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  • Monday, June 17, 2013

Free Toolbox Brings Templates To Apple’s Pages App (except for the ‘free’ part)

Thursday, December 20, 2012 | Alexis Kayhill Posted In Cheap Mac Apps

Toolbox for PagesThere’s a new way to shop online these days and it bothers me. It’s not bait and switch. That’s a time honored way to separate us from our money when we least expect it.

Here in the 21st century we need new ways to coax us to release our hard earned dough. Instead of buying an app in a store. Get a free app, and then buy stuff. Sound crazy? That’s the way it is.

When Free Isn’t Free

The newest way to buy apps for Mac and iPhone grinds my gears, catches my hair on fire, and puts an extra day into my PMS calendar.

Take Toolbox for Pages on your Mac. Please. It’s free. What do you get with it. Nothing? Almost, but not quite nothing.

Imagine a taxi which will take you where you want to go for free. But it costs money to get out of the taxi once you reach your destination.

Toolbox for Pages is an app– and it’s free– which lets you buy templates and illustrations for Apple Pages.

It takes advantage of Apple’s new love for in-app purchases. It’s one thing to download an app and then add features for 99-cents.

Toolbox for Pages - Templates

But it’s something else again to download a free app that does nothing until you spend money on an in-app purchase.

The app becomes a store.

More Toolbox Templates

To be fair, Toolbox for Pages couldn’t be easier to use. It’s not so much a toolbox as it is a store within an app.

The left sidebar lists the available template packages.

Toolbox Favorites

Four tab buttons in the main section display New Items, All Items, Featured and Favorites.

Toolbox for Pages features a healthy list of templates which are available for in-app purchase.

The sets include Inspiration, Business, Stationery, Corporate Style, Elements, and Jumsoft’s Clipart package.

Or, you can purchase individual elements. Overall, Toolbox has more than 700 templates, almost 1,500 clipart images, hundreds of graphic doodles, and dozens of badges, ribbons, and watercolor clipart.

Every item can be previewed in Toolbox, and purchased in Toolbox, and then opened in Pages. So, Toolbox for Pages is a free app which is really a mini-store, where you can purchase the templates and art you want for Pages.

Why not just sell the templates and art in the Mac App Store? Yep, you can do that, too? Isn’t 21st century retailing just wonderful?

Try A Related Article

  • The Craziest Way Ever To Optimize, Monitor, And Clean Your Mac Is Also Free
  • Here’s Something Crazy Useful That Every Mac User Needs: Cheap Templates For Microsoft Word
  • How To Put 120 Professionally Designed Email Templates On Your Mac (less than 5-cents each)
  • 2,800 Graphic Illustrations For Pages Or Keynote
  • Cheap: How To Add The Romantic Look To Plain Photographs On Your Mac

Our Apple Village Peeps

Kate compares Microsoft Office vs. Apple’s iWork Trio: How The Cloud Levels The Playing Field. But is anyone making any dough? Say, What’s The Better Way To Browse Photos On Flickr? Use The Free Mac App F-Stop. It's very cool.

Elsewhere, Tera has the scoop on A Cheap iPhone With Cheap Colors Coming To A Store Near You. Jeffrey asks the musical question, Whatever Happened To iRadio? And Why Is iTunes Radio Better Than A Subscription? I don't know, either. Finally, Here’s The Easy, Free Way To Track The News From Major Newspapers In The U.S. An RSS reader is better.

Regift Us

Our thousands of app reviews and colorful commentary are supported by your devoted attention to the nearby overlording sponsors and their messages of promise. Visiting an aforementioned sponsor's premise today helps us to keep moist. When you help out by giving attention to any sponsor during today's visit we're able to afford hot water at McDonalds (just add catsup for tomato soup). Hence, we appreciate your brief visits to these necessary overlords.

About Alexis Kayhill

I'm a 20 year Mac user veteran, writer, photographer, wife, and mommy. I live in sunny San Diego with my husband, three children, two dogs, one mean old cat, and an SUV with a back seat full of beach sand. Read more of my articles here. I'm on Twitter and GooglePlus.

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