iWork '09... Goodbye to Office '08???

[nanoboy]

Forgot to add

The only thing from my experience that Pages '09 is still lacking is even when you have different Section Breaks inserted in your document, Pages still cannot have Landscape and Portrait in different Sections within a single document.

I have to work my way round it by rotating my big chart (an image file created from OmniGraffle) by 90 degree.

If you need a big table, you'd be best working on the table in a separate spreadsheet file, then copy and paste it in as an image (and rotate by 90 degree).

So please write feedbacks on the Apple website - they do listen (I wrote to them about using Endnote in Pages before, now they've done it. But now I found Bookends which is nice):
- Portrait and Landscape in one single document (not vital but would be nice to have).
- Autosave (please!).

 

[chameleon81]

Office 2007 interface is excellent once you get used to it. If they offered the same interface on the mac version it'd be an excellent buy! I find the current Office 08 interface horrible to be honest. All the drop down menu's - its just anti-intuitive and not useable on a laptop.

I became an avid iWork user with 08, the release of 09 has reenforced my love for the software. I prefer pages over word, but it still doesn't offer landscape and portrait pages in the same document. Keynote just tears powerpoint to pieces. Excel still beats numbers unfortunately.

I totally agree with you. If you never used Office or if you are open minded are try to adapt instead of complaining it is brilliant. I love it.

Can someone tell me why they prefer Keynote over Powerpoint? ( except the price point )

Only time i did presentations was during my studies last year. I found Powerpoint much more faster for production. It's smartart graphics rocks in my opinion. I couldn't find sth equivalent in Keynote.

 

[hacksaw-C87]

I totally agree with you. If you never used Office or if you are open minded are try to adapt instead of complaining it is brilliant. I love it.

However, had you used, say, Word for a prolonged period of time, Pages doesn't quite hit the mark. I use both Pages and Word and Word is by far simpler; for example, basic word changes such as antonyms and synonyms can be changed more intuitively in Word.

Having said that, Pages does offer some cool features, such as the full-screen view, that you can't access in Word. As a writer I find this comes in handy for writing creative work; where you can focus on just the words on the page with greater ease. However, when writing my dissertation Word proved more reliable and intuitive. I can only speak for the Word processing aspect of both programs, and whilst both have their merits, I've found Word to be superior.

 

[chameleon81]

However, had you used, say, Word for a prolonged period of time, Pages doesn't quite hit the mark. I use both Pages and Word and Word is by far simpler; for example, basic word changes such as antonyms and synonyms can be changed more intuitively in Word.

Having said that, Pages does offer some cool features, such as the full-screen view, that you can't access in Word. As a writer I find this comes in handy for writing creative work; where you can focus on just the words on the page with greater ease. However, when writing my dissertation Word proved more reliable and intuitive. I can only speak for the Word processing aspect of both programs, and whilst both have their merits, I've found Word to be superior.

I agreed on your thoughts about Word 2007

 

[hacksaw-C87]

Well I'm enjoying using it again, I wrote my entire dissertation on a PC with Word and it's taken ages for me to get it working properly on Mac. Finally found the time to update to 2.1.1.5 (or whatever ludicrously numerated name it was given) and it has stopped making my Mac crash. Should've mentioned that really... Word kept making my Mac crash when I first got it! It was the first day I had my Macbook and I was

 

[IJ Reilly]

The only thing from my experience that Pages '09 is still lacking is even when you have different Section Breaks inserted in your document, Pages still cannot have Landscape and Portrait in different Sections within a single document.

Did you know... you can save to a PDF, then rotate the page in Preview?

 

[JaySoul]

Apple fell far from the tree

Apple messed up badly. And continue to do so.

Firstly they need to man up a bit and make iWork INCLUDED on Macs in the first place when you buy one. This would have reduced the need for normal people who use the holy trinity of word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.

Secondly they need to improve iWork. This '09 version is an improvement of sorts. However, as people have highlighted, compatabiltity with basic things is an issue.

I'm sure Microsoft have made things a bit more difficult for them, but Apple appear not to care much about such important basic applications. They would sell tons more computers and please many more customers.

 

[chameleon81]

Did you know... you can save to a PDF, then rotate the page in Preview?

Did you know that you can print your document out and place your sheets as landscape and portrait on your desk?

BUT this is not what he is after for !

 

[IJ Reilly]

Did you know that you can print your document out and place your sheets as landscape and portrait on your desk?

BUT this is not what he is after for !

I really don't know what he is after for. I was just making a suggestion.

 

[Brammy]

I really don't know what he is after for. I was just making a suggestion.

When you work on a page in landscape view on the screen, it's easier to work with the elements.

A lot of documents I work in are reports, but I may have a page or two with a big table in it that needs to be landscape view. In Word, it's easy. I set that section to landscape, but I can work on the document was a whole reading "right side up" as it were.

Does that make any sense?

