started playing with each primitive in order.

Text Boxes

Text boxes work similarly to text fields in other applications. After defining the area, you type text directly into it. Pages takes advantage of the exemplar font formatting capabilities of OSX.

Most page layout programs allow linking of text boxes to flow text from one to another. In Pages, click the small blue arrow in the lower right corner of a text box and then click on the text box you want to link to. A blue line appears to indicate the relationship. Removing the linking is much the same - just click on the same solid blue box and then outside a text box.

Shapes

Pages provides a variety of shapes. You can resize the shape or change its color easily - when it’s selected, you get little white squares to adjust a corner. The ones on the edges will change the width or height. It’s all quite intuitive. Certain shapes have more attributes. With a rounded corner rectangle, a small circle in the upper left corner adjusts the roundness of the corner for this particular shape. The star shape has a slider to control the number of points. There’s also a traditional pen tool with Bezier curves.

When dragging objects or even points, blue lines appear that indicate a line-up with other objects, helping create a balanced layout.

Adding an image is as simple as dragging it into the document. The resize options for an image keep it proportional - the assumption is why would anyone want it otherwise?

You can easily create “masks” by dragging an image into a shape. A simple slider tool appears where you can adjust the size and position of the masked image.

Text wrap is also easy - select a shape, and on the far right of the Format bar is a wrap icon and menu.

Another cool image editing feature is Instant Alpha, used to knock out certain colors of an image so you can see an element behind. You click on a representative knock-out color and drag, increasing the width of a circle which controls the tolerance. It’s pretty slick. In the above image, the tool is indicating in purple what colors I’ve selected.

Table and Chart

The table option functions as one would expect, but with a few subtle changes that indicate how Apple believes most users will use the tool. The default table has its first row shaded grey. The cells also automatically resize based on whatever is entered in them.

The charts in Pages all look a bit better than the ones available in Microsoft Office by default. You can also tweak colors, textures, and create a 3D graph very simply. Here’s a chart made of wood (maybe you’re in construction).

More Power

I found all the tools intuitive and easy to use, but some may want more control - little numbers for exact manipulation. With any element selected, click Inspector, and a palette window appears containing many element attributes just begging to be tweaked.

Available through the Inspector are rotation, drop shadows, and border styles. Creating a bordered rectangle, dropping a photograph, and slightly rotating the shape is a quick way to create the “Polaroid photograph” graphic so common in family newsletters.

Integration With iLife

Pages is expectedly well integrated with iLife. Meaning, if you click on Media you have access to all your iPhoto photographs, music in iTunes, and movies from iMovie.

Templates

Apple wisely assumes it’s easier for casual users to tweak an existing template than start from scratch. Pages includes tons of already-designed documents available from the Template Chooser. This may also come in handy for learning how to create certain graphic elements - you can open up a template, find something that catches your eye, and look at its attributes with the Inspector.

Conclusion

Pages essentially combines a word processor with a text-layout program. It’s a careful combination of simplicity and power. I think it’s friendly enough for a novice to get something done but includes additional capabilities that should cover the vast majority of non-professional uses.

The only downside I should mention is compatibility with other programs. Pages does export to PDF and DOC but when I exported a template with images and fancy frames, the resulting documents were formatted a bit oddly in Illustrator and the Word doc was missing some elements. But I think if the user has a lot of media in iLife the compatibility with Word may not be missed. Many casual users may not have Office and be even less likely to care about Adobe’s applications.

I also feel that as a web designer there is a tendency for me to “overkill” a project, meaning using InDesign and Illustrator to create a one-page holiday newsletter. With Pages, I think I could save $99 worth of time. My biggest hurdle will be to “unlearn” the tools and conventions in Adobe and Microsoft programs. But even after a mere half an hour playing with Pages, I think I’ve seen everything I’d need.

Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.

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