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.

Screenshots in Mac OS

The keyboard shortcut for screenshots on Macs is:

Command+Shift+4

Cursor turns into crosshairs. Drag it over an area on screen and let go. After a camera shutter sounds a PNG picture file appears on the Desktop.

This a very useful feature. Light PNG pictures can be used on web-sites and sent via email.

Screenshots of menus, windows or any particular problems you need help with are absolutely invaluable when working in a team.

Other screenshot shortcuts:

Command+Shift+3 - screenshot of the whole computer screen.

To avoid the hassle of selecting a window (any window, including an open document) or a menu when you need the picture of a particular item:

Command+Shift+4 - and hit the Space bar instead of dragging the crosshairs. The window highlights with a little camera at the top. Click on the highlighted window to get the screenshot.

Please check this previous article describing the various ways in which Pages could be shared, sent out and worked on in a team:
Sharing and teamwork in iWork/Pages

Double-Docking: How To Keep Your Desktop Tidy

Some of my friends complain they find it difficult to keep the desktop free from clutter. When you work on a project or do extensive research on the internet Desktop often becomes littered with dozens of files - notes, stickies, downloads, screenshots, etc.

I must admit that I have a cluttered desktop too. However I found that a simple trick I call double-docking helps to limit if not to avoid desktop clutter. Double docking is putting your work files into the Dock or into the sidebar of your Finder windows.

DOCK I

If you look at the Dock, the strip with application icons at the bottom of your screen (you can put it on the right or on the left of your screen, or make it invisible when not needed), you can see a vertical line slightly to the right of centre.

For a long time I couldn't understand what it was for. By trial and error I found out that applications go to the left and collapsed files to the right.

You can drag your favourite applications to the Dock, left of the vertical stroke, but not to the right of it. And you can also drag files to the Dock, the section on the right of the vertical stroke, but not on the left. Collapsed files stay in the Dock only as long as they are open, but the ones you put in the Dock stay there for as long as you need them at hand. They become aliases of the real files. Switch off your Mac for the night, but your current work files will still be there in the Dock when you switch on again in the morning. So, put your current files in the Dock and move them away from the Desktop to a dedicated folder, Documents for example, to sort later.

When you want to open a file you click on it in the Dock and it opens in the same way as applications launch. When you are finished with that file drag its icon (alias) off the Dock - and it disappears in a puff of smoke, but the file itself stays where you put it.

DOCK II

This not the Dock itself, really, but the sidebar you can open or close in any finder window by clicking on the oval button in the top right corner of window. By default there are Documents, Applications, Desktop and a few other folders.

If you keep your current work files in a particular folder, say Current Project, you can drag that folder into the sidebar to allow yourself direct access to that folder. So if your Current Project folder is inside Documents>My files>Work>Clients>Current Project you can avoid going through numerous folders to reach the one you need by clicking once on it (its alias) in the sidebar.

The same can be done with files: a document you work on for several days or a template of a business letter, a flyer or an email - everybody has a set of documents which basically only need slight changes to be reused again and again. So these can go in the sidebar. When you don't need them anymore, just drag them off the sidebar - and they disappear in a puff of smoke, same as when you drag icons off the Dock. Again, it is only the alias that disappears, the file itself stays where you put it.

If your office has several Macs on a local network, you can put aliases of folders located on other computers in the sidebar. When you click on it your Mac connects to that other computer and opens the folder you need.

Changing items which appear in the sidebar can also be done by choosing Finder>Preferences in the Finder toolbar.

Do I hear people complaining that their Docks and sidebars are cluttered now?

'Blue Stickies'? Don't panic!

New features in iWork/Pages 2008 greatly enhance the programme, but sometimes they pop-up quite unexpectedly and may confuse those who are used to working in a previous version of this programme...

Just as we were rushing to meet deadlines for the July issue of the Rendezvous magazine, there was a moment of panic when Pages threw up clusters of BLUE STICKIES on my partner's computer demanding that she rejects or accepts the changes made in the document. I myself had the same mild shock last month when I first saw how Tracking Changes works, so I already knew what to do.

Under Edit menu go down to Turn off tracking
or click Stop Tracking in the tool Bar

Tracking Changes feature is useful when several people work on a project created in Pages. A journalist writes copy, editor edits it before it is put into a page, designer puts text and graphics together and sub-editor makes changes necessary from the lay-out point of view etc. Or a business proposal is prepared and goes from one department to another, or minutes of a meeting are prepared and moved for checking and approval from one committee member to another. Or costings are calculated and recalculated with charts and graphs added...

