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iwork 09 or office 08
- Thread starter isethx
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Seriously, it's starting already?
I think you can get free trials of each of them. Try them for yourself and see what you prefer.
I think you can get free trials of each of them. Try them for yourself and see what you prefer.
iWork '09. You want to pay $50 for a suite of very-well coded apps or $200-$300 for a suite that has problems basic stuff like using it with Spaces, not to mention slow-loading (like 20 bounces) and buggy.
You could always use trials and purchase whichever you like at the end of the trial.
You could always use trials and purchase whichever you like at the end of the trial.
I really think the features are making iWork 09 look great. I plan to buy it. However, I already use Office 08. Microsoft really makes a much better Office suite than Apple. They have been at it a long time. Excel blows away Numbers. But if you are just doing simple docs, than iWork should do the job. And, it's only $49 pre-installed where Office 08 is much more. I guess you can save iWork docs to work on Office 08, but that is what you really will need to do when sharing docs with others. The whole world uses Office, in business anyways.
You are buying one nice laptop. I wish I could afford the new 17" MBP. It really looks nice.
Good luck...
You are buying one nice laptop. I wish I could afford the new 17" MBP. It really looks nice.
Good luck...
That's like saying Garageband or Logic Pro? Which one should I get?
YOU should know what you need, if you don't iWork will be enough for you and it works great.
YOU should know what you need, if you don't iWork will be enough for you and it works great.
Are you going to be the only one using the files? If so then iWork is fine, its templates are way better which is a plus. If you are going to be using it in a professional environment where you have to edit excel files or deal with resumes made in Word then absolutely get Office. iWork 08 mangled the hell out of everything I tried to open that wasnt just a super basic Word file (like a school report), plus Word and Excel mangled the hell out of every file I saved from iWork. They are simply not compatible despite what Apple would like you to believe, if youre dealing with critical Excel files you will end up ruining projects.
Quick question, a bit noobish. If I open an office doc in iWork it will appear the same correct? If I email a friend an iWork doc will it appear the same on their windows office? iWork has the exact same fonts and everything as Office right?
ChrisN
ChrisN
My simple suggestion is do go with iWork and download Open Office for when you need to edit MS Office Docs.
It may or may not display the same and it does not have the same fonts. I made a resume in iWork and it did not display well at all in Word after exporting it. iWork supports more advanced layout options than Word, so if you use a feature that Word doesnt have then it will be messed up. Unless youre doing really basic things then they dont play nice at all.
iWork will open MS Office documents. It is just that the whole business world uses MS Word for documents and Excel for spreadsheets. So, if you send them a document from iPages you have to save it as an Word file. Same thing with Numbers, save as an Excel file. It is really inconvenient. MS Office is a sure way to make sure everyone can read your doc. iWork users can open in iWork. But the other is not true unless you change the format of your iWork document.
If you NEVER exchange documents, by all means go with iWork. But that is just not the real world that I know. I am always sending an Excel file here or a Word document there. Just a lot simpler to work with MS Office if you only want to buy one. And MS Office for Mac v2008 is only like $99. Plus, the Expression Media Edition for Mac 2008 has a media filing system and is on sale all of the time for like $129. Check Amazon for those.
If you want pre-installed, I think your only choice is iWork 09. Apple will send you MS Office, but I think you have to install yourself.
my simpler suggestion is just get open office qua and not buy iwork or office
If you are only using it for school reports and such i think iWork will be more than enough, now if you want true compatibility with most people then Office is the way to go, pretty expensive IMO, have you looked at openoffice?it's free and pretty awesome
As for word processing
I was like you, deciding between MS Words or iWork Pages. I write my research papers and have it corrected by my professor in Pages. I basically just exported it into .doc file, no problems, all the track changes are there.
The only inconsistent thing I found (when exporting from Pages to .doc, then importing it back from .doc into Pages), and I mean it's the only ONE thing I've encountered, is when you insert pictures, in the Inspector, do not select any alligning option such as "picture floats above text" or "picture causes wrap around text" etc. If you untick those things, everything else is fine, including using Styles.
