I use iWork for everything except taking notes. The notebook view in Office 08 tramples over Pages outline features.
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iWork '09... Goodbye to Office '08???
- Thread starter soulreaper
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Looking back I must say I was very vague. I apologize for that, I should have taken a little bit more time to explain my final statement.
With that said, let me revise my statement and provide more insight into why I would give certain recommendations based on certain needs.
If you need to write papers and collaborate with PC users frequently (>50% of the time), as well as do the same for crunching numbers and create advanced spreadsheets, I would recommend Office. I personally view the Office suite as being better for students (like myself). I am in no way trying to bash iWork (I'm considering buying it), but I think that Pages and Numbers still have a few improvements which need to be made. Neither iWork or Office is perfect, but for right now, I think that 2/3 of Office is better than iWork, with the other 1/3 belonging to iWork. I'd love it if both were equal because I would most certainly buy the Apple product. I was told in the Apple Store that due to my collaboration needs, Office would be better, but with the better compatibility in iWork '09, I may need to switch over from Office '08.
Word is better than Pages to me for many reasons. First is the obvious equation editor and citation editor (neither of which I use that frequently). Second is the compatibility in a collaboration-intensive environment. Third is the note-taking functionality. Pages has several features which I really like: Fullscreen, easier time with templates, and a better looking interface.
I really can't say much about Numbers vs. Excel, and I can't say too much about Keynote vs. PowerPoint. What I can say is that Keynote most certainly takes the cake for it's ease-of-use, transitions, professional appeal and gorgeous templates.
I do have a question, should I switch based on my needs? I'm a student who doesn't do too many collaborations (I did a lot last year but don't need to as much this year, or for the next few years). I occasionally do out-of-school typing of reports and edit my resumé occasionally. Numbers-wise, I do a few graphing projects with simple data (not anything more than a class project or two). I do NOT present frequently, maybe twice a year.
A second set of questions is what I should do with my copy of Office '08 if I do decide to switch. Is there any way to keep one serial number and sell the other two, or is that illegal? Can I just sell my copy of Office and use the profit to buy iWork? How much should I sell it for; it is the 2008 Home and Student edition.
Finally, would I be able to get a student discount on iWork even though I am in High School? Could I try contacting Executive Relations and see if I get a response?
Get a little tired of the "Numbers can't compete with Excel"
I'll put it another way, Excel cannot compete with Numbers. Excel comes nowhere near the usability of Numbers nor can it do what Numbers does so easily with multiple tables..
For me:
Pages + TextEdit replaced the 'Word' clone with iWork'05
Numbers replaced the "excel" clone with iWork'08 and the Office suite was uninstalled.
iWork'09 has improved both.
I'll put it another way, Excel cannot compete with Numbers. Excel comes nowhere near the usability of Numbers nor can it do what Numbers does so easily with multiple tables..
For me:
Pages + TextEdit replaced the 'Word' clone with iWork'05
Numbers replaced the "excel" clone with iWork'08 and the Office suite was uninstalled.
iWork'09 has improved both.
Which, unfortunately, sucks. I can't even begin to imagine what writing my thesis would have been like using that. Seriously, try Endnote or Reference Manager (RM if you're on PC). You won't regret it.
Interesting. I was a longtime Powerpoint user before I got a Mac, but my experience has been the opposite - I'm much happier with Keynote. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
There are times - quick and dirty ones in particular - that I'd definitely still prefer to use Keynote. I also really like the idea of the new iPhone app, although I haven't used it in anger yet.
Currently my ultralight 'Mac' is a Sony TT virtualising OS X... but it's not fully stable and highly unsuited for the likes of Keynote, although I have a specific purpose for it which runs fine. The Air just wasn't working for me - too much of a POS, so I finally relented and got a Macbook which is potentially more useful.
While the brand new Macbook is still grossly overweight at ~3kg in total to equal the runtime of a typical all-day extended + standard battery config on a small number of nearly year-old and currently obsoleted Sony SZ (2.3Kgs total - the relative difference is that with the Macbook config, it's like carrying the Sony + battery + 1.5 bags of sugar) that I carry when I'm not with the TT's, it is currently probably the closest thing to a fully supported OS X machine that is reasonably portable yet actually does stuff I need it to do without major issues - including host the occasional Keynote.
