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Actual USER Opinions of iWork '08

Your thoughts of iWork.

  • I agree iWork is awesome.

    Votes: 43 67.2%

  • iWork is nice but not that great.

    Votes: 21 32.8%

  • iWork isn't that nice at all.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I hate iWork.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    64
dpaanlka

dpaanlka

macrumors 601
Original poster
Nov 16, 2004
4,869
34
Illinois
I feel I just have to say that I'm really loving iWork '08 it feels like the best productivity suite I've ever used. Totally worth it at $79 (which was slightly less easy to say about '06). Numbers really completes the puzzle and new Pages and Keynote features make it an all around exciting productivity suite to use. I don't think I've ever said that about any software suite.

iWork '08 does everything I want to do, and does it in an excessively stylish, efficient, and easy to use manner. I am extremely satisfied.

iLife '08 has been nice too (people making too big a deal about iMovie - it's not literally the "clips" view of iMovie HD), but something about iWork really makes me a happy customer.
 
I chose the second selection in the poll because, although I think what iWork '08 has is great, as "the successor to AppleWorks" it's incomplete.

Pages still only mail merges with Address Book. If it, at least, could use Numbers documents for merge, it would be an improvement.

Pages has a new "page layout" mode which I see as the equivalent of AppleWorks' draw module. But Pages can't import AppleWorks draw documents.

There is no real database function. A separate flat-file database like the one in AppleWorks would be sufficient for many users. There are a lot of users out there who have run their home or small business using AppleWorks for years. They use the database for a lot more than writing form letters.
 
PeggyD said:
Pages has a new "page layout" mode which I see as the equivalent of AppleWorks' draw module. But Pages can't import AppleWorks draw documents.
Click to expand...

Actually, the "Page Layout" mode is akin to what Pages '06 was. "Word Processing" is new. Page Layout refers to the placement of text in boxes, images, and shapes and the manner in which they're "laid" on a page.

I think its time to lay AppleWorks to rest, though.
 
I think I still like Microsoft Word =X



This is probably because I cant find the things Im looking for in Pages... I guess I just need to beat the learning curve before I start liking it...
 
dpaanlka said:
Actually, the "Page Layout" mode is akin to what Pages '06 was. "Word Processing" is new. Page Layout refers to the placement of text in boxes, images, and shapes and the manner in which they're "laid" on a page.

I think its time to lay AppleWorks to rest, though.
Click to expand...

No, the word processing mode is the same as Pages 1 & 2, with a basic text layer that you can put objects on top of. The page layout mode is a completely blank page. Any Pages 1 or 2 documents you open in Pages 3 are opened as word processing mode.
 
PeggyD said:
The page layout mode is a completely blank page. Any Pages 1 or 2 documents you open in Pages 3 are opened as word processing mode.
Click to expand...

And most of the old Pages templates now fall under "Page Layout." Pages was always considered more of a Page Layout app, which was great but made it a little clumsy to use as a word processor. The Word Processing mode and related features are specifically "new" in Pages.
 
iWork 08 is awesome.

Its like just enough of what you need. And its totally "Mac"

Its not Microsoft office, nor will ever be office.
 
dpaanlka said:
And most of the old Pages templates now fall under "Page Layout." Pages was always considered more of a Page Layout app, which was great but made it a little clumsy to use as a word processor. The Word Processing mode and related features are specifically "new" in Pages.
Click to expand...

No ... PeggyD is correct. The WP mode was always there, but was less obvious and was not explicitly separated from page layout.
 
PeggyD said:
I chose the second selection in the poll because, although I think what iWork '08 has is great, as "the successor to AppleWorks" it's incomplete.

Pages still only mail merges with Address Book. If it, at least, could use Numbers documents for merge, it would be an improvement.

Pages has a new "page layout" mode which I see as the equivalent of AppleWorks' draw module. But Pages can't import AppleWorks draw documents.

