Announcement
PAGES Document File Format
Text documents, created in Apple's Pgaes program (part of the Apple iWork Office Suit) have the PAGES extension. The format, created in 2005, allows you to save text in documents, as well as general page formatting. The purpose of developing the format is to simplify the difficulties that work in Microsoft program Word. Not only does Pages come with nearly 140 templates for a variety of popular documents, but it also allows users to create new documents from scratch. Compatible with other Apple applications, the program allows users to drag and drop various media files into a document. As with using Microsoft Word, when using the PAGES program, users can create tables, columns, headers, footers, check grammar and spelling, count words, solve equations, autosave documents, etc. Since version 2007, Pages supports DOCX files and related files.
Technical information about PAGES files
Apple has not officially released format specifications, but it has been reported that iWork '09 Pages files contain a ZIP container file containing the following files: index.xml, buildVersionHistory, and a QuickLook folder with thumbnails and/or PDF files preview. The index.xml file contains metadata and format information. Older PAGES files are not compatible with newer versions, which is why the only way to open old files, and indeed PAGES files in Microsoft applications, is to convert them. As of 2012, Pages no longer supports OpenDocument format; This means that PAGES files can only be opened by Pages, Google Docs, and Jumpshare. However, neither Jumpshare nor Google Docs can edit such files. They can only save files and view them (Google Docs can also convert them to PDF for later printing).
Additional information about the PAGES format
File extension | .pages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Version | Date | Key features |
1.0 | February 2005 | First version - basic features - tables, columns, headers & footers, and some formatting. |
2.0 | January 2006 | Released in iWork "06. Includes 3-D graphing, inline searching, page management, comment support and new table tools. |
3.0 | August 2007 | Released in iWork "08. Introduced a contextual format bar, change tracking, grammar checking (via "Proofreader"), support for Microsoft Office 2007 .docx files (Office Open XML) and image masking features. |
4.0 | January 2009 | Released in iWork "09. New features such as a running word count, full screen editing, equation support (via MathType), support for iWork.com, outline mode, improved support for Microsoft Office documents. |
4.1 | July 2011 | Support added for Mac OS X Lion, full screen document editing, auto saving, resume, document versioning, better compatibility with Microsoft Office. |
4.2 | July 2012 | Support added for Mac OS X Mountain Lion, document syncing via iCloud, retina display support, voice supoprt via Dictation. |
4.3 | December 2012 | iWork iOS 1.7 apps supported. |
5.0 | October 2013 | Allows online collaboration for both Macs and iOS devices, but removed a number of more advanced features. |
5.2 | April 2014 | Improved language support for Arabic and Hebrew, and better AppleScript support. |
5.5.1 | November 2014 | Support for iCloud Drive, improved compatibility with Microsoft Word 2013 and faster performance. |
To save a copy of a Pages document in another format, you export it in the new format. This is useful when you need to send the document to people who are using different software. Any changes you make to the exported document don’t affect the original.
If you’ve added marks or edits using Smart Annotation, they won’t appear in exported Word, EPUB, or Pages ’09 documents. In an exported PDF, annotations appear if they were visible when you exported.
Note: If the original file has a password, it applies to copies exported in PDF, Word, and Pages ’09 formats, but you can change or remove it.
Save a copy of a Pages document in another format
Export a book or other document in EPUB format
To make it possible to read your document in an ebook reader (such as Apple Books), you can export it in EPUB format.
Title and Enter the title and author you want viewers to see if you publish it.
Cover: Use the first page of the document or choose an image file.
Layout: For a word-processing document, you can choose “Fixed layout” to preserve the layout of the page, or Reflowable so readers can adjust the font size and style (which may change how much content is visible on each page). Page layout documents can use only a fixed layout.
Category and Language: Click Advanced Options, then assign a category for the EPUB document and indicate the language of the document.
View As: Click Advanced Options, then choose Single Page to show one page at a time, or Two Pages to show a two-page spread.
Use Table of Contents: Click Advanced Options, then choose Use Table of Contents if you want to include the table of contents you created.
Embed Fonts: Click Advanced Options, then select the checkbox to include TrueType and OpenType fonts in your EPUB document.
Open the document, then choose File > Export To > EPUB (from the File menu at the top of your screen).
Enter the requested information:
Click Next, then type a name for the document.
The filename extension .epub is automatically appended to the document name.
To choose where to save the document, click the Where pop-up menu, choose a location, then click Export.
To see more locations, click the arrow button next to the Where pop-up menu (in macOS High Sierra 10.13, click the arrow button next to the Save As text field).
To make your book available for purchase or download from Apple Books, you can publish it to Apple Books directly from Pages. An EPUB file is created during the process-you don’t need to export the book in EPUB format first.