If it were just Keynote, I'd probably balk at needing to use inferior Apple machines. But if the Macbooks work out within the compromises that I'm willing to make for my other, more important uses, it'd be a nice bonus to be able to present in Keynote again.
Currently my ultralight 'Mac' is a Sony TT virtualising OS X... but it's not fully stable and highly unsuited for the likes of Keynote, although I have a specific purpose for it which runs fine. The Air just wasn't working for me - too much of a POS, so I finally relented and got a Macbook which is potentially more useful.
While the brand new Macbook is still grossly overweight at ~3kg in total to equal the runtime of a typical all-day extended + standard battery config on a small number of nearly year-old and currently obsoleted Sony SZ (2.3Kgs total - the relative difference is that with the Macbook config, it's like carrying the Sony + battery + 1.5 bags of sugar) that I carry when I'm not with the TT's, it is currently probably the closest thing to a fully supported OS X machine that is reasonably portable yet actually does stuff I need it to do without major issues - including host the occasional Keynote.
If it were just Keynote, I'd probably balk at needing to use inferior Apple machines. But if the Macbooks work out within the compromises that I'm willing to make for my other, more important uses, it'd be a nice bonus to be able to present in Keynote again.
I was going on my merry way enjoying this thread, noting the obvious bias by some, when I saw this and felt compelled to inject some reality.
90% of the corporate world uses MS Office 2003/4/7 on XP. If you don't, great! You're in a minuscule minority almost to the point of statistical insignificance. You might even consider yourself enlightened, liberated and intelligent. However, for the rest of us that actually collaborate with the working world and depend on seamless transfers of our documents, we need 100% compatibility with MS Office. We want to be able to work on our documents at home or work without worrying about losing a bullet point list or some other wonky formatting issue.
All I hear you saying is basically, "Yes you can do anything you want with a bit of effort." but you are completely ignoring the common sense that is surrounding you. This is not a debate about features or user friendliness. The OP asked about compatibility.
The best solution for working folks is to run Windows/Office virtually or via boot camp.
OMG, reality. We can't have any of that.
This issue has been hashed out ad infinitum, but the point of my remark is that the only people who truly need Word are those who truly collaborate on documents. How many is that? To use your words, a miniscule minority. The balance, otherwise known as the vast majority, either (1) contribute to documents, or (2) are completing finished products. In the first case, someone will be responsible for the finished product, so perfect compatibility is not actually required in most instances. For those in the second category, PDF is the hugely superior way of sharing the work product, for any number of reasons.
So I will stick by my original observation, which is that far more people think they need Office than actually need it. This is reality.
Perhaps in Palookaville. But for the rest of us who share documents in a business environment iWork isn't going to cut it. 99% compatibility is not good enough.
This might be too much of an assumption but I doubt you are a person who relies on a MS Office work place or school, which is fine. If you did, you would quickly tire of switching back and forth between editors. Even Office for Mac isn't good enough.
For the record I hate Excel but use it all the time. Love Acrobat and look forward to the day when compatibility issues go away.
I share documents in a business environment on a daily basis. I don't use Word, don't need Word. At all.
Imagine that.
I partially agree with IJ in that if you're going to run OS X, then Office is debatable in terms of it's usefulness as far as full compatibility with Windows is concerned. If you're sharing stuff-lite, i.e. things that you could do in any other app but happen to do in Office, then yes - it's highly likely that you won't be significantly crippled by using iWork, Openoffice, etc.
As with most things OS X, relatively Fisher-Price usage will not present a problem at all.
But if you actually use Office, then the viability of using Office for Mac - although it's superior to anything else offered on OS X in terms of the scope of what it offers - let alone the other alternatives, is highly debatable.
Office 2004 for Mac was rudimentary compared to 2003. The same goes for 2008 for Mac vs 2007 - but to a greater degree. I do buy licenses of Office for all my Macs, but it's quite possible I use iWork more often on them as I really like iWork for the aforementioned quick and dirty stuff. I find I can cook up more attractive short documents / presentations faster for things which aren't that in-depth. My actual work however gets done on Windows machines - proper Windows machines, not Boot Camped, using the proper Office.
