MS Office Vs. iWork

[stonkpot]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of converting to Mac, but am put off by the desktop publishing issue - I've got loads of exisiting MS Office files I'll need to access....

Can you read MS Office files in iWork, or do I need to add 40% to the bill and buy MS Office for Mac with my Macbook ?

Indeed, is iWork any good ? Does it let you do any more than Office ?


Cheers for your help. Much appreciated.

[lamadude]

you can import word files into pages, but it's no replacement for the other office programs. However you can use neooffice for those

[psychofreak]

NeoOffice is free and great for Office documents. There is MS Office for Mac, but its not really worth buying, especially as a new version (which will run a lot faster on the new intel machines) is coming soon :)

[erickkoch]

iWork doesn't have a spreadsheet program (yet) so I'd stick with MS Office for now. NeoOffice works fine too.

[discodave]

iWork is excellent for what it it is, and yes you can import/export MS Word documents.

However, MS Office and iWork shouldn't really be compared. They are completely different.

[Father Jack]

Neo Office is great but if you really want MS Office for Mac, you can buy the Student and Teachers edition very cheap on eBay. :)

As already pointed out the new Office 2008 (?) is due out in the Autumn. (fall)

FJ

[petvas]

Office is much better than iWork. iWork can read Word documents but you cannot work with excel docs.
I would get the student edition of Office and wait for the new one that comes by the end of the year. You can also use Neooffice, although I dont find it as good as MS Office.
Dont't also forget Parallels and using the Windows version of MS Office. It works great and speed is also very good. I use it regularly and I can print and edit my documents with no issues.

[Wild-Bill]

Hey guys,

Indeed, is iWork any good ? Does it let you do any more than Office ?


iWork is great for one and only one reason in my opinion - Keynote. Keynote absolutely blows PowerPoint away. If you want beautiful looking presentations with fall out of your seat transitions, that's the way to go.

At any rate, download NeoOffice (free) to handle your existing MS Office documents.

[petvas]

iWork is great for one and only one reason in my opinion - Keynote. Keynote absolutely blows PowerPoint away. If you want beautiful looking presentations with fall out of your seat transitions, that's the way to go.

At any rate, download NeoOffice (free) to handle your existing MS Office documents.

Keynote is very good but not industry standard. Powerpoint is the standard that most people use and when I deliver presentations, most people want the presentation. Imagine giving them a Keynote file...

[IJ Reilly]

It depends. If you have to work with a lot of Excel spreadsheets, then you'll probably need Office. If you're going to collaborate on documents with other Word users, or need any of its unique features, then you might want Office. If your document sharing is minimal, then Pages will do fine, possibly backed up with the free NeoOffice clone. If you do a lot of presentations, and are self-contained when you present (meaning, you don't have to use a PC for them), then you'll certainly want to take a close look at Keynote. I don't know anybody who thinks PowerPoint is superior.

The good news is you will get demo versions of both pre-installed on a new Mac, so you can decide for yourself.

[Wild-Bill]

Keynote is very good but not industry standard. Powerpoint is the standard that most people use and when I deliver presentations, most people want the presentation. Imagine giving them a Keynote file...

Give them a Quicktime file. That's what I do.

[petvas]

Give them a Quicktime file. That's what I do.

Well, that would work, but I dont work alone. I work for a company and everybody else uses powerpoint. You cannot do without it! It's a Windows world and we all know it.
Having said that, I create all my documents on my Mac using Microsoft Office and had never a problem with the Windows World...

[IJ Reilly]

It's a Windows world and we all know it.

Now there's a scary concept. Somehow I've survived quite nicely without this knowledge.

[petvas]

Now there's a scary concept. Somehow I've survived quite nicely without this knowledge.

hahaha
Well, whilst I don't use any PCs privately, I have to use a PC if I want to have a job! I work as a Microsoft Specialist :))

My company is a Microsoft Partner and our clients have all windows...The Business World is a Windows one...

[discodave]

Office is much better than iWork.

You can't just say that. They are not intended for the same purpose.

Don't also forget Parallels and using the Windows version of MS Office. It works great and speed is also very good. I use it regularly and I can print and edit my documents with no issues.

Or you could just use the Mac version of Office and save yourself the cost of Parallels and Windows and Office for Windows.

