Appleworks Update in April?

[edenwaith]

Originally posted by MacSlut


I was refurbishing old Mac SE computers for college students to use instead of buying new Macs and Word/Excel/Office.

My first Mac, which I bought just a little bit before I bought an iMac, was a Mac SE, loaded with ClarisWorks 3. Works great, and the word processor is wonderful, too. If a person was an author, they could still do their job quite well with an older machine like that. Just connect it up to a spooler to send jobs to a laser printer, and you're set!

 

[rugby]

Re: Re: Consider yourself flamed

Originally posted by BobVB


Saying you'll call a jackboot organization like the BSA says a lot.

Damnit, I forgot my [Sarcasm][/Sarcasm] again. I was kidding in the post, I would never help an organization like the BSA get anybody. However, I do have a big problem with people pirating software. I work for a school district and we get letters ALL THE TIME for software audits from various companies, mainly MSFT.

It's a shame they're targeting schools, which have small budgets to buy software, and somebody can ruin it for everyone.

 

[Dazzler]

Appleworks & the Diverging Software Piracy issue

If you read my original post, I apologise for the tone.

The whole software piracy argument is a continually circular argument.

Either a company doesn't implement measures to stop it, or they do a Microsoft and go too far.

As a personal user on a tight budget, I can't afford 2 copies of, say, Jaguar - and I sure as heck can't afford 2 copies of Office for my iMac and iBook.

Whatever happened to the great idea of the WordPerferct user licence - you can load it on a home computer and a laptop, as long as you only use it on one at any time! Great idea, and would keep a lot of people happy.

Software is very expensive in Australia - I'd love to do the right thing, but until a second personal licence is say $10.00, I'll keep double loading.

And I'll sleep at night.

 

[beatle888]

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[AmigaMac]

Originally posted by Qball


Have you ever had a problem with compatibility between PC and Mac versions of Excel? Anyone?

YES... seamless compatibility is not exactly what I would say between Office for Mac and Office for Windows! I have issues with macros and VBscript and other various issues including graphics! For a Mac guy working around a PCcentric office (beyond our Sun workstations), overall I can't complain and I am able to workaround those problems I run into, so I'll get over it. One thing though, Entourage sucks and after a few months of use, I went back to Apple's own Mail application!!

 

[HoRNeT7]

Don't forget that the report says that there will be NO DRASTIC UPDATES.

Perhaps the rumor is false, or Apple is backing off due to Microsoft's take on Keynote.

Either way, if this rumor is true, this significantly decreases the liklihood that people would switch from Office to Appleworks, and that people would take AppleWorks seriously as a competitor to Office.

In my mind, Office blows away AppleWorks in almost every field except price, of course, and the disastisfaction about having to use a Micro$oft program.

 

[aafuss1]

I would to see Appleworks have a projects organiser (Microsoft'sb consumer works program has such a feature).

 

[edenwaith]

Originally posted by HoRNeT7

Perhaps the rumor is false, or Apple is backing off due to Microsoft's take on Keynote.

Well, what were you expecting? I don't think Microsoft ever jumped up and down in joy screaming like little school girls: "Ooooh, Apple is trying to compete with us and kick our butts around! How exciting!"

 

[maka]

About Appleworks:

I'd love to see a Cocoa application that would remind me in it's ease of use, simplicity and features to the old Claris Works... Not everybody needs Office... I just want a small fast application.

I want to feel the same enthusiasm working with it as when working on a simple Cocoa project in Project Builder. It's just easy, simple and powerful...

About Piracy

I also agree that some licenses are insane, but we can always use free software if we want, and every day there are more options. Maybe this will make companys change their attitudes.

They have to understand that people will buy something if it's really worth it. At least I will and crappy policys will lead a company to crappy sells (well... eventually...)

What I don't like is how you have to enter s/n for a program for each user on a machine... (or am I doing something wrong?...) If they expect me to buy licenses for each user on my mac they are gonna have to wait a looooooong time...

