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iWork '11

A

AJ-X

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 8, 2011
26
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Hi, I very recently switched to Mac (love it) and I had the intention of buying Microsoft Office for Mac. However, I have been using the iWork '09 trial for a few days now & I really like it's simplicity and ease of use.

I would like to know when you think the next iteration of iWork will be released as I don't want to buy '09, to find '11 is going to be released soon. Do you think it is likely that iWork '11 (or whatever it will be called) will be released sometime this year?

Also, do you think it is a good idea to get iWork instead of Office?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Most long-time iWork users have been expecting a new version of iWork "any day now" for over a year. I was expecting it first last fall when iLife '11 was announced, then when the Mac App Store went live, then when Lion was released. All we've seen are updates to a 2½-year-old program, the latest with the ability to take advantage of Lion-only features.

If you need iWork, get it. It's less expensive in the Mac App Store & you only need to buy the apps you need. Or you can buy a retail box from some place like Amazon or eBay.
 
AJ-X said:
Hi, I very recently switched to Mac (love it) and I had the intention of buying Microsoft Office for Mac. However, I have been using the iWork '09 trial for a few days now & I really like it's simplicity and ease of use.

I would like to know when you think the next iteration of iWork will be released as I don't want to buy '09, to find '11 is going to be released soon. Do you think it is likely that iWork '11 (or whatever it will be called) will be released sometime this year?

Also, do you think it is a good idea to get iWork instead of Office?

Thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...

iwork '11 was rumored to be released back in like january or february. there was rumors it was completed near the time of iLife '11. now your guess is as goods as anyones. we are now guessing around iCloud and iWork '11 will have some iCloud features but thats our guess. So if it is indeed with iCloud about a month or so.
 
Honestly with the MAS, I feel Apple will do what they did with iOS: remove the '09 and just keep updating it. I doubt they make that much money off of it and even then they don't really need it.
 
saberahul said:
Honestly with the MAS, I feel Apple will do what they did with iOS: remove the '09 and just keep updating it. I doubt they make that much money off of it and even then they don't really need it.
Click to expand...

Yeah but surely they're not going to give free updates for life? Probably they'll go to just using version numbers and charge for it. That is if they ever do a real update.
 
I just have the same questions for the next version of iWork. Currently I am running MS Office on my macs, but I really like to use iWork, especially keynote. So hope it can be released with the iCloud rolling out.
 
Office 2007 file compatibility

I'm waiting for at least an update for either '09/'11(when it comes out) for .docx compatibility with Pages. (It only seems to import .doc fine but .docx becomes a mess. (I've only tested this in documents that are in a language other than English, particularly Arabic)
 
iWork 09 is better than Office

Pages > Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers <> Office (I use numbers for simple stuff but office is way more powerful with add-ons like "Solver" for optimizing stuff and Macros for business)

But I prefer iWork over Office and even if iWork's release is from two years ago it's better than the latest office!
 
ssdeg7 said:
iWork 09 is better than Office

Pages > Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers <> Office (I use numbers for simple stuff but office is way more powerful with add-ons like "Solver" for optimizing stuff and Macros for business)
Click to expand...

You must be insane. This is what it is really like.

Office is better than iWork 09.

Pages < Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers < Excel

How anyone can claim otherwise is beyond me. The only reason to get iWork is for Keynote.
 
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roadbloc said:
You must be insane. This is what it is really like.

Office is better than iWork 09.

Pages < Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers < Excel

How anyone can claim otherwise is beyond me. The only reason to get iWork is for Keynote.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to reinforce how true this is. When I did a clean Lion install, I only put Keynote back on, didn't bother with the other 2 programs.
 
Not True!

roadbloc said:
You must be insane. This is what it is really like.

Office is better than iWork 09.

Pages < Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers < Excel

How anyone can claim otherwise is beyond me. The only reason to get iWork is for Keynote.
Click to expand...

Pages > Word
Keynote > PowerPoint
Numbers > Excel

Office is buggy, and have nothing that iWork does not have
 
Been using both iWork and Office. Each has it's strengths and weaknesses.

If it were a perfect world, I would stick with iWork the most. It's easier than Office and does just about everything I would need.

With that said though, where I work is more PC oriented therefore, Office compatibility is a concern and Office 2011 handles that a far lot better than iWork does.

So I break it down like this:

For work related stuff I will use Office
For everything else I will use iWork.

As for my overall personal opinion
Pages > Word
Keynote > PowerPoint
Numbers > Excel

Outlook on the Mac is in a word a total mess. I loved Outlook on the PC when I used PC's and was excited to hear it was coming to Mac. But the Mac version is totally useless. So if you decide to get Office, just get the Home and Student version and save $$$. Outlook is useless on the Mac.

Since you said you just switched to Mac, have you tried Office on the Mac. Microsoft does offer a 30 day trial of Office. You can download the trial of it on Microsoft's website. Since you have tried iWork, try Office and it will be a good help in making your decision.
 
