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Import and Export Word .Doc in Pages

Pages actually makes formatting letters fun, doesn’t it? With all the templates for making newsletters, storyboards, even brochures and business reports, who could ask for more? Well Windows users, I guess.

Suppose my coworker has Microsoft Word and he needs to read the document I created in Pages. He won’t be able to open a .pages file on his Windows machine. In Pages, I can Export to Microsoft Word easily. But this comes at a price. The way Pages and Word format documents seems to be extremely different. They really do not like to talk to one another even. If I export a document from Pages to Word that has little formatting, like a standard letter, it will most likely export to and from Word nicely. But once I try to export a .pages file that contains a groovy design from one of the templates, Word freaks out and puts all the images where it thinks they should go.

The trick really is to do this like the professionals do: write the copy and design the document separately. If I must export from Pages to Word, then try to just include only the copy, or the text of the document. The export should work or be close to the original when opened in Word. When I want to make the document look fancy, copy and paste the text into the design template.

Here is the method to export a .Pages document to .Doc Word format:

Select File -> Export from the menu bar in Pages.

Click the Word Tab and Click Next…

Select where I want the .Doc to be saved.

Click Export.

If the guy using Word wants to print the .Pages document and doesn’t need to edit it, then exporting into a PDF would be the wiser idea. Just follow the direction above, but click the PDF tab instead of the Word Tab in Step #2.

I can open a .doc in Pages and even edit it and save as a .Pages file. If Pages isn’t set as the default application to open Word files, just Ctrl + Click the .doc file in Finder and Select Open With… Pages. Again, there may be formatting differences between the two applications.