Microsoft has made some substantial improvements to the OS X version of its Office suite with promises for even more enhancements but not all Mac owners want to turn to the Redmond company for their word processing needs. In fact, Apple’s own Pages is more than enough for the casual user though they will quickly find that the documents they create cannot be shared with Windows users as they are in a completely different format.
Conversion is the way to go in these situations and there is more than one way to turn your Pages documents into files compatible with Microsoft’s Word.
Pages
Converting through the actual Pages app is probably the easiest solution, especially once you know where to look.
- Open your document in Pages.
- Click on the File menu and select the Export to > Word option.
- The “Export Your Document” dialog should now open. At this point you could choose a different format by clicking on one of the other tabs. Furthermore, expanding the Advanced Options menu will let you choose the exact Word format you prefer (see above). Once you are ready, click on next to continue.
- In this section you can select a location for the exported document, add tags, and change its name. Configure anything you want here and click on Export when you are done to initiate the conversion procedure.
- This should not take more than a few seconds for small documents but it may take a while if the file is huge. When the conversion is completed, you will find the new document at your specified location and it will be ready to use in Word.
iCloud
This option is probably more useful to people who have received a Pages document but do not actually own the app themselves. You will need an iCloud account for this but anyone can create one even if they do not own an iOS device or a Mac.
Note: If this is your first time using iCloud, you may need to verify your identity via email or SMS.
- Start by visiting the iCloud website and logging in with your account.
- Click on the Pages icon and you will be taken to the web-based interface of the word processor.
- In order to edit the Pages document, you will need to enclose it in a Zip file first. In OS X, right-click on the file and choose to “Compress Items”. In Windows, right-click on the file and select Send To > Compressed (zip) folder.
- You can now take the file, drop it in the Pages interface and it will instantly become available for editing.
- Once the document has been uploaded, double click on it and then click on the wrench icon near the top.
- Select the “Download a copy” option.
- Choose “Word” as the desired format and a new file and be created and downloaded to your computer automatically.