Keynote is very good but not industry standard. Powerpoint is the standard that most people use and when I deliver presentations, most people want the presentation. Imagine giving them a Keynote file...

You don't have to. You can export ANY Keynote file to PowerPoint format. I do this regularly with no hiccups. And it depends on which industry you are talking about. Most scientists at my institution use Keynote.

[petvas]

I am in the IT Business and I cant use Keynote. The company I work for has standards I have to follow. It has standard presentation templates (Powerpoint templates) and many time we collaborate on presentation files. It is hard to do using a platform alone.
98% of the world uses MS Office. Everybody is used to it and can't change habits so easily.

Pages pale in comparison to Word. For Excel there is no equivalent and powerpoint is standard. Please don't also forget Outlook!

[IJ Reilly]

I am in the IT Business and I cant use Keynote. The company I work for has standards I have to follow. It has standard presentation templates (Powerpoint templates) and many time we collaborate on presentation files. It is hard to do using a platform alone.
98% of the world uses MS Office. Everybody is used to it and can't change habits so easily.

You have our sympathy, but this is not everybody's situation, fortunately.

Anybody who really cares about the quality of their presentations should strongly consider going self-contained. Personally, I won't even use a supplied projector, let alone somebody else's PC running PowerPoint.

Pages pale in comparison to Word.

Now, there's an unsustainable assertion. If everybody preferred the same thing, then there'd be no reason for the Mac.

Again, my advice is "it depends."

[discodave]

I am in the IT Business and I cant use Keynote. The company I work for has standards I have to follow. It has standard presentation templates (Powerpoint templates) and many time we collaborate on presentation files. It is hard to do using a platform alone.
98% of the world uses MS Office. Everybody is used to it and can't change habits so easily.

Pages pale in comparison to Word. For Excel there is no equivalent and powerpoint is standard. Please don't also forget Outlook!

You are missing the point. You cannot compare iWork to MS Office. iWork is not an office suite. Pages is more of a design package than a Word Processor. As you point out, there is no spreadsheet package in iWork also.

Compare NeoOffice/Open Office to MS Office, but iWork is something different entirely. The only similarity lies in Keynote and PowerPoint.

Pages is far from pale, but is a very powerful application for what it is supposed to be used for.

[petvas]

I know that iWork doesnt compare to MS Office. It should though!!!

Pages is ok, I just find it not good in comparison to Word. Its the power of using something for 10 years. You cannot stop thinking that!

[psychofreak]

Office is much better than iWork. iWork can read Word documents but you cannot work with excel docs.
I would get the student edition of Office and wait for the new one that comes by the end of the year. You can also use Neooffice, although I dont find it as good as MS Office.
Dont't also forget Parallels and using the Windows version of MS Office. It works great and speed is also very good. I use it regularly and I can print and edit my documents with no issues.

Crossover (http://www.codeweavers.com/products/) is much better for the Windows version of Office, as you don't need Windows, Parallels, or all that much RAM :)

I personally take notes in Pages, and if I need to write an essay in school, I use Pages and then copy it into NeoOffice for editing purposes...

[RaMaz]

Apple Keynote is a LOT better than Microsoft Powerpoint,

Keynote has 3D Effects, It is so easy to use, just drag and drop,

:apple:

[psychofreak]

Apple Keynote is a LOT better than Microsoft Powerpoint,

Keynote has 3D Effects, It is so easy to use, just drag and drop,
Powerpoint does handle objects better...and Powerpoint:Mac has the cube effect...

[IJ Reilly]

I personally take notes in Pages, and if I need to write an essay in school, I use Pages and then copy it into NeoOffice for editing purposes...

Really? I'm surprised by your flow. I use TextEdit for note taking, then paste into Pages to make it look good. Nothing is easier and faster for basic typing than TextEdit, and nothing I've found formats as easily as Pages.

[psychofreak]

Really? I'm surprised by your flow. I use TextEdit for note taking, then paste into Pages to make it look good. Nothing is easier and faster for basic typing than TextEdit, and nothing I've found formats as easily as Pages.

I e-mail work to school PCs, and "export to .doc" isn't perfect...

[EricNau]

Eh. NeoOffice is no replacement for MS Office, but it will work well enough until Office 2008 is released for OS X.

iWork is a nice specialty suite when interoperability isn't an issue (e.g. Pages makes wonderful slideshow presentations, as long as you'll be presenting on your own laptop).

