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ADVICE HERE: Which is better: iWork or Microsoft Office

C

chrismac00

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2007
598
2
I have recently bought two programs:

iWork '08
Microsoft Office 2008 Standard

Here is some advice for people who are thinking about which one to get.

iWork '08:

Pros:
Nice templates
Easy use
All in one window

Cons:
Not easily compatible with Word, Excel, Powerpoint Documents
Very few options
Less templates than MS Office

MS Office 2008 Standard:

Pros:
Very nice new interface
Easily compatible with a lot of word processors except iWork
Just very cool to use

Cons:
Separate windows are annoying




In all I think MS Office 2008 is worth it's price, so is iWork. So if you pay more you get more. If you can get both, do it. MS Office is better than iWork if you constantly need Word, Excel, and Powerpoint because you use Windows a lot and iWork is good for the Apple-only people

I think Microsoft Office 2008 is better personally, but iWork is nice too.:D
 
IJ Reilly said:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/434494/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/423176/
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https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/340458/
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https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/213006/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/219902/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/211494/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/179949/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/161787/
Click to expand...
Please use Google or the forum search. You're not the first to offer advice.
 
Some of us get volume licenses and have to deal with many more users then ourselves. We do have OpenOffice as a network application but my users flock to Office 2004/2008.

I haven't tried to work out a license agreement for iWork but is there really a method to do so?
 
Apple Insider had a good multi-part comparison/breakdown/review of iWork '08 vs Office Mac 2008. Give it a read.
 
I use iWork for everything (writing thesis, reports, letters, spreadsheets, etc) and have never had any issues communicating them to the windows world. To date there hasn't been an office document I haven't been able to work with either.

I've not seen the Mac version of Office 2008, but if it's anything like the new windows version it's annoying.
 
office is better if you have demanding work, like excel for solver or other advanced numerical manipulation. I also like office for graphs and things, and i'm more familiar with it. powerpoint is much better than keynote IMO. office 08 is quite nice IMO; it takes the annoying things of office 07 for windows and eliminates them.
 
TJones said:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948057



When you read something like that it makes you glad you bought the other guy's product.
Click to expand...

Meh, it's only because you don't read what comes in Apple automatic downloads.

Like most things i, I prefer iWork for quick and dirty stuff. With the attractive templates, I can throw together something good looking in a shorter period of time. However for full-on documentation and analysis, it's Office (2007 in Windows for the most part) for me. I find Entourage a slightly annoying (in terms of server-side operation) necessity when on a Mac.
 
I have office 2004 and iwork '06, and I really only use office. If I did layouts I'd go with iwork, but for word processing, office is a lot more powerful.

And btw, I've tried office 2008, and it really doesn't seem any better than 2004. Somewhat different, but not really *better* in any way I can identify. It's not even faster (despite being intel-native)!
 
Office 2008.

Office 2004 was slow on intel.
iWork is just 1-2 generations away from business usage, but Office still
offers better compatibility with client documents.

Moreover, Office 2008 basically ripped off many of the cool features
from iWork (good templates, shapes, etc.), and if you are a student MS2008
has a decent citation manager, better spellcheck, reviewing tools, etc.

Moreover, Entourage is better than iCal/Mail/AddressBook/Stickies--Apple needs to roll these into one Entourage-type app.

MS just makes a better product here. NeoOffice is good for free, but still has some compatibility issues.
 
Amuraivel said:
Office 2008.

Office 2004 was slow on intel.
iWork is just 1-2 generations away from business usage, but Office still
offers better compatibility with client documents.

Moreover, Office 2008 basically ripped off many of the cool features
from iWork (good templates, shapes, etc.), and if you are a student MS2008
has a decent citation manager, better spellcheck, reviewing tools, etc.

Moreover, Entourage is better than iCal/Mail/AddressBook/Stickies--Apple needs to roll these into one Entourage-type app.

MS just makes a better product here. NeoOffice is good for free, but still has some compatibility issues.
Click to expand...

I don't like Entourage. I'm a student and MS Office is definitely better suits me. But I like both and I use both.
 
I thought once office 08 came out the problems with 04 would be solved i.e. the general slugishness but 08 is just as sluggish and is unpleasant to use. Go with iWork - I haven't run into too many compatibility issues (yet) with regards to sending and receiving files.
 
Amuraivel said:
...Moreover, Entourage is better than iCal/Mail/AddressBook/Stickies--Apple needs to roll these into one Entourage-type app.

MS just makes a better product here. NeoOffice is good for free, but still has some compatibility issues.
Click to expand...

I like to have 3-4 small apps instead of 1 bloated one in this case. But I only have neooffice on my machines anyway. I just need something to open .doc, .xls & .ppt files my clients send me. If I want to write something down real quickly, I just use TextEdit, if something needs to look good I have InDesign CS3 anyway.
 
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