Click on Cross button to reject the change,
or click on Tick button to accept it.
This closes the blue stickie.

At each stage there is a possibility of a typo, an error or a disagreement within the team. With tracking each member of the team can see what and where was changed. It is also very useful for proofing. From my correspondence and from discussions on the internet forums I know that smooth teamwork is considered to be essential when deciding whether to use iWork/Pages as the main working software in an organisation. And where a team works tracking changes and commenting on the document is necessary.

However, in many cases, when you work on your own, you don't need tracking and it could be distracting. That's when you may want to switch tracking off.

Tracking works in a similar way to Comments feature with yellow stickies where you just comment on a part of the document without actually changing anything.

Another example of Pages panic is here
and an overview of various methods of sharing and teamwork with Pages,
including local networks and mailing, is here.

Last minute corrections - use patchwork.

Last week the designer who works with me was travelling in Italy when the proof reader discovered a few typos in the page which was supplied to me as a PDF module originally created in Illustrator. (There are types of PDFs which Enfocus PitStop can't get into!) I couldn't get through to her and had to correct the typos by superimposing text boxes over the text, matching the colour, the font and filling the box with gradient colour fill to match the background (top image shows the word rendez-vous spelled the French way, correctly, image below shows the text box with corrected part of text ready to be moved into position).


The simple technique of using patches always helps when you need to make last minute minor corrections in photographs, graphic images and text. Here is how it works:

- create a Text Box (or Object), type in correct word or letter sequence, adjust font and point size to match the original, set Stroke (frame) to none (image at right);
- uncheck wrapping in the Wrap Inspector;
- under Arrange menu make sure your patch is at the front: slide down to 'Bring to front';
- resize the text box so that it doesn't clip adjacent letters or lines. If you find it difficult to resize the box by dragging box handles, try doing it through Metrics Inspector. It allows discreet millimetres - down to tenth of a millimetre;
- move the patch to cover the text which needs correcting to align with the rest of the text - with keyboard arrows first. Then, if the patch does not align exactly, use Metrics Inspector to adjust coordinates - x for horizontals and y for verticals. Keyboard arrows move objects by the typographical point, but in Metrics Inspector you can move objects by the tenth of a millimetre;
- go to Object inspector, choose colour fill or gradient fill. Using the magnifying glass (loupe) in the Crayons window of Colours Inspector match the object colour fill to the background colour. Hide layout and invisibles to check if your patch matches the background and covers the corrected text.

Patchwork technique is very flexible and could be used for improving minor problems with photos and other images. But I suggest treating this as a quick fix rather than as a standard solution.

However, looking back, I see that over the past two years I've used patching many times to enhance photos or adjust them to layout requirements. Here are two examples.

1. There was a crease in the Marmite&croissant studio photo for our launch issue cover (image on the right, before patching). I put two patches - gradient colour filled objects on both sides of the marmite jar. Matching colour fill of an object is done as follows.

- in Object Ispector choose Gradient fill;
- click on one of the colour bars and when the colour well opens (crayons) click on the magnifying glass above/left of the crayons box (keyboard shortcut to open the colour well any time: Command+Shift+C).
- The cursor turns into the magnifying glass, hover it over the colour you want to copy, as close to the patch as possible - and click.
- Gauge in which direction the colour changes and repeat the same procedure with the second colour bar.
- Rotate the gradient direction wheel in the Inspector to adjust the colour change flow (image below right shows patch in position, with rectangular patch slanted to avoid cutting into the side of the jar).

2. The February Rendezvous magazine cover photo shows a just married couple sitting on a WWII vintage Willys Jeep. White straplines went nicely over olive green jeep body, but the white army markings were a bit distracting. In between the straplines (in text boxes) and the photo I put a shape with rounded corners, filled it with olive green matching the body of the Jeep and set opacity to 75 percent. This dimmed the white of the markings and made the straplines stand out better. To align the patch with the rest of the Jeep I tilted the patch right-downwards through Metrics Inspector.















To view full images of the May 2008, February 2008 and June 2006 covers of the Rendezvous magazine go to the Rendezvous Editor's Blog here
For more ideas check these earlier articles:
Preview as a cropping device
Extracting portions of a Pages document for separate use
Sharing and teamwork in iWork/Pages

The Rendezvous magazine June 2006 and February 2008 photos are by Mike Forster, Images of Normandy

Sharing and teamwork in iWork/Pages

There are many ways of sharing Pages documents and working on them as a team.