It's funny how everyone has such widely different opinions on which is better. Mine is a little different:

Pages>Word
Keynote>Powerpoint
Numbers< Excel

I just like Excel better. Numbers seems to fight against the way I want to work a little. The same reason I do not like Word and prefer Pages. Pages seems really straightforward to me. Word seems like a epic battle to get it to do what I want.
 
iWork

How are we so certain that all iWork updates from now are going to be free and only minor changes will be made? I am planning to get iWork and I cannot decide whether to get iWork '09 or wait for iWork '12. Please assist me someone. :)
 
sidarthar said:
How are we so certain that all iWork updates from now are going to be free and only minor changes will be made? I am planning to get iWork and I cannot decide whether to get iWork '09 or wait for iWork '12. Please assist me someone. :)
Click to expand...

Apple and "free" doesn't compute.

Apple and "it will cost you big bucks", do. :)

I speak from experience.

Ha...Ha...Ha...
 
sidarthar said:
How are we so certain that all iWork updates from now are going to be free and only minor changes will be made? I am planning to get iWork and I cannot decide whether to get iWork '09 or wait for iWork '12. Please assist me someone. :)
Click to expand...

Unfortunately we haven't heard anything about a major update coming, as far as I know.

I am quite skeptical about free updates as well.
 
I really want a full update. :( it makes me sad that iwork has been relatively neglected lately. I fell in love with the suite when i switched to mac in '09 and want more. Haha
 
vitzr said:
Apple and "free" doesn't compute.

Apple and "it will cost you big bucks", do. :)

I speak from experience.

Ha...Ha...Ha...
Click to expand...

Any experience with Microsoft? You must have the "It will cost you big bucks" crossed with Microsoft.

iWork via App Store. 19.99 each or $59.97 for all three.
Microsoft Office Home & Student $129.00
Microsoft Office Standard... $300+

$129.00 vs $59.97 sounds like Microsoft will cost you the big bucks.

Now let's look at upgrades.....
With Office Home & Student, you will just have to buy the new version, no upgrade path, so that is at least another $129.
With Office Standard you could possibly get the upgrade at a reduced cost of around $129-$199.

With iWork, Apple could give it out for free, but let's face it, they wouldn't be in business long if they gave away everything for free. Even if they sod it for the full price of $59.97 it is still less than half of what MS wants for Office.

Again I ask, who charges the big bucks?
 
ssdeg7 said:
iWork 09 is better than Office

Pages > Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers <> Office (I use numbers for simple stuff but office is way more powerful with add-ons like "Solver" for optimizing stuff and Macros for business)

But I prefer iWork over Office and even if iWork's release is from two years ago it's better than the latest office!
Click to expand...

roadbloc said:
You must be insane. This is what it is really like.

Office is better than iWork 09.

Pages < Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers < Excel

How anyone can claim otherwise is beyond me. The only reason to get iWork is for Keynote.
Click to expand...

You are both missing the important point. It depends what you need an Office Suite for.

For my wife's work, nothing by MS Office (for Mac) would be suitable. Her work involves the creation of documents. Lots and lots of documents, with lots of editing revisions and with numerous collaborators. Wouldn't even think of recommending anything else but Office.

I'm a photographer. Office is way way way overkill for what I do, plus it doesn't do what I need it to do. In my work 98% of the documents I create are for internal use (forms and price lists) or are going straight to print (rack-cards, brochures, greeting cards, promo pieces). For the internal stuff, Pages and Numbers are all I need. For the promo pieces, Pages is can work as superb page-layout program - far better than Word. Because I use Pages/Numbers for everything I can easily create internal and external documents that share the same information.

On occasions I use NeoOffice when I need something more Word-like.

No experience with Powerpoint, but I use Keynote extensively when creating material for my workshops and classes. Which is another reason to use Pages since I can share the content between the handouts and presentation easily.
 
Apple pulled the "'09" off all the boxes and product labelling a long time ago.

Keeps them from having to issue rapid updates etc.

I prefer Pages and Keynote to Word and Powerpoint but Excel still beats Numbers for anything really big. The smaller, more "creative spreadsheeting" stuff is better in Numbers though.

It all depends on what you need but iWork is a very capable, elegant and well-integrated solution for the vast majority of people's needs.
 
roadbloc said:
You must be insane. This is what it is really like.

Office is better than iWork 09.

Pages < Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers < Excel

How anyone can claim otherwise is beyond me. The only reason to get iWork is for Keynote.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this. Keynote is the only area where iWork beats Office. Office 2011 is much improved on the mac. The ribbon makes all the difference.

techy298 said:
Pages > Word
Keynote > PowerPoint
Numbers > Excel

Office is buggy, and have nothing that iWork does not have
Click to expand...

Not in the latest version it isn't. How you can think that Numbers is better than Excel is beyond me. There is significantly more functionality in Excel over Numbers. Numbers can't really do a lot more than the most basic spreadsheet functionality and can't handle a lot of what I do in Excel for work. Pages is better and useable, and it is more of a preference factor, however Word 11 is a cut above in my opinion. (Although I generally use Latex over both).
 
roadbloc said:
You must be insane. This is what it is really like.

Office is better than iWork 09.

Pages < Word
Keynote > Powerpoint
Numbers < Excel

How anyone can claim otherwise is beyond me. The only reason to get iWork is for Keynote.
Click to expand...

Does Word have those shiny beautiful templates and easy to use UI Pages have?
Does Excel have that beautiful UI Numbers have?
Keynote is really beautiful, but it isn't the only thing beautiful in iWork.
Everything in iWork IS BETTER than Microsoft Office.
 
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