New Mavericks OSX

Installed Tuesday Night

Along the driveway

While I was writing last night’s blog on the MacBook, I was downloading and installing Mavericks, the new Apple OS X operating system. I like it, so far.

I write posts for this blog using Google Docs. It’s an online document/design App. That means I can use any computer, or combination of computers in the process of writing and editing it. When it is ready, I use Blogger to publish Phil’s Place on Blogspot. I like it. It works for me.

Character study

Just because I have used Apple computers since 1985, doesn’t mean that there aren’t some other products out there that I find more useful.

Like browsers. Apple makes the Safari browser, but I rarely use it. Why?  Because Mozilla Firefox is the browser that works much better for the things I do online.

Neighborhood vulture

Google provides Google Docs as part of Gmail, and I find that works best for my blogging needs.

But, when it comes to graphic design and printed materials, there is no program that suits my needs, better than Pages, the Apple document/graphics App.

At least until tonight, when I tried out the new version of Pages that loaded as part of the new Mavericks operating system.

Brilliant colors of Fall

I opened up the new Pages 5.0, expecting snappier performance, and a few new features.

Instead, there was this gradeschoolers drawing of a document making program, after they had seen a picture of Microsoft Office!

Flowers in the sunshine

What the heck? I spent about an hour getting all the pre-formated crap off of the work page on my screen. Because, a blank page was not a blank page.

Unlike the real Pages, where one could shrink or enlarge the inspector and place it in a discreet location on the desktop, the new inspector is right smack on the page, taking up a third of the work area. The ruler only showed on top, and took up too much space.

I don’t miss slide photography

The useful controls, options, and editing tools that once were grouped where they could be part of the creative design flow, have been moved ‘willy nilly’ into places that make no work sense.

Pages is now as cumbersome and anti-creative as Adobe products and Microsoft Office Suite. What a travesty.

Stand out beauty

I wrote to Apple and gave them my review of Pages 5.0.

I don’t know if the new guy will listen. Like any new manager, he wants to put his stamp on Apple, even if that means ignoring the elegant graphic design and natural flowing user interface that made Apple the only computer for the world’s creative community.

But all is not lost. I have 2 MacBooks, and my older MacBook sill has the Mountain Lion operating system with the previous version of Pages intact. So it is available for all my graphic design projects, at least until the ghost of Steve Jobs scares the stupid out of Tim Cook, and we get the previous version of Pages installed on Mavericks.

Then, maybe a real designer can try to come up with a useful upgrade.

Today’s Video;

Out In The Wind