How much better is Office over iWork???

[smwatson]

Im about to switch [hopefully] to a new 20" iMac w/ iSight. I will use it for web browsing, aMSN chatting, and my schoolwork. As i am about to sit my GCSEs i will need to be able to write essays, and produce the occasional flashy word processing article. I am considering either iWork, Office or both. In iWork, the word/publisher crossover type thing in pages appeals, and Keynote is clearly a superb piece of software. However, after 15 years of PC means Office is so appealing. Word is very powerful, but i only ever type essays so i dont need the advanced word processing tools. Excel is something i will probably end up never ever ever using, so is really just another piece of software. Powerpoint is outclassed by Keynote.
So basically, i was just wodering whether you guys think its worth it spending god knows how much on Office over iWork, when iWork appears to be just fine. And also, i will have appleworks so thats another bonus.

[Bear]

If iWork will do what you want, save the money.

[IJ Reilly]

Get your hands on the trial version of iWork.

[stevep]

If you're taking GCSE's you're in the UK, right?
If you want maximum compatibility go for the MS Office (approx edu price£100) - you'll be able to exchange files and work on different computers etc with fewer problems.
As for Excel, I just can't believe a GCSE student can get by without using it these days. What subjects are you taking? Maths, science and design technology would all benefit from the use of Excel for coursework assignments (not to mention ICT....)
Keynote? Yes, its very good, but you don't need it for any GCSE's that I know of. Examiners only know about PowerPoint anyway, and you'd only need that for an ICT assignment maybe.

[GimmeSlack12]

I'd say get Office. You can get it for educational price as a great deal. Even MacWorld says iWork is not quite ready for primetime. So I'd hold off on that.

[miloblithe]

Unfortunately, Pages seems pretty underwhelming. Word is, for the foreseeable timebeing, the far more useful, standard word processing software. It's a piece of software worth being comfortable with.

[Bern]

I've used Word since the beginning, but last week I replaced it with Pages and I use it for all my work. Pages handles Words documents effortlessly IMO. Rather than save as a .doc file I save as .pdf and use those.

If you need Excel however you'll have to get Office as Apple have not come up with a similar application.... yet.

[IJ Reilly]

You'll get no shortage of Pages bashing on this board (mainly from people who've never actually used it I suspect). Try it and decide for yourself. But isn't that what we Mac users are always saying?

[20rogersc]

Maybe try OpenOffice (http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ooo-osx_downloads.html)/NeoOfficeJ (http://www.neooffice.org/) is a good start, if you're undecided on whether you need Office or not. (Free!!)

::20ROGERSC::

[VanMac]

Office for the mac is great. Much better then Office on Windows XP even. If you can get edu pricing, well worth it.

[geese]

No mention of Appleworks- comes free with your Mac you know.

I got through 3 years of a uni degree on Appleworks 4. Great program, it even opens Word files (although complex formatting is a bit hit and miss).

I've written 8000 word essays on it, no bother. And its spreadsheet isnt bad either. And the Drawing component is very useful for basic DTP.