Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I write a lot and often need to generate fairly complex tables, and sometimes need to have both portrait and landscape layouts in a single document. I loathe MS Word. It's so bloated and it seems they move stuff around about every other generation so I have to hunt for things. I really like Pages for writing and editing text. Unfortunately it just lacks capabilities that make it workable for my primary word processor. I never use Excel except to move data. And I can write the data to Excel, and read data from Excel via my primary statistical analysis program.
I have a couple clients who run parallels desktop just so they can use word perfect. They cannot stand Microsoft word.
 
  • Like
Reactions: peanuts_of_pathos
The iWork suite is the best evidence against the demise of great software on the Mac. It's just that good.
For the most part I think the software that comes on a Mac is decent. At least it's not bloatware like lower cost Window's machines often come loaded with. iWork is functional for a lot of tasks. iMovie is really a pretty dang good video editing program for those of us who are just doing some light editing before sharing videos with friends. I'm a photographer and Photos would not meet my needs, but it can meet the needs of many. There are more comprehensive and fully featured apps in nearly every category. I need more comprehensive photo editing software. But I don't need anything like Final Cut Pro. The Apple software is well integrated and works almost flawlessly with other Apple devices.
 
  • Like
Reactions: peanuts_of_pathos
That's one way to look at it. But if you examine iWork's history, it really was supposed to originally be an attempt to replace MS Office for Mac users. You used to have to pay for it, and the reason Keynote is the "best part" of the suite has to do with Steve Jobs having it developed internally, first, as his own personal presentation app to use during his speeches and Apple product demos. (It's "Keynote" because he used it for Apple Keynote speeches!)

I think the original goals for the suite were watered down a lot when Apple shifted the focus to iOS and the need for cross-platform compatibility between OS X and iOS. (It became, "What new features can we add so this is more useable on a tablet?" as opposed to keeping up with power-user functions in the MS Office suite.)


While I can wholeheartedly understand your needs for certain features you have to keep in mind that you're paying to use Excel so it makes sense for it to have more functionality over Numbers. You might feel that owning a Mac means that iWork is paid for but it's really a free suite that Apple allows to run on some of the oldest Macs (sadly hackintoshers steal it too) so usually included office suites will have a few less features than stand alone paid for ones.

Overall I think Apple offers a lot of functionality for iWork. Frankly more than expected.
 
All mannnn, they didn't changed the icons.... it's a tad frustrating when using command+tab and the apps are hard to decipher from one another.

And yes, I've used iWork since .Mac days. All three, regularly. iWeb was kinda cool also.
 
  • Like
Reactions: peanuts_of_pathos
iWork is not a serious thing for Apple, I don't know why they keep it around...but hey its free and I don't really use Office apps so why not. Even Office 1995 is probably more powerful than my needs, and most people needs from what I know
iWork exists with the same reason why iMovie, Garageband, Photos exist. They made Macs, iPhones and iPads ready to use out of the box.
 
I have a couple clients who run parallels desktop just so they can use word perfect. They cannot stand Microsoft word.
I was that way with Lotus SmartSuite. I found it so much better to use than MS Office.

But all good things pass, and I have been working for companies that use MS Office and I have gotten used to it.

Still like Lotus SmartSuite better, though, than MS Office to this day.
 
Looking through the posts here, I didn't see anything related to document compatibility with previous versions.

I have an iMac with Mojave still (production reasons) which runs Pages, Numbers and Keynote ver 10.1

Before I upgrade, any compatibility issues or anything that mentions any? ver 10.3.9 didn't introduce any document format changes but this being a full number release, I thought I would ask.
 
That's one way to look at it. But if you examine iWork's history, it really was supposed to originally be an attempt to replace MS Office for Mac users.
It was supposed to replace Appleworks. Apple never once stated that iWork was a rival suite to MS Office nor have they ever compared Pages and Numbers to Word and Excel. They've always been proud of Keynote and rightfully so because it's the best in the industry...sadly Powerpoint still gets used more for reasons due to more people are using Windows.
 
Does anyone use Keynote? I had it installed on all my Macs, iPads and iPhones until very recently when I realised 'Never, not once have I used this thing!'
This forums needs a “hand up” guy/gal/hands-up emoticon to convey that +1 also me acknowledgement.
However, have gotten incredibly curious reading some of the comments around here today regarding the iWork suite.

I also am a little annoyed that these require 10.15 or higher. Now both Microsoft Office and the iWork suite require a higher OS than my machine can run. I realize I'm running 10+ year old hardware but it still works so it's hard to justify an upgrade.
Have you checked if there’s the possibility to force install it? I think I saw some links regarding that, drivers related problems mileage may vary.

I got an iMac from 2013, a MacBook Pro from 2014 and an iMac 2020... great machines, had no deal breaker to upgrade, but the jump to the 2020 just blew everything out of the water. If you ever decided to bite the bullet with a new one, now already on M1+ era, I think it will feel like switching from a steam engine train to a jet plane.
 
I didn't either, but when you click on "Direct Link" for each of the apps in the article at the top of this page you'll get it. But you have to do each of the 3 updates separately.
You can also just press Command + R in the Updates section of the Mac App Store to refresh the page. Worked for me.

Why Apple doesn't include some visual indicator that you can update the updates page is beyond me.
 
The more I use iWork programs the more I enjoy using them. At this point, I do not miss Microsoft any more. It took some time but I got there.
 
I am still surprised that with all these features, one of the more obvious ones never gets added. Line numbers! Anyone who teaches social studies or anything like this must be simply amazed that this continues to be overlooked. And I don't want to hear that you can fake it easily, you can't and I don't want to. I think it is a basic feature that any word processor that is half baked should have it.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Shirasaki
It’s scary how much I love iWork. It’s some of the best software Apple makes.
Yeah, my son is an undergrad and my daughter is going back to grad school, so we bought an MS Office family subscription. Otherwise, I have no need to use Office, and iWorks is perfect for my needs. Of course, I am not in a corporate job were MS Office is the standard and you are kind of forced into using it.

I would just add that Apple really is offering a great value proposition for the typical consumer. You can buy an M1 late 2020 MBA on sale for about $900. This comes with a pretty comprehensive set of software (iWork, Photos, iMovie, etc..) and a great operating system. Updates are free. You can easily use this computer for 6 years and the software will be up to date and run efficiently. Right now, there are tons of people happily using their 2015 Macs with no problems at all. Even if you donate the computer after 6 years rather than trade-in, that's only $150 per year....$12.50 per month. Less than a Netflix subscription. About the same as an MS Office Business Standard subscription. Or, one Starbucks coffee per week. Pretty good value.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: VaeVictis
Looking through the posts here, I didn't see anything related to document compatibility with previous versions.

I have an iMac with Mojave still (production reasons) which runs Pages, Numbers and Keynote ver 10.1

Before I upgrade, any compatibility issues or anything that mentions any? ver 10.3.9 didn't introduce any document format changes but this being a full number release, I thought I would ask.

That is also my main question! I have a Mojave MBP around and would very much like to be able to open files created/modified in newer Pages/Numbers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chillywilly
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.