I found the user interface in Pages is nicer to use, Word is clumpsy and a poor attempt to try to copy the Inspector from Pages. I look forward to the Pages in iWork '09 have even better compatibility.
As for presentations, it's a no brainer, Keynote is by far much more superior than Powerpoint. I've never looked back even once!!
As for spreadsheet, iWork '09 finally features best fit trend line and error bars, so making Numbers more useable now. It's suffice for me. For more serious scientific graph plotting, you should use Plot which is a free open source program and produces very professional looking graphs with all the options you want, rather than using Excel. Incidentally, the charts from Numbers do look beautiful, if you just wanna demonstrate something nice and simple.
So the verdict, iWork '09 over Office '08, keeping it real
I was like you, deciding between MS Words or iWork Pages. I write my research papers and have it corrected by my professor in Pages. I basically just exported it into .doc file, no problems, all the track changes are there.
The only inconsistent thing I found (when exporting from Pages to .doc, then importing it back from .doc into Pages), and I mean it's the only ONE thing I've encountered, is when you insert pictures, in the Inspector, do not select any alligning option such as "picture floats above text" or "picture causes wrap around text" etc. If you untick those things, everything else is fine, including using Styles.
I found the user interface in Pages is nicer to use, Word is clumpsy and a poor attempt to try to copy the Inspector from Pages. I look forward to the Pages in iWork '09 have even better compatibility.
As for presentations, it's a no brainer, Keynote is by far much more superior than Powerpoint. I've never looked back even once!!
As for spreadsheet, iWork '09 finally features best fit trend line and error bars, so making Numbers more useable now. It's suffice for me. For more serious scientific graph plotting, you should use Plot which is a free open source program and produces very professional looking graphs with all the options you want, rather than using Excel. Incidentally, the charts from Numbers do look beautiful, if you just wanna demonstrate something nice and simple.
So the verdict, iWork '09 over Office '08, keeping it real
+1
I still open docs in pages all the time, but when all else fails I have open office (^o^)
both!
I have just downloaded the trial, and being using pages for a few assignments. I have to say that there are a few features I much prefer in pages, like editing the color and style of tables, and the automatic ' heads up' for headers. I much prefer MS word 08 because I think it looks better, i prefer the way that the page is laid out.
I haven't used keynote or numbers but I would definitely use keynote rather than powerpoint any day. It looks much more appealing and there are more features, it look professional.
So, word for word processing, but keynote for presentations, I can't comment on numbers because I never have and probably never will use numbers/excel.
I suggest you download the free iWork trial and see for yourself which one you like.
NStocks
I have just downloaded the trial, and being using pages for a few assignments. I have to say that there are a few features I much prefer in pages, like editing the color and style of tables, and the automatic ' heads up' for headers. I much prefer MS word 08 because I think it looks better, i prefer the way that the page is laid out.
I haven't used keynote or numbers but I would definitely use keynote rather than powerpoint any day. It looks much more appealing and there are more features, it look professional.
So, word for word processing, but keynote for presentations, I can't comment on numbers because I never have and probably never will use numbers/excel.
I suggest you download the free iWork trial and see for yourself which one you like.
NStocks
well i am recently out of college and at work i have a macpro and an HP laptop...
however it is time to upgrade my personal computer and at work different departments use mac or PC depending on what you do. but we all use office. so i guess i should go with office 08 even know i hear it's sooooo slow and has lots of bugs.
however it is time to upgrade my personal computer and at work different departments use mac or PC depending on what you do. but we all use office. so i guess i should go with office 08 even know i hear it's sooooo slow and has lots of bugs.
iWork is fully compatible with Office documents. You just don't use the extra features that Office doesn't have (you can use them at your leisure of course). What I mean is if you stick to the same level of your colleagues in terms of styling and formatting, and don't pull out any fanfare (which I often do
) in iWork just because you could, then there's no problems in using iWork in your computer working with other Office users. I have been doing so for more than a year.