How to move a document from word to pages

Pages is not a Word clone, so you will not be able to change content in the original Word document with it. Instead, Pages will open and attempt to translate that Word document into Pages own internal .pages document format. You can alter the new Pages document and then export to Word, but both the initial translation and that of the export may not represent the content and layout of the original Word document.

Apple makes no guarantee about that translation accuracy, or even success, and as you know, there are features in Word and Pages that do not map their functionality to the opposite document format.

If you want to open/edit/save a Word document in its native document format, especially if sharing with other cross-platform Office users, then use MS Word to avoid any translation surprises.

On a Mac, Open Pages, go to File->Open and navigate to wherever the word document is stored, select it, and click on Open.

Pages will automatically convert the Word document to a Pages document.