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iWork or Office?

VforVelveta

VforVelveta

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 16, 2006
242
121
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Right now I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I wouldn't mind getting to know iWork (I'm already pretty well versed in Office, but hate Word and have heard great things about Pages), but it doesn't contain any sort of parallel to Excel, which is something I like to use every now and again. On the other hand, I already know Office well, but the price listing on Apple's site seems really high, especially when compared to iWork. Plus, I've heard things about Office not running that well on Intel Macs (I've got a MBP C2D).

So, does anyone know either a Mac replacement for Excel, or somewhere I could get Office a lot cheaper? $150 for the student version seems a bit steep in my opinion...

Thanks for any help.
 
If you only use Excel 'every now and again', you may be able to get by with iWork's table functionality in Pages and Keynote. You can do some simple arithmetic and graphing, for instance. It may be enough for your needs. Office at $150 is quite a bit of a discount from the regular version, so I'm not sure how much cheaper you'll find it. At my university we have site licenses that one can purchase for $40 or so, but that is a special case.
 
150 for the student version seems a bit steep in my opinion...
Click to expand...

:confused:




Anyway...

Office.

Despite my best efforts (I know, IJ, I know) I just can't make Pages do what I need it to do, and all of my clients like stuff in MS Word. Having multiple .pages and .doc files of the same stories drove me mad.

Keynote is the one strong stick in iWork.
 
If iWork '07 doesn't include an enchanced Excel function in Pages, or a new program camparable to Excel, just download NeoOffice or OpenOffice for free, and use their Excel, while using iWork for everything else.:)
 
VforVelveta said:
Right now I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I wouldn't mind getting to know iWork (I'm already pretty well versed in Office, but hate Word and have heard great things about Pages), but it doesn't contain any sort of parallel to Excel, which is something I like to use every now and again. On the other hand, I already know Office well, but the price listing on Apple's site seems really high, especially when compared to iWork. Plus, I've heard things about Office not running that well on Intel Macs (I've got a MBP C2D).

So, does anyone know either a Mac replacement for Excel, or somewhere I could get Office a lot cheaper? $150 for the student version seems a bit steep in my opinion...

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

office run on intel mac perfectly, as long as u have >1GB memory

if u dont use excel's advanced plotting function, then u can get away with free NeoOffice's spreadsheet, but if u need to plot diagram, excel is irreplaceable.

buy.com offer office at $98, student and teacher version, remember that u have 3 license for that, its like buy 3 office for a price of $100, which is way cheaper than iWorks.
 
clevin said:
office run on intel mac perfectly, as long as u have >1GB memory

if u dont use excel's advanced plotting function, then u can get away with free NeoOffice's spreadsheet, but if u need to plot diagram, excel is irreplaceable.

buy.com offer office at $98, student and teacher version, remember that u have 3 license for that, its like buy 3 office for a price of $100, which is way cheaper than iWorks.
Click to expand...

May I remind you of OpenOffice, whcih has a perfect Excel replacement, and then iWork family pack, which is 5 licenses for $99.:)
 
Josias said:
May I remind you of OpenOffice, whcih has a perfect Excel replacement, and then iWork family pack, which is 5 licenses for $99.:)
Click to expand...

dear, I can tell u dont use excel extensively, I tried every possible way, but the advanced plotting function just can NOT be done in openoffice, understand? if u wanna plot of data set then do some mathematical stuff on it, excel, let me repeat, is irreplaceable.

and, I bough my office from school, which is only $70
 
clevin said:
dear, I can tell u dont use excel extensively, I tried every possible way, but the advanced plotting function just can NOT be done in openoffice, understand? if u wanna plot of data set then do some mathematical stuff on it, excel, let me repeat, is irreplaceable.
Click to expand...

sorry, what is plotting?:D

I only use Excel for shcoolwork;)
 
iGary said:
Despite my best efforts (I know, IJ, I know) I just can't make Pages do what I need it to do, and all of my clients like stuff in MS Word. Having multiple .pages and .doc files of the same stories drove me mad.

Excel will demolish anything Apple will ever initially release.

Keynote is the one strong stick in iWork.
Click to expand...

