Rearranging the order of pages in Word 2010

You are correct. I meant a "navigation-like" pane, OK "thumbnails". My apologies for focusing on the solution instead of the verbiage . But Pages did come free with iPad as well as with my Mac. But you are absolutely wrong, you can drag and drop and rearrange pages before converting it to a doc format that Word will recognize. In fact, I do it all the time and just did it. However, once you save it as a doc, it behaves like Word.

Defend Word all you want, but this simple task should be available. And putting the user at fault instead of focusing on a solution is a typical Microsoft practice. Perhaps that's why after all this time it still can't be done. Perhaps we need add another "ribbon" to make it happen.

As usual, I spent more time looking for a solution, than getting it done. Which is exactly why I prefer a Mac.

As long as you insert a section break on each page, yes, you can drag and drop pages in the Pages Thumbnail view. If the document is one long text with no section breaks, it doesn't work.

I'm not defending Word, I'm comparing the programs and demonstrating an inherent shortcoming in word processors when it comes to moving pages. With every such program I've ever used, if you insert a section break on every page, it does make it easier to move pages around.

I admire that Pages can convert to Page Layout mode, but the compromises are evident. If you move pages in Page Layout, then switch back to Word Processing mode, you'll find there are section breaks inserted on each page. The round trip gives you a very different document.

I also pointed out that Word's navigation panel allows you to rearrange content (not pages) using drag and drop already, even without inserting section breaks.

That is the biggest line of bull I've ever heard.

If MS Word doesn't offer the ability to re-arrange pages in a Word document, that's one thing. But statements that most users don't require or expect this functionality, and quotes from others, such as ["No word processor is designed to re-order content by page. That's not what word-processing* is for"], is as ridiculous as the application's inability to perform this simple task. And other posts implying if the document was "well-designed", this wouldn't be such a chore, are as equally ridiculous. Perhaps, if the "application" was well-designed instead, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

*Using Pages on my Mac, I simply need to open the navigation pane, and drag a page into a new position. Done... in a matter of seconds! Strange how a FREE app recognizes simple drag and drop functionality, but a behemoth, like MS Office, can't handle it.

My statements are based on my experience with multiple Word processing programs and with Word in particular. I am not saying that this would not be something a large number of users would want, simply that the "large number" is still a minority of users. Word's basic structure does not see pages. It sees Sections, Paragraphs, to some extent Sentences, and words. It sees its heading styles.

You can use its ability to see these to structure your document so that you can move them quite easily. The navigation pane is designed to do this, working with heading styles.

You do not have to use Word.