 

[IJ Reilly]

Does that make any sense?

Yup. Seems useful, I just wonder how this all works out when you go to print it. I've seen some PDFs from Word with mixed page orientations and sizes. Kind of mess to view and print.

 

[Curren~Sea]

...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.

Yep, I realize that people use their editors for different purposes. I'm glad that you don't have any compatibility issues.

For me, one of the simplest and most frequently used editor functions are numbered and bullet lists. These just do not convert properly on a consistent basis. Most people just want to do their work and not fiddle fart around with finicky fussy trifles. I see the day ahead when we do all of our collaboration online via the browser.

 

[Brammy]

Yup. Seems useful, I just wonder how this all works out when you go to print it. I've seen some PDFs from Word with mixed page orientations and sizes. Kind of mess to view and print.

Prints fine.

 

[wardc03]

New iWork 09

So I have been using iWork 09 for a week now. There are great upgrades from the 08 version which I used all the time.

For me, I have no use for MS Office. And yes I do spreadsheets, word processing, and presentations. And yes, all three of the programs in iWork (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers) are fully compatible with MS Office. I have to open and edit Excel docs all the time at work and they work just like normal in numbers. Same with all the others.

I know there are many people who would disagree but for me, iWork 09 has completely replaced MS Office. I simply have no use for it anymore. Personally I even like it more than MS Office. I like the workflow of everything.

You cannot beat the price either.

 

[andyljohnson]

iWork is for me

I hate using office. I switched to iWork with the 08 version and have not had issues. I share files daily with my office (which uses office on Windows) and things are fine.

I save files as PDFs, send Excel files, send Word files, and none of them have been sent back to me.

I must admit my uses are simple. Basic text documents, simple spreadsheets. For anything using photos I send PDFs

 

[Mercellus]

Is it worth upgrading from iWork 08 to iWork 09? I use Pages extensively and Numbers occasionally, don't really use Keynote much. It's $99 CDN.

 

[chillywilly]

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 have a question on the Track Changes compatibility between Word 08 and Pages 09.

I send copies of my work to my editor, they make changes using the track changes feature, save the document as RTF and send it back to me. When I open the RTF file in Word 08, I see all of the track changes to the right of the manuscript. When I open the same RTF file in Pages 09, none of the track changes show up. The feature is turned on, but still, the track changes column to the left is empty.

How do I ensure compatibility? Do I need to create the manuscript in Pages 09, save as .DOC, send to my editor, they add notes to track changes in Word (PC or Mac), then it comes back to me and I can open it in Pages 09 and all the changes should be there, right?

I will test this over the weekend, but would like to know if it's possible. I'll keep MS Office 2008, but am really liking Page 09 and am getting used to how nice, fast and reliable it is.

 

[macrem]

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.

Yeah but not even MS Office is 100% compatible with MS Office so the entire premise is shot. I have personally experienced (pptx) files, for example, that won't open in MS Office 2005 with the 2007 compatibility tool from Microsoft, but the same files opened fine in OpenOffice 3.1.

Also at work statistically I am a Windows & an MS Office user, however in reality I use iWork '09 on Macs & OpenOffice on Linux. Mostly my colleagues are unaware of that fact as I save in Office formats when I need to send them .doc, etc. files, which is actually quite rare thanks to PDF, HTML, etc.

 

[macrem]

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?

PDF (like PS) is essentially a printer format (although we know it's used for more than that). The underlying data in spreadsheets, for instance, is lost when you save as PDF. Better that the user 'saves as' in a native format where data is not lost and prints to PDF, keeping the two separated.

It is where it should be and we are spoiled to have this functionality throughout OS X out of the box.

 

[Benjamindaines]

I have a question on the Track Changes compatibility between Word 08 and Pages 09.

I send copies of my work to my editor, they make changes using the track changes feature, save the document as RTF and send it back to me. When I open the RTF file in Word 08, I see all of the track changes to the right of the manuscript. When I open the same RTF file in Pages 09, none of the track changes show up. The feature is turned on, but still, the track changes column to the left is empty.

How do I ensure compatibility? Do I need to create the manuscript in Pages 09, save as .DOC, send to my editor, they add notes to track changes in Word (PC or Mac), then it comes back to me and I can open it in Pages 09 and all the changes should be there, right?

I will test this over the weekend, but would like to know if it's possible. I'll keep MS Office 2008, but am really liking Page 09 and am getting used to how nice, fast and reliable it is.

Just a guess, but try opening the RTF in Word, then saving it as a DOC file. Then you can see what happens when you open the DOC file in Pages.

 

[chillywilly]

Just a guess, but try opening the RTF in Word, then saving it as a DOC file. Then you can see what happens when you open the DOC file in Pages.

Wow. That worked. Thank you. That was easier than I thought.

Guess Pages doesn't recognize the Track Changes as an RTF formatted file, but does when it's a Word DOC.

Again, thanks for the tip.