 

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by maka
I'd love to see a Cocoa application that would remind me in it's ease of use, simplicity and features to the old Claris Works...

The ease of use of Claris Works??
I couldn't stand Claris Works, it had quirk after quirk after quirk that just slowly taught me to hate using it.
Apple Works is a minor improvement, and I can tolerate it when I need to, but I want to see something new.
Even if Apple totally rewrites Apple Works from the ground up, the name will forever carry a stigma.

Edit: I just want to add that I'd take Apple Works on a Mac over any of the multitude of lousy word processors (Notepad, Wordpad, Microsoft Works) on a PC anyday.
Also, many PC people I know would never even think of considering Apple Works as a serious word processor. Just another reason for Apple to dump it in favor of a super-compatable M$ Word replacement (hopefully even a complete M$ Office replacement!).

 

[Compufix]

Think about THIS....

The one MAJOR thing, and a sticking point for our needs to switch to OSX full time is PALM SYNCING. Guess what....Entourage already has a palm sync conduit. This develpment addresses 2 of our major needs to switch over fully to OSX...naitive exchange client, and palm syncing to exchange on the Mac. We actually have users buying Windows machines just to support palm sync to our exchange server. All other network options just are too hookey and pricey for us. This, if it even JUST does the basic stuff, would be a major development....about friggin' time Microsoft. Congrats on taking 2 years to figure it out. But I am in a position that I HAVE to have this functionality....so guess I wait until the summer to reserve my opinion.

And we use Exchange with POP and IMAP on, as well as access to web based mail. Have had ZERO problems with this configuration. Also our voicemail system is integrated into Exchange so that I can have my phone read me mail, or get my voicemail from my email client. Microsoft has MANY problems as a company and as an entity in general...but there IS some neat stuff that can be done with integrated products in an enterprise arena...

 

[brian0526]

Just switched... Appleworks just doesn't make it...

I just switched. In spite of the sales people in the Apple store trying to convince me I needed MS Office X, I stuck to my guns and decided to keep my new iMac Microsoft free. Now, I'm hoping I didn't make a mistake.

AppleWorks has not been nearly what I thought it would be. No ability to create multiple worksheets in a spreadsheet? No ability to manually parse data (that I've been able to find anyway). When I open a Word document I created with a simple image in it, Appleworks simply ignores the image. Learning to crop a picture in the Draw program was really wild (Shift Control 4 or something like that that I finally found with a Google search). And, trying to do a mail merge for e-mail labels. Wow!

I thought I could live without Office because I didn't consider myself to be a "power user" and didn't think I was using any "advanced" features. I'm trying to live with AppleWorks (and testing ThinkFree Office at the same time). I don't want to buy MS Office for three reasons- 1.) I don't want to give any more money to the Evil Empire. 2.) It's WAY overpriced and 3.) I'm tired of bloatware.

Hopefully, there will be a slimmed down, reasonably priced alternative available sometime. There has to be a market for it.

Other than finding a decent contact manager (that can print mailing labels) and a decent Office Suite, I'm very happy with my decision to switch. But, I'm still searching on those two fronts.

Peace,
Brian

 

[lardlad]

Re: Just switched... Appleworks just doesn't make it...

Originally posted by brian0526

AppleWorks has not been nearly what I thought it would be. No ability to create multiple worksheets in a spreadsheet? No ability to manually parse data (that I've been able to find anyway). When I open a Word document I created with a simple image in it, Appleworks simply ignores the image. Learning to crop a picture in the Draw program was really wild (Shift Control 4 or something like that that I finally found with a Google search). And, trying to do a mail merge for e-mail labels. Wow!
Peace,
Brian

Well you can get the text to wrap around the image. Make sure that when you place the image you use the black arrow. This will place the image in it's own floating box. The control click to bring up the contextual menu and you'll find Text Wrap. Also transparency is supported. Lets say you have an image in Photoshop >select all >copy> and go to AppleWorks choose the black arrow tool and >paste.