Powerpoint does handle objects better...
How so? To me, it seems the other way around.

[Bern]

I use iWork exclusively, people who prattle on about Word being so much more powerful, like most everybody else, only use a fifth of what it does. Word is a bloated bit of virus attracting software that has tried to cater for all people. The result is a "powerful" application that nobody makes full use of.

I don't send or receive .doc files via email, that's what pdfs are for. Pages is an extremely useful and versatile application that can prepare and open documents without issue.

If you're really desperate then use Google's free Docs & Spreadsheet applications. The belief that you cannot live without Word because you've used it for so long is short sighted.

[psychofreak]

Eh. NeoOffice is no replacement for MS Office, but it will work well enough until Office 2008 is released for OS X.
I find that Writer does everything I want :)

I am holding out for both a truly aquafied OpenOffice, and Office:Mac '08, and then I will make my decision :)

[IJ Reilly]

I e-mail work to school PCs, and "export to .doc" isn't perfect...

NeoOffice can't be much better. The Microsoft file formats still need to be reverse-engineered. But the real surprise to me is that you prefer Pages for note taking. If I've got any big gripe about Pages, it's the occasional typing lag.

[IJ Reilly]

I use iWork exclusively, people who prattle on about Word being so much more powerful, like most everybody else, only use a fifth of what it does. Word is a bloated bit of virus attracting software that has tried to cater for all people. The result is a "powerful" application that nobody makes full use of.

I don't send or receive .doc files via email, that's what pdfs are for. Pages is an extremely useful and versatile application that can prepare and open documents without issue.

If you're really desperate then use Google's free Docs & Spreadsheet applications. The belief that you cannot live without Word because you've used it for so long is short sighted.

No argument from me, except I'd lower the number of regularly-used Word features closer to 10%. In my experience, the vast majority of Word users (and this includes clerical people!) don't even know how to properly use Word's paragraph and text styles, which leads to horribly fouled-up and ugly documents. MS Word manages the almost impossible feat of being complicated and primitive all at the same time.

[decksnap]

Pages is not intended to be a substitute or competitor to Word. This is the first and most important thing to understand. Pages is better at what it does, and Word is better at what it does.

Keynote vs. Powerpoint is no contest. I admit that I own both, because I occasionally edit client's PPTs... but for in-house presentation building, Keynote is so far superior it's crazy. How could Microsoft take something so simple and make it so annoyingly difficult to make good looking presentations?

[IJ Reilly]

Pages is not intended to be a substitute or competitor to Word. This is the first and most important thing to understand. Pages is better at what it does, and Word is better at what it does.

I keep hearing this, but I've never heard the reasoning behind it really explained. I do all of my word processing in Pages. So in what way is it not a substitute for Word?

[aquajet]

So in what way is it not a substitute for Word?

I've only just begun using Pages over the last few months. The only thing Pages doesn't allow me to do is scream and curse at my computer screen in frustration.

Seriously though, you're right on. Word seems terribly complicated and primitive compared to Pages, for what I do. To me, only one could be considered better at what it does.

[josepho]

I e-mail work to school PCs, and "export to .doc" isn't perfect...

I have to do that to print out essays and what not. Rather than exporting to .doc in Pages, I print to PDF and email that... I've found that in almost all cases the formatting has been totally preserved. I have noticed a couple of irregularities once or twice, but nothing to warrant worrying about.

[Edandlindz28]

I use MS Office just because I have it. It really all depends on what you need out of the product. I would like to use Keynote because it does look like it can do some awesome stuff, but PP is the only thing my work uses. This is almost like every other thread of Apple is better than MS (which it is). iWork is cheaper to buy and if you don't have to worry about peer sharing your work then use it.

[Switched]

Someone please enlighten me, what makes word a better app than pages? I smell bs

[xUKHCx]

Someone please enlighten me, what makes word a better app than pages? I smell bs

Lots of stuff depending on what you plan to do, for example can you embed an excel worksheet inside Pages (I don't think so). I tried to switch to pages but I really need interconnectivity with Excel so it really is a no go, for me.


Apart from lack of excel compatability I have some questions about Pages

Automatic generation Contents pages?
Figure Numbers, Table numbers etc?
Section numbering?
Can you easily draw in pages?
Track changes and comments?

