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Apple Continues Building iWork Team, Adds New Job Listings
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You're very welcome. Understand the issue about trying before buyingsomething all software manufacturers should build in to their sales process. Failing that you might be able to try Numbers in an Apple Store (if you have one close by) or on a friend's Mac.
I used to be an MS Office fanboy. I don't use Office at all these days. Haven't yet found anything that iWork can't doalthough sometimes the processes/steps are a little different to Office.
Overall, I prefer iWork: produces neat professionally presented materials, has a slick interface, and all of the iWork programs are rock-solid reliable.
You mean like Endnote. Cause it is there. Yes you have to buy endnote and download a little free plug in but it can be done. Just like MathType can be done. At least on the desktop versions.
Many of these sorts of things are IP that must be licensed and not all companies want to. As its not SEP they can't be forced to but it puts Apple in a sticky spot cause they don't want to wantonly violate someone's IP to achieve a goal. Not when they are suing everyone else that does such things, or they even think did.
This is what I meant about putting plug in support into the apps. Then companies could make and sell said plug in for a reasonable amount and those that need it could get it. Has worked very nicely with Aperture and FCP/x so why not expand the idea
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about time....
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iWorks late
Aperture late
OSX 10.9 late
IOS 7 late
Retina mini late
WTF?
None of these things have had an announcement particularly with a release date by Apple so they can't be late since officially they don't yet exist.
As for the Mac Pro, Tim said something exciting was going to happen in 2013, the year isn't over yet
I don't get it. Don't both have the same density?
What you describe is upscaling. UI on a Retina Display isn't upscaled unless you run an older, unupdated app.
Come on Apple give me a reason to dump MS Office, please.
Make it a true pro app suite
MS Office Compatible/Interchangeable file system
PC version for all those iPhone addicts who won't convert to Mac
Point being, make it THE Office Suite standard across Mac and PC.
Make it a true pro app suite
MS Office Compatible/Interchangeable file system
PC version for all those iPhone addicts who won't convert to Mac
Point being, make it THE Office Suite standard across Mac and PC.
But End Note is insanely expensive, for me in New Zealand it costs NZ$309.00 per copy; sorry but that is just insane pricing and companies wonder why people pirate software. Maybe the alternative is just Microsoft buys out EndNote and bundle it free of charge with Pages/Numbers/Keynote or offer it at a reason price via the AppStore.
iWork is a pro app suite already. It does what Office does. Not in the same way, but with better results.
Making iWork fully compatible is the same as mating a thoroughbred horse with a goat. Why should Apple stoop so low? Surely the emphasis should be on Office users switching to iWork (which costs a heck of a lot less than Office) or for Office to make itself more compatible with iWork.
Why accommodate PC users by making iWork available for PCs—you're just condemning them to living with Windows for longer than they need to. Let them switch. Let them have the chance to use quality computers.
Apple computers may cost more to buy, but they are cheaper to own because they work reliably, are fast, and don't have so many crashes and problems. In the end, they are miles more efficient and much better value for money.
Why do so many people want to keep using Office and Windows? Break free—the grass on the other side of MS is so much greener.
Some people have to use Office at work because it's not their decision, or at least have to be able to share documents with Office users with whom they interact with at work without losing formatting. Sometimes it's not a matter of choice.
Numbers is mediocre if compared to Excel
Pages is on par with Word at best
Keynote is better than Powerpoint
None of them are compatible with your usual client's documents, which is a deal breaker for anyone doing business outside in the real world.
I understand that argument, but we won't change the situation if people keep on calling for iWork to be a clone of Office. I don't see why Apple should compromise iWork to make it more like Office, when really Office should either be trying to be more like iWork or people/companies should be switching away from Office…iWork is SO much cheaper to licence and SO much better to use.
Sometimes, people/companies need to make bold decisions. The company I work for did that 5 years ago. There was a huge amount of opposition and dissent at first (including from me), but productivity increased and costs reduced because of speed, uptime and reliability. At first we used OS X and Mac Office. We now use OS X, iWork and Scrivener.
