My mother is not anti-Apple. She owns a Mac and an older iPad, but has always been perfectly satisfied with her trusty copy of Microsoft Word. “That’s what everyone uses,” she says.

She may want to think about switching.

The new version of Apple’s Pages word-processing software — part of a trio of applications the company calls iWork that includes a spreadsheet program and a presentation manager — seems tailor-made for someone like her: It’s simple to use, easy to learn and has sharing features that should finally put an end to her complaints about friends who are unable to open the documents she sends them.

There are plenty of people who will find that Pages does not meet their needs (more on that later). But the company, based in Cupertino, Calif., has rethought its approach to the most boring of computer applications — the word processor — with some impressive results. It particularly shines in three areas: appearance, compatibility and sharing.