Went to iWork 06>08 from Office 2004
FYI.
I used Word and Excel on Macs since the late 1980's up to last year when we were using Office X. I ran a small hi tech business with Word/Excel for nearly 20 yrs. But Word had major issues that when iWork 08 came out got me to switch once and for all. The issues were:
- Word crashed at least once a day, sometimes more, and always lost some data, Excel crashed a bit less but continually over the years;
- Word is so complex that I maybe, after all these years, used 20%, no NEEDED 20% of what it had. The more I tried to use the more crashes occurred. (I always had max or near max RAM in every computer).
- Word files became huge if any graphics or images were included limiting what I could email, unless I'd Zip them, even then included graphics and images were problematic;
- Excel was better and not as complex but still had 50% more features than our company ever found need for;
- Excel spreadsheets to start were always huge: 52 columns by 250 or 300 rows.
- PowerPoint was very fixed and very dictatorial in layouts, no real flexibility
- Powerpoint files became very huge very quick and did not compress well
- In Office, layout was very tough for brochures with lots of images;
What I wanted that got me to iWorks 08 (after trying 06 for awhile) was:
- spreadsheets that were the exact size I needed and where I could have 2-5 independant or integrated small spreadsheets on the same page at the same time
- spreadsheets that would allow me to integrate images and backgrounds to better illustrate what was what;
- word processing that did what i needed that offered flexibility and simplicity and let me layout simple brochure pages in 1, 2 or 3 column modes;
- word processing that allowed total flexibility of where I could put what, not only in word processing but in presentations (Keynote) and spreadsheets as well;
- easy integration with my iPhoto images, PDF docs, and drawings from MacDraft, etc.
My life is so much easier now and document creation is so much simplier and easier. I've converted all word documents with no problems, I've converted all Excel SS into Numbers and added the nice display touches I always wanted. And Keynote is a dream to work with compared to PowerPoint and 100% compatible too.