And you can use multiple worksheets within one spreadsheet. Just choose the spreadsheet tool and hold option while you click and drag. You'll get a mini spreadsheet in its own floating box. The same apples to text, option click and drag will create a floating text box. Place a text box in a spreadsheet and a spreadsheet floating box in a text document.

AppleWorks I think is more capable than most people realize because it isn't very intutitive. However not as powerful as Office I believe it should do what you need it to.

 

[Toe]

Office Alternatives

When I originally posted this, it immediately got burried in the off-topic piracy discussion, so here it is again, slimmed down.

If you can't stand MS Office and can't wait for Appleworks, there are numerous options that range from cheap to free:

http://openosx.com/office/

http://www.openoffice.org/

http://www.thinkfree.com/

http://marinersoftware.com/siteproduct.php

http://www.besoftware.com/


Also, in possible contradiction to the Appleworks rumor, check out the Jan 20 installment of http://www.macosxrumors.com/.

 

[brian0526]

Toe wrote:

When I originally posted this, it immediately got burried in the off-topic piracy discussion, so here it is again, slimmed down.

If you can't stand MS Office and can't wait for Appleworks, there are numerous options that range from cheap to free:

http://openosx.com/office/

http://www.openoffice.org/

http://www.thinkfree.com/

http://marinersoftware.com/siteproduct.php

http://www.besoftware.com/

I checked the above sites.

OpenOSX looks promising. But, I did not see the ability to download the software and try it out. Major problem, unless I missed something.

OpenOffice.org looks not ready for prime time. From the description, it looks like early beta and not fully OS X compatible for simple people like me.

I've downloaded ThinkFree. Looks pretty good. It's VERY slow. But, better than Appleworks for compatibility.

MarinerSoftware looks pretty good for spreadsheet and Word Processing. Downloaded both and will check them out.

BeSoftware's website didn't do much for me in terms of explaining their offering.

Is OpenOSX available to be tried out?

Peace,
Brian

 

[Toe]

Is OpenOSX available to be tried out?

Their stuff is just bundled freeware/open-source. They take what is publicly available for free (but very challenging to install), bundle it together with clean, easy installers, and sell it for very cheap. A pretty good idea, in my mind.

For example, their word processor is AbiWord. You can get it for free here:
http://www.abisource.com/

All you have to do with these open-source softwares is download them, often compile them for your operating system, then figure out how to get them to launch. Then figure out how to use them. OpenOSX does all the unix-geek stuff for you and makes a Mac-like installer, bundled together with documentation. They also bundle together a number of applications and, I believe, get them to work with each other.

So I can understand why they don't have demos... their installer is the entire thing they are selling. And $40 for a full office suite ain't so bad.

 

[GeneR]

Let's hope for the best.

I'd very much like to see Appleworks kick some M$ butt. We've been chained too long to these monopolistic practices and we need an app that will move Apple to the forefront in terms of productivity suites. Let's hope for the best on this. I really want/need something better than Office X.

 

[brian0526]

Re: Let's hope for the best.

Originally posted by GeneR
I'd very much like to see Appleworks kick some M$ butt. We've been chained too long to these monopolistic practices and we need an app that will move Apple to the forefront in terms of productivity suites. Let's hope for the best on this. I really want/need something better than Office X.

That's just the thing. If someone would come out with just a decent office suite for anything less than $400 bucks, people would jump all over it. I've got to believe there are a ton of people fed up with Microsoft's practices, bloated software, outrageous prices, etc. Just give me a decent alternative and I'm there.

ThinkFree Office is looking fairly good. It's slow (I guess it's written in Java). But, I think for $50, it's acceptable. I'm hoping Apple's not finished with Keynote and continues to pick off the Office Suite. I'd like to see a better word processor, spreadsheet and contact manager from Apple, too (are you listening, Apple?)

Peace,
Brian