Aug 26, 2009
It’s easy to share your Pages documents with others, even if they happen to be using Microsoft Windows or Word.
Regardless of where you stand on the Mac-versus-PC debate, you’re unlikely to put an end to the discussion. We have to face facts: some people will always use Macs and the rest will use PCs. This age-old squabble doesn’t have to get in the way of sharing, however, with more and more cross-platform applications available and increasingly friendly methods of communication on both systems. When it comes to page layout and word processing, however, there have always been some serious issues. Of course, plain text documents read as well on any computer, but when it comes to the smooth designs found in Pages templates or even beautiful formatting in its written documents, things sometimes go awry. In this tutorial we will show you how to not only save a Pages document in a Word-friendly format, but also explain how you can speed up the process by dropping your file into an email ready to impress your PC-using friends with your bi-partisan methods.
Step 1: Prepare Your Project
Start by launching Pages and load the project you wish to share in Word format. Once it is loaded head to the File menu at the top of the screen and select the Save Copy As option.
Step 2: Make A Copy
Rename your document as something memorable and then check the box labelled ‘Save copy as’. Make sure you select Word Document from the drop-down menu to save your file in the location specified.
Step 3: Prepare To Share
Your file will now be stored in the location you chose as a native Pages document and an exact replica will be stored with it in Word format. You are now able to open this document in Word.
Step 4: Speedier Sharing
For an even faster way to share a document compatible with Word you can email it directly. Simply select Send Via Mail from the Share menu and choose Word. This will automatically add a Word format file to a new email.
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I unfortunately have Pages 06 and do not have the option of changing it to a word document. I had to save it as a pdf. Makes it difficult for my class work.
V/R,
Did the same thing with Pages 09 to Word. After the ‘Save copy as Word doc’, I get a perfectly saved Word, but the Pages document is saved but still named ‘blank.pages’, both in the Pages window and tthe chosen folder. Confused!
Amazing. Easy to follow and works brilliantly. Thanks.
I wish I could save to word format as a default, because I have to share everything with word-only users.
There is another way, if you would only like to switch document types!
File > Export
Choose the type of document.
This is what worked for me, I hope it helps.
It does indeed port to a word document, but it loses any formatting for headers and footers!
How do I save a .pages file as word WITH the headers? Novel manuscripts need these. Any help with figuring this out is appreciated!
When I tried typing doing this tutorial, it didn’t show up as save as. It only say “save a version”. I started to experiment a bit with the softwaren until i found export. I did this by either going File>export or Share>export Anyone else have this problem?
Hi Kyle,
I’m afraid this tutorial was written before Lion was released, and it has now changed the functionality of Pages. You can now save Versions of your work which you can then flick back through to see the changes you’ve made (kind of like with Time Machine).
Export is now the best port of call if you want to save in a different format, but you’ve already found that one! If you have any problems with it just let us know
Stephen
I can save my Pages doc in Word format, but text boxes move around and disappear. A whole page disappears. And I get an error message saying certain aspects are not supported (character boundaries? text wrapping?) and therefore removed. What am I doing wrong??
Hi Samantha,
There are a few discrepancies when it comes to saving Pages documents in .doc format, especially when it comes to text boxes. Have you tried exporting any other documents in Word format? If you’ve had the same problem it may well be one of these export issues but if it works fine it might well be something document specific. The only other thing we can suggest is that if you’re exporting your document to Word format so, for example, a Windows user can read it, that you export it to a PDF. This should preserve all of your text boxes and formatting in a universal document format that everyone can open and read.
Hope this helps!
Freddie
Amazing.
That works well.
Thanks very much
I am having issues with exporting page documents to word documents. An error box comes up and says unable to export. What do you think is wrong?
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for getting in touch – unfortunately, there could be a number of reasons why your Pages document isn’t exporting, so we’ll have to try and whittle this down a little. First off, what operating system are you running? The most recent one for Mac is OS X 10.7 Lion, you can find this out by clicking the Apple logo in the top-left of your screen and then ‘About this Mac’. It’d also be useful to know what version of Pages you’re using. This can be found by clicking on ‘Pages’ in the menu bar when the app is running and then clicking on ‘About Pages’. Is this an issue with every document you try to export?
FH
The new Pages in Lion OS doesn’t save in .docx but in .doc when exported. It no longer has a “save as” option and it’s driving me crazy. My professors only choose to view the formatting in word documents and I while Pages does not export the format settings. I love Pages and dislike the educational system because it is all Windows based.