Funny, I keep hearing how Word is for serious work, while Pages is for quick and dirty short stuff. Funny because the overwhelming majority of the documents I see produced in Word, regardless of length and authorship, are absolutely hideous. The formatting is terrible, and only two fonts are ever used (we all know which ones). I'd be happy to compare our work product from Pages against 99.9% of the work product I see being produced with Word. And I use none of Apple's packaged templates.
Yeah it's strange they put .pdf somewhere else. I usually use print (command + P) and then click on pdf.
Would have made much more sense to have all the different formats included in the drop down menu in Save As.
Same goes for Keynote. The export menu in Keynote '08 was so concenient you can choose from a full range of different formats to export to. Now in '09, to do .pdf you have to go to print. And I haven't figured out how to do a QuickTime movie export yet?
Nobody here is arguing that you cannot create beautiful documents/presentations/spreadsheets with iWork. This thread is about whether a person can give up MS Office in favor of iWork.
The answer is:
If you do not need 100% compatibility with MS Office documents/presentations/spreadsheets (Word/Powerpoint/Excel) then iWork '09 is fine.
If you do need 100% compatibility with MS Office (90% of all corporate environments) then you need to run MS Office in Windows, either via boot camp or virtualization.
You see, the computer is a tool, nothing more nothing less. If you have found the perfect tool for you, then congratulations! Other people might still be looking to find the best way to do what they need/want to do. And they might also appreciate a more objective point of view. 
what, Times New Roman and Comic Sans?
my $0.01*:
iWork is generally a pleasure to use as far as an app goes, but, even basic compatibility with MS Office is lacking. i am very impressed that one user said he was able to do copy editing with Pages and never had formatting issues. i always have formatting issues with even basic newsletters and spreadsheets. and the export* to .doc also results in formatting issues. particularly with numbered lists and such.
so if you really need to share with MS Office on a regular basis, i recommend getting Office. i do plan on upgrading to iWork 09 when Snow Leopard comes out (hopefully they do a similar iLife/iWork/Snow Leopard bundle!) so that might change my tune.
* i haven't used iWork 09 yet, only 08, so i deducted a penny.
what, Times New Roman and Comic Sans?
Two of my favorites.
True, but again, it depends on your needs. If you're in a true collaboration environment, you will probably have to standardize on one word processor. Not only that, you'll probably also have to standardize on one version of that word processor, and probably one platform to run it on. You'll also have to settle on fonts and other formatting-related issues beforehand. In my experience, the number of people who are collaborating to this degree this are in a minority. Far more often the "sharing" experience is limited to either (1) sending or receiving a document for reading or printing, or (2) sending or receiving text for inclusion in another document. In the first instance, PDF is clearly a better solution than any word processing file, and in the second, formatting really isn't much of an issue.
Based on this, my argument is that far fewer people "need" Word than believe they do. If they fully considered their actual needs, more people would find that can chose the tools they prefer to use.
Well, again, I'm sure it's been argued here before, it's in what context of compatibility you're talking about. Let's put spreadsheet aside for the moment. For word processing, my experience in collaboration:
I use Pages '09 exclusively, whereas my collaborators use either Windows Office '03 or '07 (note that the default format in these two version .doc and .docx are not even 100% compatible on the same platform - this is from mine and many others' experience).
My documents entail user defined Styles, Section Breaks, Page Breaks, One and Two Column(s) text, Inserted pictures in between text (in the Wrap option in the inspector - I choose "Inline (moves with text)", and uncheck everything else), and Inserted table.
The most amazing thing is that my collaborators and I have Track Changes on, everything is there seamlessly as if we're using the same word processor. I created my document in Pages first, then Save As .doc and email to my collaborators. After they've edited and sent back to me, I opened the documents in Pages again, and so on.
I also use a Reference Manager program (I recommend Bookends over Endnote X2) and inserted {temporary citation code} by which I can scan the document when the wriitng is finished and create a bibliography at the end of the document. Again, the temporary codes are just there like normal text in the documents when being sent forward and backward between .pages and .doc conversion.
In fact, I don't even see it as a conversion anymore now, it's so seamless, the saving and opening (exporting and importing if you like) of the files is so fast that I just feel like working in a one format (.pages) file.
So, with regard to "serious work" in word processing, I'd say the compatibility is 100% fine for me from my experience above.
So that is the new Pages in iWork '09.
