Is iWork worth it?

[powerbook911]

Today I ordered iWork, and it will be arriving tomorrow evening. However, I have considered refusing it tomorrow. Is it worth the $75? Pages is not something I will actually use very much (I have pro applications), but I'll play with it, for fun.

The big reason I want it is for Keynote 2. Just how good is Keynote? I've never had a chance to use it. The other bad side to this is that I'll only be able to use it, when I take my own mac for the presentation, since I'm usually presenting to PC crowds.

So, should I refuse or accept the package tomorrow?

 

[Jason_Bryan]

For me Keynote2 has solved all the issues that stopped me using Keynote as my primary presentation program. I can't answer the question of how well it transfers files to be used on a PC because I always use my own mac to run the presentation. Maybe I am lucky but in my travels I have not worked in a situation were I wasn't allowed to hook up my mac to the projector provided.

 

[vocaro]

The big reason I want it is for Keynote 2. Just how good is Keynote?

That's a very open-ended question. It all depends on what you need it for and what "good" means to you. Why not do some Googling and find some reviews of it?

Personally, I find it to be superior to PowerPoint, although it lacks Office-like integration features. You can't put a spreadsheet or chart into it, update the original object, and then expect your changes to appear in your presentation.

The other bad side to this is that I'll only be able to use it, when I take my own mac for the presentation, since I'm usually presenting to PC crowds.

You can always create your presentation in Keynote and then export to PowerPoint or PDF.

So, should I refuse or accept the package tomorrow?

Why would you order something without knowing if you want it?

 

[Les Kern]

I have it and it's a work-in-progress. As with a lot of early releases, it has serious issues, but rest assured it will be mainstream-mac in the future. Buy it. Keynote is better, Pages is "okay" but goes unused since I use InDesign.

 

[ldburroughs]

I bought it when it was released and haven't used it since. Unfortunately, Microsoft's Office 2004 is much more bang for the buck. It is actually useful. Pages is a waste of disk space in my opinion and that leaves you spending $75 for Keynote 2. You really have to like it to justify that kind of money for a PowerPoint replacement. I've tried to use it and hoped it would replace Office in some way but it is not there yet. Maybe next time Apple, maybe next time.

 

[Jason_Bryan]

Just to redress the balance of the topic I suggest people spend time with both Keynote and Pages. Keynote is the more polished of the two programmes as it is at version 2, but Pages has a lot to offer if people spend the time to learn how it does things. As a training and development consultant i spend the majority of my working life either writing and designing programmes and course, with all the paper work that that entails, or presenting those programmes and courses. I now use Keynote full time and Pages about 90% of the time, only really going back to Word for old archived work. Pages is not Word, but for me I have been able to move over with few issues.

 

[mcadam]

Although I've only used it once I already really love keynote. In my opinion it is 10 times better than powerpoint wich I've used for presentations before. It's much more intuitive to learn and use (surprise, surprise) and has some functions which makes it a lot faster to create presentations (fx that you can drag pictures chosen in finder to keynote and it will automatically make single pic slides of each one).

I haven't used pages much either, but it seem quite nice. Particularly it has som pretty cool options when you want to insert pictures.

A

 

[brap]

Sure I'll get blasted, but... not really

Pages is... well, weak. It does most things, but nothing really well.
Keynote 2 - I'll admit I've not had much experince with it, but seems like Keynote 1, with more themes.

 

[powerbook911]

I have a presentation next week, and I have nowhere to buy it locally. That meant I had to make a decision, with only about 30 minutes before Amazon could guarantee Friday delivery. I know it seems crazy, but what is the why.

I very much appreciate all these great views and inputs. Sounds like to me I'll be accepting iWork. I have searched the net looking for screen shots and reviews of Keynote. It seems fantastic, and even Pages seem to be appreciated by some. Keynote 2 should be very useful to me, and at least I can check out Pages to know what it is all about.

Thanks to everyone for the input. I wonder, if Apple will release a new iWork every year as with iLife, or go every other year, a bit like Microsoft with Office? The first Keynote was quite old, so I'm thinking they might wait a couple years before releases, unless they have new titles to add to the suite. What do you think?

 

[devman]

It's worth the price just for Keynote. But that's based on my needs. Your needs of course, only you can value...

 

[Bear]

Is Pages weak? Yes, however, Pages has a fair bit of functionality. Enough so that the only reason I need to fire up AppleWorks is if I am playing with a spreadsheet.

Pages can do a lot of things, you just need to learn it. As Apple works on Pages, I'm sure they will add much functionality over the next versions.

 

[Sharewaredemon]

I have a presentation next week, and I have nowhere to buy it locally. That meant I had to make a decision, with only about 30 minutes before Amazon could guarantee Friday delivery. I know it seems crazy, but what is the why.

I very much appreciate all these great views and inputs. Sounds like to me I'll be accepting iWork. I have searched the net looking for screen shots and reviews of Keynote. It seems fantastic, and even Pages seem to be appreciated by some. Keynote 2 should be very useful to me, and at least I can check out Pages to know what it is all about.

Thanks to everyone for the input. I wonder, if Apple will release a new iWork every year as with iLife, or go every other year, a bit like Microsoft with Office? The first Keynote was quite old, so I'm thinking they might wait a couple years before releases, unless they have new titles to add to the suite. What do you think?

