Windows Alternatives: Apple Pages and iPhoto

Hi everyone.

In our office, we extensively use apple Pages, and it's integration with our massive photo library, for all our graphic design purposes.

The mac belongs to the boss personally, though/ Not to the office. and we can't rely on it forever.

So I'm looking for advice on how we could replace these programs, on our windows machines.

For those who don't know about them:

Apple pages is a page layout program. For creating all manner of publications/newsletters/posters/flyers/advertising materials, etc. It allows users to place all kinds of modifiable text boxes, images, and shapes on a page, save templated, etc. It has a variety of neat features like allowing text boxes to wrap around the solid parts of transparent images. Support for text in columns, easy adjustment of character/line spacing, etc. Most notably we like the ease of use, being able to drag and drop in images, then mask and resize them.

iphoto is a photo library and management app. We don't use all the features, mostly just fond of the integration with pages. In pages, there's a Media button which just opens an Iphoto window, allowing you to click and drag photos from there, directly into any spot on a pages document.

We currently have our iphoto backed up in folders on a network drive, and we're looking to eliminate our dependance on the mac. So I'm looking for recommendations of suitable app(s)

As we are a charity running on a shoestring budget, free apps are definitely preferred. But a commercial solution might be acceptable, if it's the only way.

 

bump. Anyone got any ideas about this topic?

 

Thing about pages is, there is no known way to open those files on PC machines period. I know in Pages I read that you can export to different formats like docx, etc.

Have you considered just converting all over to Mac, or are there some business apps that are limiting you from doing so?

 

We don't have so much need to convert existing files, if necessary we'd remake them from scratch.

Converting all over to mac seems like a silly idea. foir one, we have one mac and five windows machines. Also all our staff are already used to windows, and mac is unintuitive to say the least (no cut command, seriously?)

Our main concern here is replicating the toolset, not transferring the data.

 

What kind or type of "office productivity" software is installed on the Windows computers? Pages, evidently is a successor to AppleWorks. AppleWorks at a basic level, is similar to Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org For Windows or LibreOffice Productivity Suite.

I don't know about the iphoto part, but these programs will allow you to drag and drop photos and pictures into the document you're working on and resize them to your hearts content. They include templates, more are available online and you can create your own. They pretty much support everything you mentioned. Actually they have quite a bit of desk top publishing capability.

 

Uh no cut command? you might take the time to learn a little more about osx, it has cut and paste just like any windows box.

 

An addendum to this topic. We've eventually settled on Adobe Indesign, which seems to suit our needs well

It cuts text, but not files. Moving files around on a mac is an exercise in banging your head against a wall