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Should I get iWork '10 or Office:mac 2011?

D

d3athlyd4rk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 22, 2010
15
0
Rumors are floating about of the imminent release of Apple's iWork '10. Also, Microsoft is saying Office:mac 2011 will be released near the end of the year.

I go to a school that runs completely on PCs, and yes, completely running Office.

This is going to be my sophomore year. On my Mac I currently run iWork '09. Over the past year I've grown to love it and its features, many of which are not available for Office. However, all of the documents my teachers send me are Office-based, and all of the papers I have to hand in online must be in Office format (.doc, .xls, .ppt). iWork can export as these formats, but it's a hassle.

There's my backstory. Now here's my question for the good people of the MacRumors Forums. I love the features of iWork, but Office is SO much more compatible. When the new software gets released, should I get iWork '10 or Office:mac 2011? I like upgrades, so I'm going to get one. :) I was thinking about getting both, but that could be expensive, and as a student, I don't have much money. :( What would you do, and what do you think I should do?
 
If your school uses only windows pc's then i suggest you get Microsoft office because like you said its more compatible.

I think one of the main goals of Office 2011 was to be more compatible with its windows version.
 
You clearly have a good understanding of the pros/cons of each, so the decision is up to you. You've been working with iWork, so you should be able to decide whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak. Asking others for their opinion really won't make the decision any less difficult.

That said, I would just download them both (illegally, of course). Let the bashing begin, but at the end of the day, Microsoft/Apple is a multi-national corporation with only one objective - making money. If they gave a **** about 'the right thing to do', they would offer their products at prices most people can afford.

Or, if you want to join the anti-piracy crusaders, just download open office...
 
Considering your case, I would save Office 2010 for compatibility (which is important). If that wasn't a concern, then I would easily pick iWork.
 
Personally, I say iWork. I'm going into my 3rd year of university, and have had iWork since my first year. I purchased Office 2008 before I purchased iWork. I've regretted that decision, as iWork is better for me, and it's compatible with Office files. I've always been able to open files, print them, email them, etc. It's never let me down. Just purchase whichever you're most comfortable with.

d3athlyd4rk said:
all of the papers I have to hand in online must be in Office format (.doc, .xls, .ppt). iWork can export as these formats, but it's a hassle.
Click to expand...

Hassle? Within the iWork apps, I click "Share" -> "Send via Mail" -> "Word" (or whatever you are trying to save as). I find that easier than saving in Office! :p

Or when saving the file, click "Save copy as Word document", etc. Perhaps the hassle is just remembering to do that? If so, I understand then :p
 
I know I can do that, but the "save copy as Word" option just puts a copy of what's written somewhere, but it still doesn't count it as saved. Also, it's just the fact that I tend to save two copies of the same file, Pages Doc and Word Doc, when it'd be easier to have one file. Plus, sometimes my files get altered when I save as a word doc because of features that iWork has that Word can't handle.
 
"I go to a school that runs completely on PCs, and yes, completely running Office."

This defines the issue-at-hand. You need - above all - compatibility with Office.

Regardless of how much you like iWork, you need to aquire the requisite skills with Office, not only for the coming school years, but also considering that somewhere down the line, you're going to need such skills in a work environment.

Isn't there a "student version" of Office that is very affordable? If so, get it. I sense that for school-related work, using "the real Office" is going to be much smoother than using iWork and "converting back and forth".

Use Office for "official business" (school work) and you older version of iWork for "things personal". And if you see a deal on the _new version_ of iWork along the way, snap it up.
 
Definitely Office. Did you ever see a job listing asking for iWork or Open Office experience?
 
Fishrrman said:
"I go to a school that runs completely on PCs, and yes, completely running Office."

This defines the issue-at-hand. You need - above all - compatibility with Office.

Regardless of how much you like iWork, you need to aquire the requisite skills with Office, not only for the coming school years, but also considering that somewhere down the line, you're going to need such skills in a work environment.
Click to expand...

I'm not concerned about my experience with Office. Because of my schooling in basic computing and my overall geekiness, I have a strong knowledge of Office and its features. But yes, I do need compatibility with Office, even though iWork supplies it to a minor degree.
 
d3athlyd4rk said:
I know I can do that, but the "save copy as Word" option just puts a copy of what's written somewhere, but it still doesn't count it as saved. Also, it's just the fact that I tend to save two copies of the same file, Pages Doc and Word Doc, when it'd be easier to have one file. Plus, sometimes my files get altered when I save as a word doc because of features that iWork has that Word can't handle.
Click to expand...

That's true. To be honest, it seems like you are leaning more towards Office. But if compatibility is your number once choice, get Office. Have you considered buying both? It's a little silly to pay for two, but if you can't choose between the two, that's always an option.