Another thing I found is that Pages makes it easier to manage a media rich document (pictures and graphs) than Word. Also, the graphs look real snazzy in pages, I find excel is kinda boring. Though it did take a bit of time to figure out, Pages ended up making the assignment a lot easier to finish.

I haven't need keynote yet, but I kinda wish I did, cause it looks great.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I'd rate Pages "very promising." It's now my everyday word processor (replacing AppleWorks). It's got the best implementation of styles since the late, great WriteNow (which probably nobody remembers anymore, but for a long time was the gold standard of simple yet complete word processors). The only beef I've got with Pages at this early date in its life is that it can be doggone slow with large documents (on my G4/450 Cube anyway!).

Keynote 2 I haven't tried yet, though Keynote 1 had quite a few PowerPoint users saying "wow!"

 

[powerbook911]

I haven't had a lot of time to play with iWork, but after a couple hours I like it a lot. It is amazing they only charge $79, when you consider the capabilities of Keynote. I can see that even Pages can be a fun tool to play with, and it surely has an even more promising future.

 

[RealDeal]

kinda in-between...

Used unix for real-stuff since mid 80s (engineering) and windows as used alot for no real usefulness reason since 87 (crap, crap, ok, crap, crap, ok, crap, crap, ok, crap to date for the sadly paid-for-versions).

Got iwork- pages blah, pretty but half-way-there, great exports (I/m using openoffice lots and so much better than M$- it doesn't crash! shame about M$ proprietary tables glitches crap). Presentation stuff, dunno, but Power(-less)Point so ropey for MS (more than 30% fails in real gigs numbering more than 10,000!!) that anything better.

It is super cheap! Needs a spreadsheet!

Like formula one- best horsepower means crap all if you don't finish the race. Guess pretty much most software companies could learn the lesson... Primavera great, Extend great...

 

[Coca-Cola]

I am thinking the same thing.

Is iWork worth it? I would like it, but not for 75 dollars. I have Keynote 1 and use it for my classes. It makes awesome presentations. I am pretty much set for now. Maybe I will have to get iWork for a birthday gift.

I am also wondering if "Tiger" will be worth it. I am very tired of upgrading. I have been upgrading since Mac OS 9. I am broke now. No more I say!

 

[Coca-Cola]

Oh by the way, I always export my presentations as quicktime files in order to be certain they will work. Fortunatelly I have only had to use macs for presentations so far. But I am sure Quicktime would work just fine on a PC.

 

[ravenvii]

Oh by the way, I always export my presentations as quicktime files in order to be certain they will work. Fortunatelly I have only had to use macs for presentations so far. But I am sure Quicktime would work just fine on a PC.

How do you make it fullscreen, since you need QuickTime Pro do do that? And how do you control the presentation itself?

 

[LifeIsCheap]

In short, yes.

I bought iWork just over a week ago specifically for Keynote 2. I run a data warehousing progamme of work for my company and had to present a status update to all of my IT department (~120 PC users). This was my one big chance to make an impression and I thought what better way than to rock up with my iBook and blow them away with a tricked out presentation courtesy of Keynote.

I took ages to ensure I had the content just right then addded all the bells and whistles and made the big delivery yesterday afternoon. I had a rocky start where although I'd left my iBook sleeping with Keynote ready to go and had ensured that it would all display on the BIG screen okay, on waking the little sucker up, Keynote refused to play the presentation. I quit and restarted the app... nothing.

This left me ad-libbing for 3-4 mins while I rebooted the iBook and thank goodness, it worked! Anyway, I dived on in and revelled in the looks on their faces as I made my way through the presentation. I got a big round of applause at the end and my boss came up to me, shook my hand and said it was the best presentation he'd ever seen! <blushes>

I'll be using it from now on. I did export to Powerpoint on my PC laptop in case everything went disasterously wrong and it looked a pale imitation of KN.

Pages? Haven't used it, don't need to.

Enjoy! And don't put your laptop to sleep beforehand!

 

[BWhaler]

Keynote 2 is fantastic in my opinion. A serious upgrade over the last version.

I use Keynote for pitches around the world, and I think it worth way more than the 79 bucks for iWork. No, it's not perfect, but it is the best on the market.

Pages is a nice start but I don't use it at all. I hope Apple really invests in pages and the next version fills in the holes.

But I would keep iWork 05 if I were you for Keynote alone.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

I've had a hard time with Pages, but everyone loves Keynote 2. If it was Pages alone, I'd say no, because you can tell it's not a finished app.

 

[Platform]

Keynote is very good in my opinion, but Pages does not fall uder the category of Word..so I would buy it for Keynote and have Word as well

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

Like we were saying in the thread about Pages somewhere here, Pages is not Word, but more like Publisher.

I still use AppleWorks for basic word processing.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Several posters have panned Pages, but I don't get the reasoning. Even in its infancy, I'd choose it over Word any day of the week -- and certainly over creaky old AppleWorks.

 

[tobio]

when I tell pages to put the font in Univers (or some other non default font) it STAYS in that font. thats more than I could get Ms Word X to do. Also the paragraph styles actually make formatting your document easy, rather than a Word style tightrope walk requiring a save after every minor change. To me that makes it worth the £50 I spent on it. Keynote does nice presentations, and also exports them to a whole host of formats, so you will be all set no matter where you go