IMO, Apple isn't the company that needs to move on this. Doing what the majority wants isn't always the right thing to do.
Should we have persisted with DOS based PCs because that is what the majority used at the time? Mobile phones with small screens and physical keyboards? Typewriters instead of word processors? Film cameras instead of digital ones?
I can remember a time when some people still wanted to use faxes instead of having files electronically
It is time for people to move on from Office. It costs a fortune, offers mediocre performance, and is yesteryear's software choice.
If people want compatibility, let them get a Mac—they'll thank us eventually. And if they want to stay in their old walled MS garden, let them. Their loss.
And to @Woyzeck
I've not yet found anything that Excel can do that Numbers can't do, and Numbers does a lot of things (for me) far better than Excel does.
Pages, for me, wipes the floor with Word. It does everything Word does and produces far more professional looking documents.
Agree re Keynote being better than PPT.
We do business for a lot of blue-chip companies in the UK, USA, Europe and the Far East (including tech companies) and exchange files with them every day. Not had a single complaint about compatibility. Ironically, we used to get compatibility issues between different versions of Office for Windows when we were a Windows based company, and we had some conflicts between Office for Mac and Office for Windows.
We've been using iWork exclusively for the last 3 years and haven't yet had a single complaint: we either deliver in iWork or export to Office format.
iWork hasn't been a deal breaker for us. It has been good for business.
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That day will never happen. Because no matter Apple does, there will always be some group of folks that still think everything is sheet and they know what Apple should be doing. And until Apple listens to them the company is doomed, their products 'left behind' etc
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Office is half way there. The box is just a container for a download code requiring a live.com account
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Hmm, no they don't.
Investors want the prices of iPads cut in half, they want a 'cheap' iPhone etc. they want Mac OS open to clones again, same for iOS. They want an under $1000 60 inch 4k TV with everything built in, a free 20 year warranty and Tim and Jony to hand deliver and set up every unit. They want dozens of things Apple has yet and will likely never give them.
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So now it's Apple's fault when any other company chooses to rape customers wallets?
I say for the same reason they put iTunes on Windows. Take a look at what happened when they did that. Too many Windows users to simply ignore. If you can get Windows users to switch to iWork then you are that much closer to get them to switch to a MAC. I believe it is all about the applications not the OS or the Hardware to win new customers.
I see your logic, Mike, though IMO iTunes on Windows made sense largely because it brought in a revenue stream in terms of downloads.
Whatever Apple does with iWork, I hope they improve the product (although it is already a very fine suite of apps) and seduce more people to switch. A few years ago, I had grown to hate computers (Windows) so much that I was very close to giving up on them completely thankfully the company I worked for made the switch to Apple and I had a chance to learn how sweet tech really could be. Everyone deserves an Apple on their desktop. I'd buy everyone in the world one, if I only had enough money.
So if you pospone announcement on everything you are supposed to do you'r never late? LOL you are really funny
I understand that argument, but we won't change the situation if people keep on calling for iWork to be a clone of Office. I don't see why Apple should compromise iWork to make it more like Office, when really Office should either be trying to be more like iWork or people/companies should be switching away from Office iWork is SO much cheaper to licence and SO much better to use.
Sometimes, people/companies need to make bold decisions. The company I work for did that 5 years ago. There was a huge amount of opposition and dissent at first (including from me), but productivity increased and costs reduced because of speed, uptime and reliability. At first we used OS X and Mac Office. We now use OS X, iWork and Scrivener.
IMO, Apple isn't the company that needs to move on this. Doing what the majority wants isn't always the right thing to do.
Should we have persisted with DOS based PCs because that is what the majority used at the time? Mobile phones with small screens and physical keyboards? Typewriters instead of word processors? Film cameras instead of digital ones?
