Free word processing software

Pages is a free word processor developed by Apple. The application automatically comes with most Apple products. While the word processing app is available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Mac devices, you can still use Pages on Microsoft Windows PC devices with documents that are stored on the iCloud website.

Pages is an underrated service compared to Microsoft Office 356, which is the most used suite of productivity tools on the market. Microsoft Word is the most popular program to write documents. Word will automatically save your documents as the accessible .doc file format. While the native file type for Pages is .pages, you can easily export your files to Word on your Mac.

Can you open .pages in Word?

Apple has figured out how to open a .pages file on a Windows 10 OS or later. You can save your documents to your iCloud account to open the docs on iCloud.com in your web browser. While Word does not open .pages files, you can convert .pages to .docx in the Pages user interface.

PDF is another popular file type that Pages lets you export your native .pages files to. The conversion process is simple. ‘Export to’ is a command inside of the ‘File’ tab on your screen. File types are available in the ‘Export to’ menu. Additionally, you also choose to save your .pages doc as an EPUB, plain text, rich text, or pages ’09 format.

A tabbed window is in the user interface to let you export your document. You can easily switch the format to another file type. PDF is the best choice to use when you do not want the archive to get edited again. You can choose the image quality you want from the drop-down menu in the PDF tab. 

Word files are ideal to convert to when another person needs to edit the script. Since Pages has fonts that Word does not have, you will want to make sure the font that you use is available in the Microsoft platform before you send the doc. Additionally, you can password protect your documents so that not everyone can make alterations.

The Mac directory appears to let you choose a destination to save your file after you click ‘Next’. You can tap on the ‘Share’ tab to send a copy of your work. A menu will appear when you hover above ‘Send a copy’ to let you send your file with the Mail, Messages, AirDrop, or Notes mediums.

How do I install Apple Pages?

Apple products will often come with Pages preinstalled since Pages is part of the iWork suite. Keynote and Numbers are additional apps created by Apple. Keynote is a presentation application, while Numbers is a spreadsheet platform. You can download Pages in the App Store for free.

Pages has a convenient feature called ‘Collaborate’, which is like Google Docs. You can share your document with another Pages user to let either party revise the doc. Edits are saved in real-time for each person to see. You can tap on ‘Collaborate with others’ in the ‘Share’ tab or press the ‘Collaborate’ button in the user interface.

The Pages application can be used on iPadOS, iOS, and macOS devices. iCloud.com lets PC users create or collaborate with Pages. The freeware is easy to use, and the user-friendly design is another benefit to having the Pages vs Word program installed on your Mac.

How do you use Pages?

Pages by Apple is the ideal platform to create books, brochures, posters, resumes, etc. You can choose from lists of templates. While templates serve as a foundation, Pages make recreating the designs easy. Word, on the other hand, often makes interacting with photos difficult. Pages adapt to your edits quickly and pictures can be moved anywhere in the doc. You can drag and drop corners to resize the images.

Buttons you will see on the UI are:

• Table 
• Chart 
• Text 
• Shape 
• Media 
• Comment

You can tap on ‘Media’ to expand a menu with a list of mediums to choose from such as Photos, Image Gallery, Movies, Web Videos, Music, and Record Audio are available add-ons. The ‘Image Gallery’ lets you put multiple images on a carousel, and the ‘Movies’ lets you find videos for your document. You can also use the ‘Web Video’ option to paste web page URLs from YouTube or Vimeo. Press play on the preview that appears to instantly begin the web video. ‘Music’ lets you drag and drop songs or podcast episodes onto the doc. The audio will appear as a button that you can press to play or pause the content.

An overview of the pages that you are currently working on will appear on left. You can choose the ‘Format’ button to customize your creations. Since Pages interacts with your movements in real-time, the ‘Format’ area will adapt to the objects that you click. You can modify text font, styles, sizes, spacing, and colors when you highlight text.

The ultimate word processor

Pages by Apple is the optimal word processing program for creatives. You can develop advertisements for business and personal purposes. While Word can be awkward to use, Pages is precise. You can edit imported Word docs directly in Pages and it supports Apple products like the Apple Pencil, Magic Keyboard, Mouse, and Trackpad.

What’s new?

Apple is consistently updating the Pages platform. While new templates are added in updated versions, Pages could still benefit from a larger catalog to choose from. A neat feature that Pages recently added is the option to turn your handwriting into text.