These are the minimum features I need before Pages could become close to Word. The export to .doc also needs vast improvement, I also have a weird issue (persistant after reinstalls, clearing prefs, repair permissions, etc.) where the document inspector will become stretch horizontally and can no longer interact with it. So in my expereince it is less stable than Word, which is not good.

[gonnabuyamac]

i have been using iWork for about half a year now, and overall i like it. keynote is very cool, and i often use it instead of powerpoint.

i would compare pages more to publisher than to word. i like it for what it does, but i honestly would much rather use word for word processing.

pages has potential, but word has the advantage of having been in the business for years, and it shows. plus, if you're going to work with others who use office software, it's just easier. importing and exporting in from pages to word gets cumbersome, and the results are always perfect - especially if graphics are involved.

not to mention that as of yet, there is no iwork answer to excel. i don't use it much, but when i do need it it's sure nice to have it around.

i haven't even installed entourage - so i don't know about that. i really like mail and ical - so at this point i'm not interested in starting over. i may re-evaluate that when office 2008 comes out.

i highly recommend both iwork and office, it just depends on what you're using them for. of course, the price difference isn't much for me since i get office for $125 with free upgrades for two years through a non-profit distributer.

[tjwett]

iWork makes beautiful looking documents and has a robust template system.

iWork uses the page layout/desktop publishing workflow, while Office uses the word processing/business workflow.

iWork has limited spreadsheet functionality in tables in both Keynote and Pages. You can add your own math expressions to cells etc.

[MacRumorUser]

My friend authored a book using pages. :)

Only trouble came when he had to give a copy to a pc user to proof read and make corrections :(

They wanted it in word, and whilst text exports fine, because half of his book is images also, the layout went utterly out the window when exporting to word files.

Why can't word handle pictures nicely :mad:

[decksnap]

I keep hearing this, but I've never heard the reasoning behind it really explained. I do all of my word processing in Pages. So in what way is it not a substitute for Word?

Pages is in the 'desktop publishing' category. Word is in the 'word processing' category. This is the reason for their features and lack of features.

[psychofreak]

NeoOffice can't be much better. The Microsoft file formats still need to be reverse-engineered. But the real surprise to me is that you prefer Pages for note taking. If I've got any big gripe about Pages, it's the occasional typing lag.

Not for me...and Pages takes up little screen space, and is quick to open. It has word count which I need, and simple formatting :)

[IJ Reilly]

Automatic generation Contents pages? yes
Figure Numbers, Table numbers etc? yes, but not automatic
Section numbering? yes, but not automatic
Can you easily draw in pages? yes, very
Track changes and comments? no and yes

I've never had any stability issues with Pages.

Pages is in the 'desktop publishing' category. Word is in the 'word processing' category. This is the reason for their features and lack of features.

Not so. Pages is a word processor that handles graphics properly.

[wyatt23]

if iwork has even a halfway decent spreadsheet program, it will be the Office for Mac killer.

Pages has become my word processor of choice. very easy controls and allows for AMAZING graphic integration.

Keynote is on par with powerpoint. however, it has much prettier templates. i've familiar with powerpoint. i've never used keynote 'til last semester. after two uses, i was sold on keynote.

now if i just had a reason to delete NeoOffice [for spreadsheet].

[notjustjay]

When I am giving a presentation, I use Keynote when I can. If people ask for a copy, I provide either a PDF of the slides or convert it to PowerPoint and provide that. The conversion to PowerPoint loses some of the "slick" look and definitely the transitions, but suits people fine when they just want the content. This worked great for school and extra-curricular stuff, but not for work.

When I am at work, it is Microsoft Office all the way. It is a corporate standard, for IT support, interoperability, security, etc. While some of you might say things like "fortunately not all of us are in that situation" there are definitely many of us who are, and we deal with it. If I insisted on sticking with, say, Pages, I would be forever converting things back and forth for everyone else who wants Word, for no other reason than sticking to some conviction that Pages was a better tool. Frankly I'm not so much of a rabid Apple fan that I'm not willing to use what everyone else uses in order to get the job done. Any pain of dealing with MS Word is outweighed by the hassle of all that back and forth conversion.

Not even going to get into the fact that I think Pages is a big steaming turd, because I'm stuck using an older version on older hardware so it's probably not a fair comparison, other than to say that Office '03 works fine on the same system.

