iWork question.

[amycishere]

I saw in the tutorial that you can change the paper into a word document to work with PCs and make powerpoint presentations as well. This would save me $100 if true. Should I try iworks first and the free application neo office before I spend the $150 on Office? I have heard it runs slow and right now I only plan on buying 1 GB of memory.

Thanks.
Amy

 

[WillJS]

On some apps.. you can:

File-->Export-->Into its compatible Word, Excel, etc file type. It won't open on the Mac, but move to a PC w/ Office and it will.

True to what jsw said. I was just referring to save as Word doc and Pages doc.

 

[jsw]

Yes, you can export it to Word format, which will read on a PC.

Also, it (the export in Word format) will re-open in Pages, so it's not like you can't open it back up.

 

[sturigdson]

And yes, you can export keynote to powerpoint presentations. Be warned, tho, that if you do any effects, it will export the most approximate version of that effect- so if you have dissolves or move ins or anything, the powerpoint version will not look as good.

It's a handy tool that i've used a few times- and each time it reminds me how ugly and unwieldy powerpoint is.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I'll just chime in and say:

1. Pages makes perfect Word documents as far as I can tell.

2. Keynote is easier to use than Powerpoint and looks 5 times nicer. I've had no problem exporting Keynote presentations in the PPT format.

 

[amycishere]

Thank you everyone!!! Seriously, you guys saved me 100 dollars. THANK YOU!

 

[Yvan256]

If I may add a nice tip about showing Keynote presentations on a Windows computer: export your Keynotes as "Quicktime presentations". You'll keep all your effects and Quicktime will pause and wait for a key press between slides just like Keynote would in display/presentation mode.

 

[jsw]

If I may add a nice tip about showing Keynote presentations on a Windows computer: export your Keynotes as "Quicktime presentations". You'll keep all your effects and Quicktime will pause and wait for a key press between slides just like Keynote would in display/presentation mode.

This works beautifully - just beware that the file sizes can be enormous, and you'll need QT Pro if you want to go fullscreen (IIRC).

 

[amycishere]

If I may add a nice tip about showing Keynote presentations on a Windows computer: export your Keynotes as "Quicktime presentations". You'll keep all your effects and Quicktime will pause and wait for a key press between slides just like Keynote would in display/presentation mode.

Great tip, thanks! Will definitely use!

 

[Eraserhead]

and you'll need QT Pro if you want to go fullscreen (IIRC).

Why that isn't in the free version i don't know, at least with QT7 it's not nagware anymore .

 

[dpaanlka]

Why that isn't in the free version i don't know

I would guess Apple wants people to use iTunes, because that does play video full screen.

 

[compuwar]

I saw in the tutorial that you can change the paper into a word document to work with PCs and make powerpoint presentations as well. This would save me $100 if true. Should I try iworks first and the free application neo office before I spend the $150 on Office? I have heard it runs slow and right now I only plan on buying 1 GB of memory.

Thanks.
Amy

NeoOffice is good, but it'll run a bit slower than Office- normally not a big deal. Since it's free, what reason would you have for not trying it?

 

[dpaanlka]

NeoOffice is good, but it'll run a bit slower than Office- normally not a big deal. Since it's free, what reason would you have for not trying it?

Because it's ugly, clumsy, and also slow?

 

[compuwar]

Because it's ugly, clumsy, and also slow?

I've yet to see a pretty spreadsheet
A word processor is pretty-much a word processor, and slide software is pretty-much slide software, I don't think it's that much less ugly than Office. Anyway- the OP can't judge for themselves how ugly, clumsy or slow without trying it.

 

[dpaanlka]

A word processor is pretty-much a word processor, and slide software is pretty-much slide software

Then you haven't used Pages or Keynote very much.

I don't think it's that much less ugly than Office.

Well, it's not that much uglier than Office, true.

Anyway- the OP can't judge for themselves how ugly, clumsy or slow without trying it.

Well obviously. Nobody said they couldn't. But I gave you possible reasons for why someone might not want to. Just because something is free doesn't mean there is nothing to lose (wasted time, for example).