Microsoft Word was the word processing darling of the PC era, but Google Docs took the crown during the age of internet ubiquity. Still, you can deal with that by exporting finished documents to Word’s DOCX format and PDF and for the solo user, we reckon Pages is the best option on iPhone and iPad alike. It’s also unlikely you’ll know many people who can open native Pages files. The app falls down on collaboration features, which are needlessly clunky compared to those in rival apps. And you can opt for a thumbnail or two-page view, making superb use of the larger display. An optional two-pane view allows for a more Mac-like experience, flanking your document with styles settings for the currently selected item. With the tablet docked to a keyboard, a floating toolbar sits at the foot of the screen, helping you quickly access controls while leaving your hands close to the keys. On iPad, the app feels right at home too.
Pages on iPad makes good use of the extra screen space. There’s an optional on-screen live word count, and a ‘Screen View’ setting to optimize content for your iPhone’s display while you work on it. At the top of the screen, buttons let you quickly dig into the details of formatting or add charts and images. The extra keyboard row on iPhone has fewer buttons than Word’s, but nonetheless provides fast access to controls you most often need. It’s the most responsive of the three apps on test, and its design language makes everything come across as familiar if you already use an iPhone or iPad. Unsurprisingly, the app feels at one with the system. The templates look swish – not quite magazine quality, but at least like someone’s put creative thought into the kinds of reports, flyers and letters you might like to use. Once part of Apple’s iWork suite, Pages was – and is – Apple’s answer to Microsoft Word. That said, it’s worth downloading for free, ready for those times when someone sends you a Word document and you need to be absolutely sure it looks exactly as it should when opened. With Word being less user-friendly than Pages and less open than Google Docs for collaboration, it’s only worth buying if you or people you work with are ensconced in Microsoft’s ecosystem. The snag is the inherent inflexibility of the system across platforms, unless you pay. But the app is responsive and the feature set is solid, with nice touches like ‘read aloud’ (saving you dealing with Apple’s equivalent in Settings), a headings navigator, and an extra keyboard row you can swipe to access a slew of shortcuts. When you do venture into the app itself, you find a selection of templates put together by worse designers than Apple’s, and an ugly set of distracting buttons across the top of the screen.
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