I know people on Mac forums or groups who say things like "If they want a copy, I give them a PDF. If they want to edit it in Word, I say 'tough luck'." You wouldn't last long with that kind of attitude in my line of work. (Edit: it's not just Mac people, it's also Linux people, LaTeX people, etc.)

[EricNau]

Pages is a word processor that handles graphics properly.
That is so true. When dealing with images, Pages will trump Word every time.

Why can't MS understand "drag and drop?"

[dswoodley]

THis discussion brings up something that has been bugging me for months. I can understand why iLife 07 is late (waiting for Leopard and core animation), but why the hold up with iWork? Think Secret was posting screenshots of the upgraded program nearly a year ago and yet it's nowhere in site.

Thoughts?

[dswoodley]

In addition to the above post, iWork is my office suite of choice when spreadsheets are required. Just love it. Simple. Elegant. Powerful.

[EricNau]

THis discussion brings up something that has been bugging me for months. I can understand why iLife 07 is late (waiting for Leopard and core animation), but why the hold up with iWork? Think Secret was posting screenshots of the upgraded program nearly a year ago and yet it's nowhere in site.

Thoughts?
Would it really make sense to release iWork but not iLife?

...Anyway, let's leave that speculation for a different thread. ;)

[dswoodley]

Would it really make sense to release iWork but not iLife?

...Anyway, let's leave that speculation for a different thread. ;)

Why not? How are the two linked? I can't see any obvious connection. Anyway, you are right, this is a subject for a different thread.

[Bern]

Would it really make sense to release iWork but not iLife?

...Anyway, let's leave that speculation for a different thread. ;)

I don't see how one has a relationship to the other? There's no logical reason why iWork should be delayed unless it has a significant dependancy to Leopard.

[RaMaz]

Powerpoint does handle objects better...and Powerpoint:Mac has the cube effect...

true, but the cube effect wont work on a PC, even with Office 2007

[decksnap]

Not so. Pages is a word processor that handles graphics properly.

No. Pages is a desktop publishing program with some word processing features.

[EricNau]

I don't see how one has a relationship to the other? There's no logical reason why iWork should be delayed unless it has a significant dependancy to Leopard.
Perhaps you are thinking a little too logically. ;)

Even though the two suites are completely independent, they have always been released simultaneously, and I don't see that tradition ending in the near future.

[DmitriF]

No. Pages is a desktop publishing program with some word processing features.

Just out of interest, since everybody is saying Word has so much more word processing features than Pages, can you list me some of them? Not saying Pages is more powerful, I'm just curious to know what those big features are :)

[IJ Reilly]

No. Pages is a desktop publishing program with some word processing features.

All of them, as far as I can see. But what do I know? I only write for a living. :rolleyes:

Just out of interest, since everybody is saying Word has so much more word processing features than Pages, can you list me some of them? Not saying Pages is more powerful, I'm just curious to know what those big features are :)

A couple that have been mentioned previously are equation editing, track-changes, and certain kinds of footnoting. That's about all I can recall from previous discussions.

The real issue seems to be that Word is regarded by many as the "industry standard" word processor, therefore anything which is not Word is by definition "not as powerful" and may not even be a real word processor. The definition of "powerful" is pretty much completely circular, and the definition of "word processor" is pretty much Word's precise feature-set and the way its features are implemented.

[DmitriF]

A couple that have been mentioned previously are equation editing, track-changes, and certain kinds of footnoting. That's about all I can recall from previous discussions.

Right, so right now track changes is a big feature that is missing, certainly very useful for writing collaborative pieces of work. Equation editing and some footnoting features are not present also - but apart from that Pages can do pretty much what you want it to do. Right now, everybody is very quick to point out the superiority of Word over Pages, but nobody is prepared to list a set of things that Word has and Pages doesn't.

As you say, it is the mindset that has been developed over many years and is difficult to break - you consider Microsoft Word to be 'the' word processor - and anything else seems to be less "powerful", however I'm personally not convinced that this is true. While Word may have a few features that Pages doesn't - I'm not convinced that it is greatly superior. Perhaps I'm wrong and if so please do tell me what other features Word has over Pages :)

When I moved from the Windows world to the Mac a couple of years ago, I used Word at first. I then started using Keynote for presentations and really enjoyed the simplicity of the workflow. I tried Pages to see if it was similar and was very pleased by its ease of use and power. It is very nice to use due to the uncluttered interface and actually allows you to make great looking documents very fast. Pages is especially good at working with pictures, objects and tables, and I personally found I could get the results I wanted better and faster in Pages than Word.

