I've been an avid MS Office Suite user for my entire life, but ever since I purchased my Macbook I've had a positive take on Apple software. I've been looking at iWork '08 and I was wondering if someone could give me a comparison of it vs the current Office '08 or '04. I'm a college student and I frequently use Word and Excel for papers, lab reports, and organizational tools. From what I understand, iWork has it's own equivalent counterparts. Do they support .doc and .xls extensions and is it fully compatible (both ways) to Office? Also, does iWork deliver a better user experience overall? Thanks for the input.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iWork '08 vs Office '08 (or 2004)
- Thread starter asdfTT123
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I haven't used full use of excel and have fairly basic spreadsheets.
I have issues with conditional formatting and a few other little things. If you require Excel, then stay with Excel. Personally I like iWork as anything work related I have my work laptop and I think Numbers is great for the fairly basic spreadsheets that I create for personal budget, etc.
You can export iWork files to office, but may have some items that don't transfer 100%. I think iWork is by far a lot better user experience.
EDIT: Try the free trial and see if you like it.
I have issues with conditional formatting and a few other little things. If you require Excel, then stay with Excel. Personally I like iWork as anything work related I have my work laptop and I think Numbers is great for the fairly basic spreadsheets that I create for personal budget, etc.
You can export iWork files to office, but may have some items that don't transfer 100%. I think iWork is by far a lot better user experience.
EDIT: Try the free trial and see if you like it.
I see some formatting just not translate correcting to Word on Windows from Pages. PDF is perfect though. I think if certain rules are followed with iWork then it is possible to save and retrieve everything fine. I just don't know what all the rules are besides not picking a font that doesn't exist on Windows.
It is the little things that I miss in iWork. For example, numbering by letters in Pages or Sorting excluding the headings and selecting the column header in Numbers. I like the filter feature in Excel. Numbers and Pages are easier to make better looking output though.
After looking at the Office 2008 reviews, I am going to look past the limitations of iWork and realize that 90% of the stuff these apps do is going to have to be good enough. I have Office 2004 for emergencies and to verify the spreadsheet or word document from iWork still looks ok.
It is the little things that I miss in iWork. For example, numbering by letters in Pages or Sorting excluding the headings and selecting the column header in Numbers. I like the filter feature in Excel. Numbers and Pages are easier to make better looking output though.
After looking at the Office 2008 reviews, I am going to look past the limitations of iWork and realize that 90% of the stuff these apps do is going to have to be good enough. I have Office 2004 for emergencies and to verify the spreadsheet or word document from iWork still looks ok.
Since Apple allows an iwork '08 free trial period of, I believe, 90 days, why not download and work with it. If you like it better than Office for Mac you can purchase it on line or at a store. I have been trying to make up my mind also. While I like iwork a lot, there are one or two things that I would really miss about Office. One of them is that labels (and not just address labels or whole sheets of labels) are quite easy to make in Office (Word). At best, there are inconvenient workarounds for iwork (Pages) but nothing directly designed for doing them. On the other hand, iwork isn't as bloated as Office. It really comes down to what features are most important to you. Good luck. 
I'll probably only buy Office 2008 because I was strong-armed by the gf into buying the slow-as-molasses Office 2004 (slow on Intel, that is), and if I'm going to have Office on my Mac, I might as well have something to show for it (yes, I know the logic is contorted).
Otherwise, iWork (and LaTEX) does everything else I need it to, and does it prettier.
For you, perhaps you should just buy both now and enjoy the choice later.
Otherwise, iWork (and LaTEX) does everything else I need it to, and does it prettier.
For you, perhaps you should just buy both now and enjoy the choice later.
I would say that since you are already familiar with the microsoft counter parts of this product, then there really is no reason to swtich to another system.
I found Word 2004 to be very slow compared to Pages.
Word 2008 keeps crashing on me.
I feel Pages and Keynote are better user experience. I like the freedom of Numbers.
And for EndNote, I can always edit in Pages, insert temporary reference by copy and paste, and then export to Word 2004 and format it there. Scrolling through pages of documents, Pages feels much smoother than Word.
However, iWork is not as powerful or feature rich compared to Office.
Word 2008 keeps crashing on me.
I feel Pages and Keynote are better user experience. I like the freedom of Numbers.
And for EndNote, I can always edit in Pages, insert temporary reference by copy and paste, and then export to Word 2004 and format it there. Scrolling through pages of documents, Pages feels much smoother than Word.
However, iWork is not as powerful or feature rich compared to Office.
I have also switched to MAC recently, and have been a heavy Office user in a university environment - If you use many of the features of Office, you will probably be happier to stay with it; While I like iWork, it is lighter than office. One thing that I find about Office - I use the bibliographic software "Endnote" on office, and haven't found anything with features that are any better, that in itself is reason for me to stay with Office.