With Pages running on your iPad, you can compose and edit text documents just as you would on the desktop version of the Apple app.
The large on-screen iPad keyboard is much more conducive to writing documents than you'd think. It's only when you install Pages that you realize how easy it can be to compose a resume, publish a report, or do your homework on your Apple device.
Pages for iPad is based around the same general principles as the desktop version, but with a different look and feel. You can create documents using one of the stylish Apple-designed templates, or start your own from scratch.
Formatting text
Pages gives you a lot of control over the formatting of your documents. Thanks to the app's style ruler, changing the appearance of pages is very simple. You can choose to apply a certain text style to a word or paragraph just by tapping to select it, then choosing one of the default styles from the drop-down menu in the style ruler. You can completely customize the styles yourself.
Of course, you don't have to use the styles ruler, and Pages lets you tweak font, size, color, etc. manually. Layout options such as alignment, columns and spacing are also easy to get at, either via the style ruler or the Info button on the toolbar.
Adding objects to your documents is easy with Pages. The Insert Object icon contains options for adding photos, tables, charts and shapes to your pages. Once inserted, these objects can be arranged and manipulated in a very organic way, using your fingers.
Practical features
You can use Pages to compose documents in portrait or landscape mode. Landscape is more comfortable because the screen is bigger, but unfortunately the toolbar disappears in this mode, which is irritating because you have to flip the screen back around when you want to format something.
Pages allows you to export your projects to Pages '09, Microsoft Word, or PDF format. Alternatively, there's an option to attach the document to an email and send it from your iPad.
Pages for iPad isn't as fully featured as many of today's powerful desktop word processors. there are no tools for tracking changes or adding comments, for example.
Although its functionality isn't staggering, Pages does live up to its claim of being the most beautiful word processor ever designed for a mobile device.