[IJ Reilly]

You'll probably get a better list from a regular Word user. But since this topic comes up frequently here, I am aware of the complaint about equations editing, which IMO isn't a typical word processing task, and apparently a work-around exists. I don't recall exactly what the complaint about footnoting was, but IIRC, it had something to do with converting footnotes to end-notes. The other frequently griped issue seems to be Pages' lack of support for Word's track changes, which, as you pointed out, is only an issue for collaborative document writing. This comes up only rarely for me but I well understand that if this is an important feature for you that Word is a natural choice -- a least at this point. We don't know what features Apple will add to the next version of iWork.

One of the problems Apple has with Pages is what you see when you launch it -- the template browser, loaded with all of those brochure and flyer layouts. This leads many to believe something about Pages which isn't really true -- that it's meant to be a junior version of InDesign and not a word processor. I pointed this out to a member of the iWork team I met at MW-SF a couple of years ago. Probably most people who look at Pages never get to the point of creating their own templates, which is a shame since this is one of the great strengths of Pages. This feature alone, which Word cannot touch, saves me tons of time in my writing.

[Lyle]

If you're working in an environment where you need to exchange anything more than trivial Word documents, with people running Microsoft Word for Windows, you're going to have to bite the bullet and buy Office 2004 (or Office 2008, if you can wait that long). It is a necessary evil. I've experimented with OpenOffice and NeoOffice, as well as iWork, and something is always inevitably lost in translation when I'm trying to import Word documents (or export to Word).

Having said all that: I'm a huge fan of the iWork suite, when I'm not working under the previously mentioned constraint. Pages is especially well suited to desktop publishing-type tasks, but like IJ and others have said, it's also a good general purpose word processor.

[Sunnzy]

If you're working in an environment where you need to exchange anything more than trivial Word documents, with people running Microsoft Word for Windows, you're going to have to bite the bullet and buy Office 2004 (or Office 2008, if you can wait that long). It is a necessary evil. I've experimented with OpenOffice and NeoOffice, as well as iWork, and something is always inevitably lost in translation when I'm trying to import Word documents (or export to Word).

Not necessary.

I always use OpenOffice when needed to work with other 'PC' users, and send them PDF. If they want to edit anything I just send them the file in OpenDocument format, and if they ask I either force them to get OpenOffice which runs on almost anything, or get the OpenDocument plugin for MS Office.

That's what I do to my team members. And of course, my email automatically rejects all .doc documents and sends an automated reply.

[petvas]

Not necessary.

I always use OpenOffice when needed to work with other 'PC' users, and send them PDF. If they want to edit anything I just send them the file in OpenDocument format, and if they ask I either force them to get OpenOffice which runs on almost anything, or get the OpenDocument plugin for MS Office.

That's what I do to my team members. And of course, my email automatically rejects all .doc documents and sends an automated reply.
If I would do the same, my company would fire me and my colleagues would call me an ass$$$$$

[Sunnzy]

I think a few of my colleagues do think I am as ass for doing this... but I am lucky enough to not get fired for this.

I understand different company would have different policy regarding to this kinda of word format madness, but just because it is a company thing doesn't always means you have to take it - not every company is ignorant about it and the number of more flexible policies are increasing. Quite a few government agencies around the world has began adopting Open formats lately and there is just going to be more.

[LaDirection]

Pages pale in comparison to Word. For Excel there is no equivalent and powerpoint is standard. Please don't also forget Outlook!

You obviously do not understand what Pages is.

Pages is not a Word alternative. Pages is an Indesign or Quark lite for everyone to use. With no graphic or publishing knowledge, ANYONE can make a presentation that blows anything you'll ever produce in Words.

As for Powerpoint, you can use your templates into keynote and export your .ppt file from it. I do it many times each week.

[IJ Reilly]

Pages is not a Word alternative. Pages is an Indesign or Quark lite for everyone to use.

May I suggest that you read through a thread before making a statement that has already been completely debunked.