There is no real database function. A separate flat-file database like the one in AppleWorks would be sufficient for many users. There are a lot of users out there who have run their home or small business using AppleWorks for years. They use the database for a lot more than writing form letters.
Click to expand...

iWork '08 is incomplete but it doesn't need to be AppleWorks to be complete.

I moved 2 databases to Numbers and they're sufficient like that since the database functionality in ClarisWorks was slim to none anyway. I tried to convert one to a CW spreadsheet and then, open that with Numbers but the spreadsheet in CW is very limited in size.

I like the idea of being able to use Address Book for mail merge but I'd suggest being able to keep personal and business address books, at least.

iWork has plenty to go but it's obvious that they're adding ideas and trying to better define Pages, in particular.
 
bousozoku said:
iWork '08 is incomplete but it doesn't need to be AppleWorks to be complete.

I moved 2 databases to Numbers and they're sufficient like that since the database functionality in ClarisWorks was slim to none anyway. I tried to convert one to a CW spreadsheet and then, open that with Numbers but the spreadsheet in CW is very limited in size.

I like the idea of being able to use Address Book for mail merge but I'd suggest being able to keep personal and business address books, at least.

iWork has plenty to go but it's obvious that they're adding ideas and trying to better define Pages, in particular.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't have to be AppleWorks, but it does need to merge from more than just Address Book.
 
dpaanlka said:
And most of the old Pages templates now fall under "Page Layout." Pages was always considered more of a Page Layout app, which was great but made it a little clumsy to use as a word processor. The Word Processing mode and related features are specifically "new" in Pages.
Click to expand...

Page Layout mimics MS Publisher a lot for me.
 
Absolutely love iWork '08 - I've now removed Microsoft Office and NeoOffice from my Mac and am using iWork exclusively. If I had to find a criticism it would be that you can't link a database in to Numbers. It's not something I've really used but it does seem like an omission for "power users". Having said that, I adore the way you can have multiple tables anywhere you want on the page - to me this feature is the biggest evolution to the spreadsheet model in over 20 years!
 
The only thing stopping me removing NeoOffice is that I have about 100 documents in NeoOffice format and can't open them in iWork. Does anyone know a way to batch convert them to Microsoft Word format, so I can then resave them in Pages format?
 
dsc01605iz8.jpg

Thinner boxes
 
PeggyD said:
No, I said the page layout mode was added.
Click to expand...

I don't get it anymore. Both modes were added, since there weren't any modes previously. In fact I don't even see what the difference is other than a vertical ruler.

Picture 1.jpg

But whatever it doesn't change the fact that iWork '08 is awesome in my opinion.
 
I love it - I used Keynote a few times last year for presentations at university and I'm loving the new effects, transitions and stuff with Keynote '08.

Haven't had a proper play with Numbers yet though, but I've not noticed much difference with Pages, but I still love the application. It is going to be really useful for making flyers for the band!

£55? Certainly is a proper bargain.
 
Cromulent said:
The only reason they added a page layout mode was because of the new word processor mode. Which is what you argued against initially.
Click to expand...

Yes that is what I was getting at too.
 
Just been using the demo of iWork '08 now, which I downloaded.

I have to say it is awseome! I tried the '06 demo, and I got annoyed because it kept crashing every single time I added a custom mask to one of my images. They seem to have fixed that problem.

Not only does it run incredibly smoothly on my MacBook, but it seems not only ridiculously well featured (for a consumer app) but also super easy to use and find everything and really enjoyable to use.

It's everything I wanted to be when I first used AppleWorks in 1999 (I remember how terrible and slow it was when using digital images).

Bravo Apple Inc!
 
Cromulent said:
The only reason they added a page layout mode was because of the new word processor mode. Which is what you argued against initially.
Click to expand...

They didn't really add either with Pages in iWork '08--they were there all along. They just marketed them as both being there and refined the way they work.
 
I love iWork, but I'm not too impressed with AutoComplete in Numbers. For example, if I typed "2007" somewhere and I wanted to type "20" somewhere else, it would show "2007" until I pressed Delete. It's really annoying.
 
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