(There is an important update to this article about sending Pages documents as email attachments. To read it please click here)


Here is a description of several ways to share Pages. I have used all of these successfully in my publishing project which involves journalists, editors, photographers, graphic designers and printers spread over a large area, mostly here in Normandy, but with contributors in other countries as well.


Sharing and team-working

use LAN:
simply move files from computer to computer over a local network. I have three computers linked together in my office over a router and it works fine.

use .Mac - iDisc:
This is a paid subscription service from Apple which includes, among many other things, a storage facility called iDisc. Pages documents could be stored in a public folder (or a private folder with password protected acces for members of your project team). That way, everyone can access the file and upload when they're finished.

This could be more attractive if your document progresses from one member of the team to another with each one having the authority to make changes, not just comment or suggest. From my own experience I'd recommend appointing one member of the group to be responsible for coordinating and clearing all changes and edits before they make it into the final version.


use PDFs:
PDFs work on any computer and could be sent out via email or FTP. Full Acrobat allows comments and has various other proofing and editing features. Make your Pages project into a PDF to share. Check this earlier article on creating mailable compact PDFs from Pages: 'Three steps from Pages to PDF'

Pages let you save your document straight to iPhoto in mailable JPEG format. Send it out directly from iPhoto. Alternatively, choose 'Mail PDF' option: your Pages document is converted into a mailable PDF and attached to a new Mail message in one go. Both options can be found in Print dialogue window when you click on PDF drop down menu in the bottom left corner. Check these previous articles:
- Quick JPEGs straight from Pages;
- Sending out Pages documents

Enfocus PitStop allows modifications in PDFs, including correcting text. For more information see this previous article: PitStop and producing press quality PDFs

use modules:
break your project into chunks of work that can be done by many different workers who use their own favourite software, but deliver to you in PDF (or other Pages compatible format.) Then it's up to you to put the modules together in a Pages document.

Modules could be small graphic files or section headers, for example, or large semi-finished elements of a page. For instance, one of my colleagues lays out some of the pages for the magazine in InDesign, converts them to PDF and sends to me. They are not whole, ready to go pages, but just the part inside the margins. I add headers, footers with page number etc. myself.

If these modules are graphics heavy and too big to send as attachments, various free FTP systems could be used - Skype, Yousendit.com and others.


Converting Pages to Word and Word to Pages

Pages documents can be exported to Word format. Use Export... under File menu. Some formatting may be lost, but not to the extent that the document would become unrecognizable.

Word documents can be opened in Pages even easier: drag and drop the Word file onto the Pages icon in the Dock. Again, some formatting, may be lost, but not to the extent that the whole document would be unrecognizable.

Sometimes formatting created in the Word document must be retained. In these cases it's a good idea to 'Print' the Word document to PDF (preferably via PostScript, read about this process in these older articles: 'Pages and professional printshops: why PostScript') Then import (drag and drop) the PDF into the open Pages document. If the Word document is on several pages, delete the ones you don't need (in PDF) before importing.

Mask the PDF after importing as you would mask any image leaving only the part you need visible.

If you find working with masks too fiddly, crop your PDF (in Acrobat, under Document menu) and then import.

If you want to change fonts or anything else, do it in Word and then create PDF and import. For an example of this process see this older article: 'Importing Word into Pages: use PDF'



Screenshots

Screenshot shortcut on Mac: Command+Shift+4. Cursor turns into a hair-cross. Drag it over an area of the screen and get a compact PNG file.

Don't forget about this feature which is very useful when teamwork and sharing is needed: to send out proofs, to illustrate an aspect or a detail of work/design which is too long to describe in words, to give lists of files and send detailed technical information on the document (take a screenshot of an open folder or of the Pages Inspector and send the PNG via email)


In general

I think Pages are not particularly difficult to share or to work in as a team. A few habits have to be changed, some workarounds used, but good results are not harder to achieve than in any other (often more expensive) software.

New users switching from MS Office have two major complaints: can't send Pages as email attachments and can't convert to Word or import from Word retaining formatting.

I have encountered the same difficulties, but after more than two years of continuous work in iWork/Pages I have developed a number of work-arounds. Anyone can, I think it's just a matter of time.

Pages documents are a different type of file - it is not actually a single file, but a collection of folders and files smartly put together by Apple's operation system to look on screen as though it is one whole. That is why, I assume, even a simple one page document could be several megabytes in volume and impossible to share via email. Skype can handle very large files, but refuses to take Pages documents for sending through its system.