The new Pages 5 file package
format contains binary .iwa files that seem unreadable by other applications. This makes it very difficult or even
impossible to recover file content if you are on a computer without
Pages 5 or if Apple one day abandons the program. This is a big shift
from the XML based file structure of Pages '09 (4.3) and earlier, which at least could be read
by text editors, and which in theory could be recovered.
One important reason not to use Pages for crucial documents has always been the
proprietary file format. I do not have a single Pages file on my hard
disk without a backup in more widely used formats, like doc, docx, rtf,
txt, PDF or whatever makes most sense for the file.
However,
the new file format makes it doubly important not to use Pages to
create files for long term storage.
My recommendation is simply: Never, ever, repeat, absolutely never, create a Pages file without a backup in another file format.
More information about the new file format can be found at GitHub and PixelEnvy.
Update 2019: Since some time, one has been able to access Pages documents through iCloud. From there one can download the documents in the cloud to for example Word format to access it on other platforms.
Note: this blog is not actively updated any more. Any information can be obsolete. I updated this entry only because the stats show that it is one of the more popular posts.
More information about the new file format can be found at GitHub and PixelEnvy.
Update 2019: Since some time, one has been able to access Pages documents through iCloud. From there one can download the documents in the cloud to for example Word format to access it on other platforms.
Note: this blog is not actively updated any more. Any information can be obsolete. I updated this entry only because the stats show that it is one of the more popular posts.