Integration Plugin for Apple's "Pages"

wfanderson
Hello,

Just downloaded Zotero and it looks great. I don't usually use Microsoft Word (because, honestly, it's not the best on Mac) and instead use Pages, Apple's version of Word. I would use and appreciate an integration plugin for Pages. Is this a possibility?

Cheers.
  • adamsmith
    No, unfortunately not. Apple doesn't expose Pages functions to developers the way that Word and LibreOffice do. The Endnote add-on for Pages is actually developed and maintained by Apple.
  • sabri.bi
    We should write to Apple then I imagine...
  • gerhard.bissels
    Hello
    There really is demand for a Zotero plug-in for Pages. At the medical school where I am librarian, most academics and students use Macs and iPads, so Pages is the ideal cross-platform word processor - but then, there is no integration of Zotero. LibreOffice/OpenOffice, on the other hand, offer Zotero integration, but there isn't even a release date for an iOS version of LO. This affects thousands of students here at our medical school alone, so it would definitely be worth developing something! By the way, I did speak to the last LO developers' conference, urging them to come up with an iOS version asap.
    Best
  • charlie.strauss
    Time to reconsider this now that iCloud Pages is free to all?
  • adamsmith
    See my answer above: the issue was and is feasibility, not desirability.
  • charlie.strauss
    Yes, but in case you misunderstood me, I was asking if perhaps the iCloud (javascript based) alters this feasibility.
  • adamsmith
    I'm not seeing a Pages API for the iCloud version, either. There's an iCloud API, but that won't help at all here.
  • emilianoeheyns
    How did EndNote do it (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204395)? If this is done by Apple, would it be possible to fake the Endnote side of things so this addin would work with Zotero?
  • dstillman
    Apple made it, yes. (EndNote calls it "Apple's EndNote plugin" and say "they are the ones who produce and support the plugin".)
  • gerhard.bissels
    A Zotero plugin for Pages is a desideratum, more than ever. Scholars work increasingly collaboratively across institutions and nations. Pages allows a large number of people to work simultaneously on the same document - and it really works much more smoothly than any other collaborative office suite I've tried. It also allows Mac and iOS users to work within the Pages application itself, rather than in a browser window.
    At the same time the cloud-based sharing features in Zotero are much superior to what Endnote offers. Therefore, Zotero has become THE reference management package of choice for scholars collaborating remotely. So, iWork and Zotero would be a perfect match - but, sadly, there is still no Zotero plug-in for Pages. I'd be pleased if this was addressed, at last!
  • dstillman
    Unfortunately the situation hasn't changed from the above — Pages doesn't have a plugin framework, so there's no way for us to do this. You'd have to request plugin support from Apple. If it were possible to create a plugin for Pages, we would.

    Note that, since the previous posts in this thread, we've added Google Docs support, so it's at least possible to collaborate with that, and there's support in the Zotero beta for transferring documents with active Zotero citations between Google Docs and Word/LibreOffice.
  • charlie.strauss
    I realize we keep asking for this and you keep saying until apple makes an API you can't. SO I hate to beat a dead horse here but it seems like there two things you haven't exactly satisfies all of us wishing for this with your response.
    Could you perhaps elaborate a bit on
    1. Why can't you use the endnote interface for pages? Especially if, as you indicate above, it's apple owned and not endnote owned.

    2. By Now Zotero has enogh clout to get apple senior management on the phone and actually make an ask. Just saying until they do it you wont act seems like giving up. But you might need to lobby some for it.

    here's what's changed that I think will help persuade apple to listen. It used to be that apple charged for pages and they also made it exclusive for macs. SO for both reasons apple would have preferred a pay-to-own software like Endnote. But now pages.app is free online. A non-free endnote manager and one that makes it hard to collaborate unless everyone owns a copy, defeats the purpose of apple putting it free on-line.

    So now there's more logic to using zotero for apple-- it's better for collaboration and free-on-line wordprocessing model than endnote. It's better both for the user and for apple's new pages.app model. So they should want to hear from you now.

    I hope you can make this true. Were it not for their alarmingly poor endnote management apple's pages is a superior tool to the overly complex MS office interface, the horrid balky libre office, and the unprofessional level of Google docs for manuscript preparation. But pages is missing the crucial collaborative reference manager so I can't use it professionally or personally.



  • emilianoeheyns
    1. Because it's implemented by a closed-source binary and Apple hasn't documented the API -- we can't know what that binary does, and what commands it responds to. I've looked into shimming it but it's a non-starter. Technically, someone could reverse engineer the binary, but good luck with that.

    2. The community probably holds more clout than the devs do -- get a change.org page up, prove to apple there's a market, and maybe they'll respond, who knows. But it's not encouraging that it only supports EndNote, and not for example Mendeley -- not that I have much love for Mendeley, but it has the might of Elsevier behind it, and Elsevier probably *could* get Apple on the phone and get a pitch in.
  • Fynn X
    Make sure that you ask Apple for a Zotero plugin

    https://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html
  • bsmcleod
    @Flynn X
    Thanks for that! I've added my comments and shared the link. Hopefully we can get more people demanding apple "step up to the plate" and give the academic community what it needs, otherwise we're stuck relying on GDocs and Word.
  • jtmcnulty_iosbeta
    On September 30, 2021, Apple Support announced a plug-in between EndNote and Pages. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204395

    I've submitted feedback to the Pages team, using the link in this chain (copied below).

    https://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html

    Now is a good time for others to put pressure on Apple.

    In addition to a plug-in, separately, I will ask the Pages team to add TOC functionality for tables and figures. Pages is a great program for creatives, school kids and writing drafts. But Pages is unsuitable for academic or technical writing. Apple is leaving a large market on the table, in my opinion.
  • dstillman
    edited November 3, 2021
    On September 30, 2021, Apple Support announced a plug-in between EndNote and Pages.
    Just to note, there’s been an EndNote plugin for Pages since at least 2009, and it's the only citation plugin Apple has ever allowed. You should certainly tell Apple you're interested in Zotero integration — and we'd be happy to work with them to make it happen — but don't get your hopes up.
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