Pages... showstopper? or non-issue?

[btoneill]

So, it appears that Pages has no mail merge functionality. My question is, am I one of a select few freaks who uses mail merge, or is it commonly used?

Brian

[symphonix]

Nope, you're definitely a freak. ;-)

[pds]

I don't use it often, but I do use it regularly. It fills in performance certificates at the end of the year. It is one of the few things i still use Word for, and I was hoping to have a classier design base to use mail merge with.

Sorry to hear Pages doesn't have it.

[Salvo]

Fingers-Crossed, Mail Merge will be implemented with AppleScript. Hopefully in a Point-Version Update before you have to do your Performance Certificates.

What Macros are available in Pages? I presume Page Number and Number of Pages. Are there Document Attributes like Keywords, Author and Summary?
When AppleScript gets introduced, These Macros would be super-powerful, and would rival anything you could write in VBA for Word… except maybe Viruses, There's no way any scripting language could beat VBA for Viruses

[chevy]

Pages is _NOT_word !

Pages is a document editor... like XPRESS. Not a text editor. For simple text edition, I suggest you use NeoOffice/J that is quite reliable now.

[pds]

Pages claims to be a word processor, ergo a replacement for Word.
From the Apple website

Pages, a streamlined yet powerful word processor, lets you create everything from letters to newsletters to brochures.

Mail merge is a word processing function, one that is a royal pain to figure out the first time, regardless of the package, because they all do it a bit differently. I can do it in Word while half asleep, just that the document looks so - Wordish. I tried in NeoOffice - gave up, because in the end, even when I get it to work, the document is still just blasé.

I hope Pages becomes scriptable; it'll give me something to knock my head against that'll be worth the effort.

[lurk]

Methinks that word "ergo" does not mean what you think it means. You are claiming that "pages is a replacement for Word" is a necessary result of "pages claims to be a word processor". You are being silly? Right?

Word is a bloated memo writer and as such it is a word processor. But it does not follow that all word processors must necessarily be nondeterministic exercises in pain like Word.

But hey we all got our biases right?

[fryke]

I think he EXACTLY means that and he is right. 'ergo' is used in exactly this way, although you might loosen on its meaning a bit.

But: Yes, Apple intends to sell Pages as a word processing application. An easy-to-use, fun one, but still a word processing application. The fact that it also produces nice documents should not let them (Apple) forget that the world of word processing has changed since MacWrite II, and Mail Merge is certainly one of the things people who want to use Pages might want to have.

I hope Apple will make Pages scriptable as soon as possible, as it'll enable users and developers to create what's missing.