I can remember a time when some people still wanted to use faxes instead of having files electronically
It is time for people to move on from Office. It costs a fortune, offers mediocre performance, and is yesteryear's software choice.
If people want compatibility, let them get a Macthey'll thank us eventually. And if they want to stay in their old walled MS garden, let them. Their loss.
And to @Woyzeck
I've not yet found anything that Excel can do that Numbers can't do, and Numbers does a lot of things (for me) far better than Excel does.
Pages, for me, wipes the floor with Word. It does everything Word does and produces far more professional looking documents.
Agree re Keynote being better than PPT.
We do business for a lot of blue-chip companies in the UK, USA, Europe and the Far East (including tech companies) and exchange files with them every day. Not had a single complaint about compatibility. Ironically, we used to get compatibility issues between different versions of Office for Windows when we were a Windows based company, and we had some conflicts between Office for Mac and Office for Windows.
We've been using iWork exclusively for the last 3 years and haven't yet had a single complaint: we either deliver in iWork or export to Office format.
iWork hasn't been a deal breaker for us. It has been good for business.
I don't want Apple to make iWork more like Office, I just want them to make it play nicer with Office. Big difference.
I've been using Pages for all of my business reports since 2005. I am so happy that I never "standardized" on that miserable bloatware Word, the one that makes my teeth itch whenever I have to look at it. Thank you Apple for giving the open minded an excellent alternative.
The truth can be comforting, when it is the actual truth.
A low pixel density image (or low resolution image in slightly less fancy speak) will appear smaller on a high pixel density display. For example, a 32x32 icon on a 256x256 screen will be a quarter of the size of the same icon on a 128x128 screen. If you want the icon to fit onscreen the way it once did, you'll need a 64x64 icon to use in its place.
Or to get specific, Retina ready UI elements on the 2880x1800 MBP have to be 4x the size of what they were on the old 1440x900 standard to fill up the same amount of space on a 15" screen without using any form of upscaling.
So if your icons are too small for the physical resolution of the screen, that means the resolution of the UI elements are too low for comfortable viewing.
Make sense? No? Well that's because I suck at explaining this stuff. Pixel density, retina displays, effective resolutions, and how icons and whatnot work within them is something that's easy to understand, but hard as hell to describe.
I wrote, designed and produced a complete camera-ready 200-page book in Pages, with a custom layout, multiple page designs, and lots of photos and graphics. I would never try this in Word, unless insanity was my goal.
My only experience with Pages is through the iPad, but I've written up plenty of 20+ page tutorials filled with tons of pictures and custom layouts there, in Word 2010, and 2013.
Now I know this isn't a totally fair comparison, since I'm sure Pages for the Mac is much more feature rich, but I did find the iPad rev to be a fairly nice experience (beyond the occasional crashing anyway). It was one of the things that sold me on the idea that tablets are useful for more than just watching movies and surfing the internet.
That said, my best experience was probably with Word 2013. The ribbon kept all my options organized, easy to find, and up front, and the Metro stylings made everything look nice and clean. There's a smoothness to it that I found lacking in other word processors.
Now when I move to a Mac, I'll probably end up using Pages. I'm hardly a power user when it comes to writing documents, and don't need even half the features Office provides.
One thing's for sure, though. I won't be moving away from it because I think Office sucks. Far from it. It's the de facto standard for a reason.
Apple no longer seems to care about professional or even enthusiast content creators. It's not just iWork that's languishing, it's all the apps designed for any purpose other than passive content consumption. Same goes for the hardware side except for maybe the iMac, although it's hard to consider it a pro desktop computer when it's gimped with a mobile graphics chipset.
IMO Apple are missing a huge opportunity to capitalize on the success of their gadgets. They should be making the push to use iPhones/iPads to bring Apple's Macs (laptop and desktop) to the masses. That's where Apple has the enormous potential for growth, but for those who aren't longtime Mac users, Apple needs to make up for the hardware cost with included software. They used to do this brilliantly, but now? It seems like Apple has given up on most of their apps...