Pages (word processor)

Pages is a word processing program developed by Apple that is part of the iWork productivity suite. It runs on the macOS, iPadOS, and iOS operating systems and is also available on the iCloud website. The first version of Pages was released in February 2005. Pages is marketed by Apple as an easy-to-use application that allows users to quickly create documents on their devices. On January 27, 2010, Apple announced a new version of Pages for iPad with a touch interface. On May 31, 2011, Apple updated the iOS version of Pages to 1.4, providing it as a universal binary, which allowed the app to be run on iPhones and iPod Touch devices, in addition to iPads. On October 12, 2011, Apple updated the iOS app to version 1.5, adding the iCloud "Documents in the Cloud" feature. iOS Pages was updated to version 1.6 on March 7, 2012, and will only run on iOS 5.1 or later. Pages for OS X was updated to version 4.3 on December 4, 2012, to support Pages 1.7 for iOS, which was released on the same day. Pages for iOS 1.7.1 introduced better compatibility with Word and Pages for Mac, and version 1.7.2, released on March 7, 2013, merely added stability improvements and bug fixes.

On October 23, 2013, Apple released a redesign with Pages 5.0 and made it free for anyone with an iOS device. In this release, many templates, as well as some advanced features that were available in version 4.3, were not included. Some of these missing features were put back over subsequent releases, but the current release still lacks features from version 4.3, including the ability to select non-contiguous regions of text, advanced find/replace functions, and more.

As part of the launch of Apple Creator Studio on January 28, 2026, version 15.1 of Pages for macOS was released as a new app rather than an update to the existing app, which will no longer receive any new features. The iOS and iPadOS versions were unaffected by this and received the update as normal. As part of this, the application moved to a freemium model, with everything remaining free except for the newly added advanced editing features, which require an Apple Creator Studio subscription.

Features

Pages is a word processor and page layout application. When Pages first released, users are presented with a template chooser which allows them to start with a blank document or with a predesigned template — including a basic, report, letter, résumé, envelope, business card, flyers & posters, cards, miscellaneous and a newsletter section of templates — that contains placeholder text and images which can be replaced by dragging and dropping photos from the Media Browser. The Media Browser provides quick access to media from iTunes, iMovie, and Photos. Users can drag and drop music, movies, and photos directly into Pages documents from the Media Browser window. A separate Inspector window provides almost all formatting options available for any element in the open document.

Beginning in iWork '08, word processing and page layout are two distinct modes. In word processing mode, Pages supports headers and footers, footnotes and outlining, and list creation. Users can collaborate with others on a document. Pages tracks changes by users by displaying each person's edits in different colors. Users can also add comments alongside the document. In page layout mode, users have complete control over the position of objects on the page. Images and text can be placed anywhere on the canvas. The mail merge feature was completely removed in version 5 and it did not return until version 12.1. Tables and charts pasted from Numbers are automatically updated if the original spreadsheet is changed.). Pages 4 and earlier could also import AppleWorks word processing documents, and export documents to rich text, but those features were removed in Pages 5.0 and not restored until Pages 6.1. Pages 5 can still export files in PDF, EPUB, and Microsoft Word DOC formats.

Simple and complex mathematical equations can be written for a Pages document with macOS's Grapher, offering similar capabilities to Microsoft Equation Editor (plus 2D and 3D rendering tools only Grapher can use).

As of January 2015, Pages does not support OpenDocument file format.

The only software other than Pages that can open its files are Apple's iWork productivity suite through Apple's iCloud, LibreOffice, and Jumpshare. Windows users can view and edit Pages files using iWork for iCloud via a web browser. The iCloud system can also read Microsoft Word files and convert Pages files to Microsoft Word format. Jumpshare can view Pages files.