[chicagdan]

If your document sharing is minimal, then Pages will do fine

I have a couple different flavors of MS Office -- Office 2004 and Office 2007 for my BootCamp/VMWare Fusion installation ... and yet I write most often in Pages. The reason is speed ... Rosetta is fine, but I type way too fast for it. And going into Windows just doesn't suit me. So I write first drafts in Pages, save in Word format ... then I'll use MS Word for edits and comments.

For anyone who writes for a living, Pages is a highly underrated piece of software that will only get better. I don't understand people who think that it's only for page design, it's simply not true.

[Lyle]

Not necessary.

I always use OpenOffice when needed to work with other 'PC' users, and send them PDF. If they want to edit anything I just send them the file in OpenDocument format, and if they ask I either force them to get OpenOffice which runs on almost anything, or get the OpenDocument plugin for MS Office.So it sounds like we're in agreement.

If you're working in an environment where you need to exchange anything more than trivial Word documents (by which I mean DOC files), with people running Microsoft Word for Windows, you're going to have to bite the bullet and buy Office 2004 (or Office 2008, if you can wait that long).

And you've addressed a different option, which is working in an environment where you're allowed to exchange documents in OpenOffice (OpenDocument) format instead of Word format.

[IJ Reilly]

After hearing so much talk about it, I finally broke down and downloaded the latest version of NeoOffice. It has some quirks, and it helps to like the way MS Office works to begin with, but it seems to function quite well on a whole. And for free, what can you complain? I tried it on a Word document with included track-changes. It opened fine. It seems to be a reasonable backstop to iWork, probably better than the old version of Office I've been keeping around for this purpose. With iWork ($79) and NeoOffice ($0), I don't see a compelling case for MS Office ($400).

[TimJim]

NeoOffice is best

[psychofreak]

After hearing so much talk about it, I finally broke down and downloaded the latest version of NeoOffice. It has some quirks, and it helps to like the way MS Office works to begin with, but it seems to function quite well on a whole. And for free, what can you complain? I tried it on a Word document with included track-changes. It opened fine. It seems to be a reasonable backstop to iWork, probably better than the old version of Office I've been keeping around for this purpose. With iWork ($79) and NeoOffice ($0), I don't see a compelling case for MS Office ($400).
And with a truly aquafied OpenOffice in the works (the alpha now is virtually unusable), there should be great speed increases before MS Office comes out. I do get a bit annoyed that NeoOffice takes a while to open.

[petvas]

You obviously do not understand what Pages is.

Pages is not a Word alternative. Pages is an Indesign or Quark lite for everyone to use. With no graphic or publishing knowledge, ANYONE can make a presentation that blows anything you'll ever produce in Words.

As for Powerpoint, you can use your templates into keynote and export your .ppt file from it. I do it many times each week.

I find Keynote great and I will start using it. I am sorry but I can't say the same for Pages. I just can't get used to it.

[Sunnzy]

So it sounds like we're in agreement.

If you're working in an environment where you need to exchange anything more than trivial Word documents (by which I mean DOC files), with people running Microsoft Word for Windows, you're going to have to bite the bullet and buy Office 2004 (or Office 2008, if you can wait that long).

Well I do open .doc files in Open Office sometimes, if it is an urgent matter - but if something doesn't work I always blame the person for not using OpenOffice or its plugin for MS Office.

With the new .docx it would be just more fun, since I simply would not even try open it. :p

[petvas]

I think a few of my colleagues do think I am as ass for doing this... but I am lucky enough to not get fired for this.

I understand different company would have different policy regarding to this kinda of word format madness, but just because it is a company thing doesn't always means you have to take it - not every company is ignorant about it and the number of more flexible policies are increasing. Quite a few government agencies around the world has began adopting Open formats lately and there is just going to be more.

You said the right word, government. The private sector works differently. My company has 5000 employees. Imagine doing what you do! It's not possible.
I have to admit that I like Word. I am used to it, I can create good looking documents very fast, it has all the features I will possible need. The price is also great for me: It's Free!!! (through my company)
I tried creating my CV in Pages and after an hour I gave up. I just couldn't get used to the interface.

[Sunnzy]

All I am trying to say is that not every company is like that, so don't overly generalise by only your own experience.

I found Pages somewhat difficult at first too when I was too used to MS and Open Office; but now I simply love it. I think it is just a matter of learning and accepting new things and see if it can work for you.