If I needed to submit digital copies of my papers, then I'd probably have to use Office. Luckily, I have to print all my papers, so I can avoid the whole Office thing.

Fishrrman said:
Isn't there a "student version" of Office that is very affordable?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Yes, there is a student version. No, it's not very affordable. It costs more than iWork, and you don't even get a case. I forget the exact price, but it was definitely over $100, probably $120. How can Microsoft charge that much and not give you a darn case (all you get is a disc sleeve).

It's only affordable in comparison to the full versions of Office. I guess Office 2011 will be like that too, as Microsoft likes tiered versions of their software and operating systems. I like iWork for the fact that the fair price pays for everything.
 
Get Office - Here's How to Save Money On It...

Speaking as a college professor: Get Office.

Every semester I tell my students that they have to submit papers in .doc or .docx format and, every semester, several students using iWork or OpenOffice fail to do the conversions properly. I'm not saying you will fail to do this - but I do have the sense that a lot of the messed-up papers I receive are from students who - with all best intentions - dropped the ball during the crush of midterms or finals.

One reason why I demand assignments in Office is because many of them are submitted via Blackboard and, for some reason, Blackboard often chews up items converted from iWork or Open Office (I have no idea why, but it does).

As for cost, the Student & Home edition of Office is about $150 but it comes with 3 license keys. If you split the price with a couple of friends that makes it much more affordable.
 
I find that working in iWork is so much easier compared to Office that just that makes it worth it. I use it for work and even though the whole office is using Office XP/2007, there have been very few problems with documents exported from iWork apps.

For school, I wrote my bachelor's thesis using Pages and then did the final formatting (very exact) with Word in school. For everything else just exporting from Pages was perfectly fine.

You might want to check if your school offers the student edition of Office or even maybe iWork free.
 
I would go with iWork - yes, you have to convert to Word, but iWork makes that process easy. It's cheaper, does everything you need it to do, and Keynote is light years ahead of PowerPoint.

I was able to create lengthy law review articles in Pages with hundreds of footnotes and export them to Word for editing without any problems whatsoever. Your basic college term pape should not be a problem at all.
 
Office.

I briefly used pages, I just found it much more limited than office and as a bonus, it screwed up the formatting when I imported any .doc files.
 
I really like iWork, but globally, Office is I think a better choice, at least for the Word aspect of it.

Working with Pages when everyone uses word docs is really annoying, as Pages obviously doesn't save natively as a .doc. You have to Save As or Export (or whatever it's called).

For papers that get done in stages it's a headache. Save file, save word doc, email word doc, get word doc back, open it and make changes, save new Pages document, save as word doc, repeat. The file formats are such a hassle and Word is the standard.

I don't use Office (I mean, if you deal w/ the hassles like I do, iWork totally wins. It's like $39 on Amazon), so it can be done, but if price isn't a factor, I'd go w/ Office.
 
Try Openoffice (or Neooffice) now and see if it fits your needs. Office 2011 looks like it will be much improved, and there are typically trial versions available.
 
I doubt that at this point it will be iWork 2010, rather 2011.

I haven't used Office 2011 or the next iWork, however with the latest versions of both, I use:
-Word
-Pages
-Excel
-Keynote
-Bento
 
As a Dr candidate student and twice post-graduate student, my experience says

- Office .

Every other program screws formatting very badly. Especially if document involves tables, differential paragraphs and margins, various letter sizes and symbols.
This will also be my choice of buying, when it comes to shelves.
Especially this version because MS stated that in this version they'll concetrate in compatibility with windows version.
After Office, the best compatible program was to me Neooffice.
Be carefull it may based on Openoffice but is way different in behavior.
 
Thank you's.

Thanks everyone for their comments and recommendations. I'm probably going to get Office 2011 if it's good enough when it's released. If I have extra money, I may also get the new iWork.

Thanks again.
 
nope7308 said:
You clearly have a good understanding of the pros/cons of each, so the decision is up to you. You've been working with iWork, so you should be able to decide whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak. Asking others for their opinion really won't make the decision any less difficult.

That said, I would just download them both (illegally, of course). Let the bashing begin, but at the end of the day, Microsoft/Apple is a multi-national corporation with only one objective - making money. If they gave a **** about 'the right thing to do', they would offer their products at prices most people can afford.

Or, if you want to join the anti-piracy crusaders, just download open office...
Click to expand...

+1

I'd say get Office since you will be turning stuff in on it.
If you really want iWork for personal use, go ahead and torrent it.

Morals this morals that, ya, ya chill, I'm not killing anyone.
 
d3athlyd4rk said:
Thanks everyone for their comments and recommendations. I'm probably going to get Office 2011 if it's good enough when it's released. If I have extra money, I may also get the new iWork.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

If Office 2011 uses a Ribbon rather than a clusterfrack of toolbars like 2008, I'll get it.
 
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