MS Office 2008 - iWork '09 - iWork '10

[TheBritishBloke]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before. However I'm a bit stuck.

Firstly, I qualify for education discounts, so iWork '09 is £58 direct from apple for me. However, www.software4students.co.uk is a legitimate Microsoft Reseller, and they sell Office for Mac '08 for £35.

I like both versions (office and iWork), however I have noticed iWork is quicker.

I'm not in any huge rush to purchase one, I'm using the trials of both atm.

I'm also not sure whether to wait for iWork '10 or not, as it's not really that far away now, especially seeing I have office on my PC if I desperately need to use it.

Anyone have personal thoughts/preferences on these? Any additions greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Sky Blue]

I'm also not sure whether to wait for iWork '10 or not, as it's not really that far away now

If Apple keep to their previous schedule, it's about a year away.

 

[ravenvii]

If Apple keep to their previous schedule, it's about a year away.

If they keep their release schedule, it'd be released about January 2010, which isn't all THAT far away. But if I need an office suite until then, I'd 1) just get OpenOffice to tide me over, or 2) just get iWork '09 and sell it and buy '10 when it comes out.

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before. However I'm a bit stuck.

Firstly, I qualify for education discounts, so iWork '09 is £58 direct from apple for me. However, www.software4students.co.uk is a legitimate Microsoft Reseller, and they sell Office for Mac '08 for £35.

I like both versions (office and iWork), however I have noticed iWork is quicker.

I'm not in any huge rush to purchase one, I'm using the trials of both atm.

I'm also not sure whether to wait for iWork '10 or not, as it's not really that far away now, especially seeing I have office on my PC if I desperately need to use it.

Anyone have personal thoughts/preferences on these? Any additions greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Office for Mac '08 for £35 is a steal.
I would go with it. It is still the most functional office suite for the Mac around and should give you the most options if you need to exchange or reuse documents.

 

[Sky Blue]

If they keep their release schedule, it'd be released about January 2010, which isn't all THAT far away. But if I need an office suite until then, I'd 1) just get OpenOffice to tide me over, or 2) just get iWork '09 and sell it and buy '10 when it comes out.

iLife '06 - Macworld Conference & Expo on January 10, 2006
iLife '08 - Special Summer event on August 7, 2007
iLife '09 - Macworld Conference & Expo on January 6, 2009

so...

iLife '11 ~ August '10

 

[TheBritishBloke]

iLife '06 - Macworld Conference & Expo on January 10, 2006
iLife '08 - Special Summer event on August 7, 2007
iLife '09 - Macworld Conference & Expo on January 6, 2009

so...

iLife '11 ~ August '10

You forgot about iWork '05.. Which was released January 11th 2005. The '08 was a random one-off, mainly because it skipped a year. And I'm sure apple wouldn't skip iWork '10 (Possibly iWork X), as they're much more dedicated now.

 

[Mr.Sanchez]

I'm kind of in the same predicament. I'm buying a Mac in next week and don't know if I should buy iWork '09 for $53 on Amazon now or just wait until January for '10.

 

[Badradio]

I like both versions (office and iWork), however I have noticed iWork is quicker.

Since the recent patch for MS Office, I've found it a lot quicker. Maybe quicker than iWork, at least comparing Word and Pages.

I have iWork 08, and noticed a formatting error when exporting from Pages to Word. I used the trials of iWork 09 and Office 08, and found the only way to export with the level of compatibility I need is to use MS Office. And £35 plus shipping from software4students is an amazing deal. I've ordered from them a couple of times, and they've been great.

 

[mysterytramp]

I'm kind of in the same predicament. I'm buying a Mac in next week and don't know if I should buy iWork '09 for $53 on Amazon now or just wait until January for '10.

The question for you is what are you sacrificing by not having iWork for five months? Plus, iWork 10 in January is not guaranteed, is it? so it could be longer.

What has been Apple's upgrade policy on previous iWork releases?

mt

 

[Sky Blue]

You forgot about iWork '05.. Which was released January 11th 2005. The '08 was a random one-off, mainly because it skipped a year. And I'm sure apple wouldn't skip iWork '10 (Possibly iWork X), as they're much more dedicated now.

it wasn't a random one off. As they said at the time, there's not enough new features to warrant a new version every year, which is why it's now in a 18 month cycles.

 

[exegete77]

And even then, it would precede the Office 2010 that is to be released late 2010.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Office for Mac '08 for £35 is a steal.
I would go with it. It is still the most functional office suite for the Mac around and should give you the most options if you need to exchange or reuse documents.

Umm... no. I took a college-freshmen english class over the summer and I decided to give Word 08 and Pages 09 a shot to see which one would be better. I spent 10+ hours on Word because it crashed multiple times, had formatting issues, lost 3+ pages of my 8 page essay. Oh, and when I printed, I had to print two times because of some header/footer issues that had to be printed independently. It's not my computer being old or outdated, it's the latest 15" uMBP.

On Pages 09, I spent about 4 hours for another 8 page essay, had no crashes/freezes, printed only once, no formatting problems, and didn't lose any parts of my essay.

To OP, if you want to spend your time working and not frustrated, iWork is the way to go. Office is cheaper, but so is the quality, which is even cheaper than the price.

 

[polaris20]

Umm... no. I took a college-freshmen english class over the summer and I decided to give Word 08 and Pages 09 a shot to see which one would be better. I spent 10+ hours on Word because it crashed multiple times, had formatting issues, lost 3+ pages of my 8 page essay. Oh, and when I printed, I had to print two times because of some header/footer issues that had to be printed independently. It's not my computer being old or outdated, it's the latest 15" uMBP.

On Pages 09, I spent about 4 hours for another 8 page essay, had no crashes/freezes, printed only once, no formatting problems, and didn't lose any parts of my essay.

To OP, if you want to spend your time working and not frustrated, iWork is the way to go. Office is cheaper, but so is the quality, which is even cheaper than the price.

That's funny, I spend much of my day in Excel and Word on a uMBP and have zero crashing issues whatsoever. It's also quite fast after the latest patch. No formatting or printing issues, passes around to Windows machines running '03 and '07 just fine.