Monday, #1: iPad Pages App vs. Microsoft Word

 Since I am readily familiar with Microsoft Word, having used Word daily in my undergraduate career, I have chosen to compare and contrast Word with the iPad app known as “Pages.”

When comparing the iPad app Pages with Microsoft Word I noticed a couple of similarities and differences. The most blatantly obvious similarity in the two tools is that each is a way of composing a document on a device. A second similarity is that both Pages and Word offer a collection of different templates from which one can choose before creating a document. Some of these options include an array of letter formats, business cards, resumes, newsletters, and many additional templates. A third similarity is that, like Word, Pages allows you to edit your document using variations of text (font, size, color, etc.), inserting an image, and even adding data to a chart template.

One difference that I noticed between the iPad app Pages and Microsoft Word is in the physical layout of the screen. It will take a little adjusting to figure out where everything is located in order to use Pages as efficiently as I have used Word. On Pages, rather than having a lengthy toolbar that is visually effective (like Word), one much select an option at the top of the screen for a pull-down menu. I have noticed that on the iPad everything seems to be more concise. For me, being a visual learner, this will take some adjusting.

I have discovered one negative of the iPad usage from my perspective. It is my opinion that the iPad keyboard is much more difficult to use, since I am used to the physical structure of my PC laptop’s keyboard. However, I understand that with additional use I can probably grow accustomed to the iPad keyboard as well, although this process will take a little bit of time.

A positive that I have discovered through my brief experience this morning of the iPad is that it is a much more fluid process to create a document that includes images on Pages. On Microsoft Word it can often be frustrating to format an image just right, and sometimes it does not work the way you want it to at all. However, with the iPad I found it to be much easier to use my fingers directly on the image rather than relying on my curser to do the work for me.

While working on the iPad will take a little adjustment, I am glad that there are apps that easily correspond to laptop tools and programs with which I am already familiar. For example, the similarities between Pages and Word outweigh the differences.