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Pages for High Sierra

I've just bought a 2011 MacBook Air & I'd like to install pages on it.


I gather that Apple don't make installers for older versions of Pages, which surprises me.


All of the solutions I can find involve looking back through previous purchases but Pages came pre-installed on both of my other Macs so I don't have purchase history.


So why is this so difficult?


I get that Apple want to keep the product moving forward. Both of my other Macs are new, but there must be many people who can't afford to upgrade so surely some backwards compatibility is reasonable?


I only need the Air for writing on the train & in places where a little 11-inch notebook is ideal, so I just need a word processor on it. I can use TextEdit, but I'd like some of the functionality of pages if I can get it.


Is this not possible?

MacBook Air 11″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 15, 2022 2:44 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 15, 2022 6:38 AM

Even if Pages came pre-installed on prior Macs, you still had to be signed in with your then Apple ID in the Mac App Store, and authorize Pages to continue to use it. That may work for you in the following paragraph, where the notion of purchase does not mean fiscal history.


Apple made Pages v7.3 thru v8.1 for High Sierra. If you ever used an Apple ID to update Pages on another Mac, you can launch the Mac App Store on that 2011 MacBook Air, and sign in with that prior Apple ID. You then press the option key while selecting the Purchased tab from the Mac App Store. If you see Pages with an Update button, you can click that, and expect two dialogs:


The first will tell you that you need a newer version of macOS to install the current Pages from the Mac App Store. Acknowledge that dialog, and do not click Cancel. Once you have done that, a second dialog may appear offering to install the last version of Pages (v8.1) for High Sierra. Again, acknowledge that dialog.


If the preceding did not work, then you are done obtaining Pages for High Sierra and will need to seek alternative word processing solutions such as the free LibreOffice Suite. It also has PDFs for documentation.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 15, 2022 6:38 AM in response to del.frost

Even if Pages came pre-installed on prior Macs, you still had to be signed in with your then Apple ID in the Mac App Store, and authorize Pages to continue to use it. That may work for you in the following paragraph, where the notion of purchase does not mean fiscal history.


Apple made Pages v7.3 thru v8.1 for High Sierra. If you ever used an Apple ID to update Pages on another Mac, you can launch the Mac App Store on that 2011 MacBook Air, and sign in with that prior Apple ID. You then press the option key while selecting the Purchased tab from the Mac App Store. If you see Pages with an Update button, you can click that, and expect two dialogs:


The first will tell you that you need a newer version of macOS to install the current Pages from the Mac App Store. Acknowledge that dialog, and do not click Cancel. Once you have done that, a second dialog may appear offering to install the last version of Pages (v8.1) for High Sierra. Again, acknowledge that dialog.


If the preceding did not work, then you are done obtaining Pages for High Sierra and will need to seek alternative word processing solutions such as the free LibreOffice Suite. It also has PDFs for documentation.


Pages for High Sierra

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