Three easy ways to email Pages in non-iWork format

Note: this is an excerpt from a previous article on this blog.

There are several ways of sending Pages documents as email attachments. However, your correspondent should also have iWork/Pages. In many cases it makes more sense to send out Pages in non-iWork format.

Try these three easy ways of sending out Pages:

1. MAIL PDF
- command+P to open print dialogue window. Click on PDF in the bottom left corner. Choose Mail Pdf. Your Pages document automatically converts to PDF format of a mailable size and attaches to a new email message. Fill in the address and message, send. This option is preferable if your correspondent is to make comments to the document. Acrobat allows making comments on PDF documents.

2. MAIL JPEG
- open print dialogue window, click on PDF and choose Save PDF to iPhoto. Your Pages document converts to JPEG format. Then, in iPhoto click on the Mail icon and send out your JPEG. iPhoto has an option of reducing the JPEG file for fast loading.

3. PNG SCREENSHOTS.
It's a quick and fun way of sending out smaller Pages documents or documents in work, because screenshots show guides, invisibles and open Inspectors. The keyboard shortcut to make a screenshot is Command+Shift and hit 4. Cursor turns into crosshairs, drag it to select the area for a screenshot, let go of the mouse (a no-buttons macmouse) and, after a camera shutter sounds, you get a PNG file on your desktop.

If you want a screenshot of just one particular open window, document, Inspector or open folder, press Command+Shift, type 4 and then hit the Space Bar. Move the cursor over the window (it will highlight) and click to get the screenshot in PNG format.

The ease of sharing files in a networked environment is one of the main considerations for businesses and offices when they choose a productivity suite - with a word processor, presentation and spreadsheet programmes. With low cost, striking templates, ease of use and full integration with other applications which come preinstalled on Macs, iWork may be an attractive choice.

Please read other related articles on this blog:
How to send iWork Pages as email attachments
Sending out Pages documents
Quick JPEGs straight from Pages

and an overview of how teamwork can be organised around iWork/Pages:
Sharing and teamwork in iWork/Pages

Three easy ways to send Pages as email attachments

1. ZIP - compress to .zip
2. DMG - as disc image
3. STUFFIT - compress through Stuffit

1. To save your Pages document in .zip format just resave it typing .zip after the name of the file, but before the .pages extension, if it is not hidden. Choose Save as... from the file menu (or use the keyboard shortcut: Command+Shift+S) and when the dialogue window opens, type .zip.

2. To create a disc image (.dmg) file out of a Pages document, resave in the same way as above, but type .dmg after the name of the file.

3. To stuff your Pages document, launch StuffIt and drag your file over the programme's icon.

After doing this simple operation you can attach your Pages document as you would with files created in other programmes.

You may find that the first two options are more attractive, if you have to email Pages documents often, because StuffIt is a paid for application.

And, of course, all this only makes sense if your correspondent also has iWork/Pages to open your document.

If not, try these three easy ways of sending out Pages documents in non-iWork formats:

1. MAIL PDF - command+P to open print dialogue window. Click on PDF in the bottom left corner. Choose Mail Pdf. Your Pages document automatically converts to PDF format of a mailable size and attaches to a new email message. Fill in the address and message, send. This option is preferable if your correspondent is to make comments to the document. Acrobat allows making comments on PDF documents.

2. MAIL JPEG - open print dialogue window, click on PDF and choose Save PDF to iPhoto. Your Pages document converts to JPEG format. Then, in iPhoto click on the Mail icon and send out your JPEG. iPhoto has an option of reducing the JPEG file for fast loading.

3. PNG SCREENSHOTS. A quick and fun way of sending out smaller Pages documents or documents in work, because screenshots show guides, invisibles and open Inspectors. The keyboard shortcut to make a screenshot is Command+Shift and hit 4. Cursor turns into crosshairs, drag it to select the area for a screenshot, let go of the mouse (a no-buttons macmouse) and, after a camera shutter sounds, you get a PNG file on your desktop.

If you want a screenshot of just one particular open window, document, Inspector or open folder, press Command+Shift, type 4 and then hit the Space Bar. Move the cursor over the window (it will highlight) and click to get the screenshot in PNG format.

The ease of sharing files in a networked environment is one of the main considerations for businesses and offices when they choose a productivity suite - with a word processor, presentation and spreadsheet programmes. With low cost, striking templates, ease of use and full integration with other applications which come preinstalled on Macs, iWork may be an attractive choice.

Please check these other articles on I Work in Pages:
How to send iWork Pages as mail attachments
Sending out Pages documents
Quick JPEGs straight from Pages

Sharing and teamwork in iWork/Pages

How to send iWork/Pages as mail attachments

Note: This is an addition to my previous article Sharing and Teamwork in iWork/Pages.

It is often claimed that Pages documents cannot be sent as email attachments. It is only true in the sense that you can't just drag a Pages file onto a new mail message or attach it with the paperclip tool.

However, there is a very simple method of doing this.

If you do need to send your Pages document as an attachment Save it as a .zip file.

- Under file menu choose Save as...
- in the file name window (it will be highlighted) type .zip after the name of the file and BEFORE the .pages extension, if it is not hidden.

To hide/show extension check/uncheck the box in the bottom left corner of the Save as... dialogue window.

Now your Pages document will have a name reading something like this

my project.zip.pages

And it is mailable unless its size is bigger than your service provider's limit.

There are numerous other ways of sharing Pages and working on the same project as a team. Please refer to the article mentioned above.

Sending out Pages documents

Note: there is an important follow-up article on this blog in which I describe how to send Pages documents as email attachments. Please read it here.

In a Pages document

- click Print (command+P)
- in the Print dialogue window click PDF drop-down menu, go to Mail PDF, click and the Pages file automatically converts to PDF and attaches itself to a new email message.
- send.

Pages documents are huge files (in fact they are a collection of folders smartly put together and displayed by the Mac) and are difficult to send, share and modify via e-mail. So PDFs have to be used.

I was first converting Pages to PDF and then sending them out. But then I noticed that little feature - Mail PDF, which saves a lot of hassle and does the job straight through.

There are a few qualifications, though.

- Press quality PDFs with CMYK colour separation have to be processed and checked separately.
- Hotmail adresses for some reason don't function reliably with Apple Macs and it is best to avoid using them, ask your correspondents for an alternative address.
- Graphics heavy PDFs may exceed the ISP mail message size limit (often set at 10Mb) or be rejected by recipients mail application. In the bottom left corner of the Mail message there is an Image Size drop down menu which allows to reduce the size of the ATTACHED file, rather than the original file itself.