Well at least I've got iGary trained. :)

Whenever one of my clients demands a Word file, I simply export it from Pages and toss the export immediately after e-mailing. I rarely keep both versions and nobody is the wiser.

Excel is a total mess, if you ask me. I'll bet that the vast majority of people don't use 98% of Excel's features, either because they don't need them or can't figure them out. Apple could easily best Excel, but they won't do it by offering a larger number of knobs and dials. They can do it by offering a spreadsheet with a smaller number of useful and well-implemented features.
 
Josias said:
sorry, what is plotting?:D

I only use Excel for shcoolwork;)
Click to expand...

lol, if OP need the function, he will know it, if he doesn't need the function, he can just use openoffice....

and....
like this
243425618_64201145de.jpg
 
:( why do these "everything open source is great" jokers constantly recommend NeoOffice for as viable for spreadsheet work It varies from grim to being unuseable.

Openoffice 2 is not so bad but old appleworks made a better job of opening formatted excel spreadsheets
 
Alright, so it seems so far that Excel is the key point between the two. Though I'd like Excel, I don't see myself doing any major stuff in it, as my Mac is used as a home computer, and any Excel intensive things are done at work, and I can't take data out of there to work on at home, so I guess I don't need it that much.

Right now I've got the trial versions of both Office and iWork, though I haven't activated either one of them. I guess I'll start iWork and see how I like it, while looking at OpenOffice and such. If that doesn't work, I can try Office and see if that fits.

Hopefully that'll get me into 2007 when the new programs come out and I might just spring for one of those.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.
 
VforVelveta said:
Alright, so it seems so far that Excel is the key point between the two. Though I'd like Excel, I don't see myself doing any major stuff in it, as my Mac is used as a home computer, and any Excel intensive things are done at work, and I can't take data out of there to work on at home, so I guess I don't need it that much.

Right now I've got the trial versions of both Office and iWork, though I haven't activated either one of them. I guess I'll start iWork and see how I like it, while looking at OpenOffice and such. If that doesn't work, I can try Office and see if that fits.

Hopefully that'll get me into 2007 when the new programs come out and I might just spring for one of those.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.
Click to expand...

yeah, thats good idea, NeoOffice+iWorks can do most of the job for u, i think, good luck;)
 
DerChef said:
:( why do these "everything open source is great" jokers constantly recommend NeoOffice for as viable for spreadsheet work It varies from grim to being unuseable.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. NeoOffice worked better on my old Quicksilver 733 than it does on my new Mac Mini, for reasons unknown. It takes forever to start and has to think about every command before fulfilling it. Just about the only thing it does fast is show my typing. Maybe a newer build would work better. I really want to like it though.
 
VforVelveta said:
Alright, so it seems so far that Excel is the key point between the two. Though I'd like Excel, I don't see myself doing any major stuff in it, as my Mac is used as a home computer, and any Excel intensive things are done at work, and I can't take data out of there to work on at home, so I guess I don't need it that much.

Right now I've got the trial versions of both Office and iWork, though I haven't activated either one of them. I guess I'll start iWork and see how I like it, while looking at OpenOffice and such. If that doesn't work, I can try Office and see if that fits.

Hopefully that'll get me into 2007 when the new programs come out and I might just spring for one of those.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.
Click to expand...

Good deal. Now, don't expect Pages to be a Word clone. Apple has taken a very different approach. Takes some getting used to.
 
I wish MS would get their act together and get some sort of UB released of office for mac. I would put money on not seeing on till mid 2008 though :(
 
iWork is great, it's simple and at the same time has a lot of tools to make a professional work.

But the thing I didn't like about it, was when you share something with a PC user. Keynote presentations when opened with PowerPoint look horrible. Pages documents when opened with Word are not always with the same configuration, etc. And I share a lot of docs. with PC users. So this is what stops me from getting iWork.

I hope the new one is more compatible with Office.

Roco,
 
Roco said:
I hope the new one is more compatible with Office.
Click to expand...

In order for your documents to be 100% compatible with Office for Windows you need to use Office for Windows, you need to use the same version of Office, and use only the most basic fonts in your documents. The work-around to all of these issues is pdf. I hope Apple never hobbles Keynote so it can become more compatible with PowerPoint.
 
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