Other than accessing iCloud through a browser, no program can officially view or edit a Pages file using Windows or Linux. Some content can be retrieved from a document created in Pages '09 because a .pages file is a bundle. A user can open a .pages file in an unpackaging program or by renaming files as .zip files in Windows (XP and onwards) and will find either a .jpg or .pdf preview in its entirety for viewing and printing, although this is only possible if the creator of the .pages files elected to include a preview (by default, this feature is left on). The user will also find a .xml file with unformatted text. This process can also be used for users of the 2008 version of Pages to open documents saved in the 2009 version of Pages, which are not backward compatible.

Pages can also export documents into several formats; formatting is generally retained during the export process.

Version history

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: left;"

! Version number !! width="150" | Release date !! Changes

| 1.0

| January 11, 2005

| Initial release.

| 1.0.1

| March 17, 2005

| Fixes isolated bugs and issues causing problems for some customers. It also allowed the deletion of template pages.

| 1.0.2

| May 25, 2005

| Addresses issues with page navigation and organization.

| 2.0

| January 10, 2006

| Released as part of iWork '06. Includes new templates, table calculations, photo masking with shapes, and freestyle Bézier curves.

| 2.0.1

| April 26, 2006

| Pages 2.0.1 addresses issues with charts and image adjustments. It also addresses several other minor issues.

| 2.0.1v2

| May 1, 2006

| Pages 2.0.1v2 addresses issues with charts and image adjustments. It also addresses several other minor issues.

| 2.0.2

| September 28, 2006

| Pages 2.0.2 addresses issues with Aperture compatibility.

| 3.0

| August 7, 2007

| Pages 3.0 was released as part of iWork '08. It introduces compatibility with Office Open XML (Microsoft Office 2007) files. Introduced Change Tracking. Transparency tool for pictures. Pages 3.0 needs only a third (260 MB) of the hard disk space required for Pages 2.0 (760 MB) despite the added functionality.

| 3.0.1

| September 27, 2007

| Addresses issues with performance and change tracking.

| 3.0.2

| January 29, 2008

| This update addresses compatibility with Mac OS X.

| 3.0.3

| February 2, 2008

| Compatibility issues.

| 4.0

| January 6, 2009

| Released as part of iWork '09. New features include the ability to edit in a full-screen view, better compatibility with Microsoft Office, an outline mode, the option to upload documents to the new iWork.com service, and expanded configurability for the "track changes" feature (including the option to turn off change balloons while keeping comment balloons visible).

| 4.0.1

| March 26, 2009

| Improves reliability when working with EndNote X2 or MathType 6, or deleting Pages files.

| 4.0.2

| May 28, 2009

| Improves reliability when saving documents.

| 4.0.3

| September 28, 2009

| Improves reliability with full-screen mode, applying transparency to images, and EndNote citations.

| 4.0.4

| August 26, 2010

| Adds support for exporting to the EPUB format (for use with iBooks) and fixes problems with tables.

| 4.0.5

| January 5, 2011

| Improves the readability of exported EPUB documents.

| 4.1

| July 20, 2011

| Adds support for Mac OS X Lion, including Full-Screen, Resume, Auto Save, Versions, and Character picker. Improves Microsoft Office Compatibility.

| 4.2

| July 25, 2012

| Adds support for OS X Mountain Lion and storing documents in iCloud.

| 4.3

| December 4, 2012

| Adds support for iWork for iOS 1.7 apps.

| 5.0

| October 22, 2013

| Adds online collaboration across Macs and iOS devices as well as over the web via iCloud.com. Removes many advanced features, including mail merge, text box linking, default zoom setting, book format, page count, bookmarks, images in tables, and the ability to read/export RTF files.

| 5.0.1

| November 21, 2013

| Adds the ability to customize the toolbar with your most important tools. Stability improvements and bug fixes.

| 5.1

| January 24, 2014

| Adds back vertical ruler and a few other features. Stability improvements and bug fixes.

| 5.2

| April 1, 2014

| Adds "view only" option for sharing via iCloud. Improved support for bi-directional languages such as Hebrew and Arabic. Improved Instant Alpha, text boxes, EPUB exporting, and AppleScript support.

| 5.2.2

| August 21, 2014