Do I need iWork?

[iHatePCs]

Hi, I was curious if iWork is worth the $80. I already have MS Office 2004. I'm the commisioner general of Pingree's student council. All I need to do is type up school papers and weekly newsletters. Also, I will probably need to create monthly presentations to the administration of my school. Is iWork worth buying if I already own MS Word and MS PowerPoint??? Also... after you tell me if I should buy iy or not... can you tell me what the major differences are between the two? Thanks in advance 🙂

 

[jadam]

I dunno how it might be for you, but I find the iWork suite much easier to use the MS Office. I prefer the minimalist interface that apple has.

 

[vtprinz]

Do you have problems with MS Office?

 

[Timelessblur]

I would honestly call it a waste of money since office is a much more powerful tool and comply with modern standarnds (well considering it set most of them it should)

iWorks is not in the same ballpark as Office. think of iWorks as more like MSworks for PC. A much weaker program all in all. now if you where trying to desided bettween which to buy it more up in the air since money can factor in but since you already own MSoffice 04 there just no point to waste the money getting works

 

[iHatePCs]

The only problem i have with office is that the newsletter templates are kinda...well...umm...ugly...kinda. And I wasn't sure if the templates in Pages are good looking. Personally I really want Keynote... it looks so much easier to use and much more cleaner looking. 😱

 

[jadam]

Well, they say pages is better for page layout then word. So in that case then you might want to upgrade. Keynote is really cool, it has some really nice looking transition effects and word effects.

 

[ravenvii]

Seems you're affiliated with a school somehow. Do you realize there's a educational store at Apple with discounts? iWork costs $50 with an edu discount.

 

[iHatePCs]

Oh, sorry... I'm not affiliated with Pingree School, I'm just a student there. I'm head of the STUDENT council there and every month I and the rest of the people on it make a presentation to the administation and the Headmaster about improvements we think would benefit the school. And every week we need to create a newsletter to the students on what's new that current week.

 

[yippy]

University students qualify for the discount, so you are elligable.

 

[iHatePCs]

Pingree is a highschool not a university. Unless... private highschools are eligable??? 😕

 

[jadam]

Pingree is a highschool not a university. Unless... private highschools are eligable??? 😕

They sometimes are, check the education store to see if your school is eligible.

 

[vtprinz]

How exactly do they monitor the educational discount page? Because I've noticed that you can go through the va tech bookstore's webpage and click a link directly to the edu discount page on apple. There's no time that you have to prove your status as a student.

 

[dotdotdot]

OMG my school qualifys for an Apple edu discount!!! the problem - the page doesnt say Mac mini - would it qualify anyway?!??!?

 

[jadam]

How exactly do they monitor the educational discount page? Because I've noticed that you can go through the va tech bookstore's webpage and click a link directly to the edu discount page on apple. There's no time that you have to prove your status as a student.

Most likely with your apple id. If you go to the student store it specifically tells you that you can only purchase one apple computer per year.

 

[mrgreen4242]

Don't think any highschool students are eligable, except homeschooled students.

Anyways, I've only used iWork for about 5 minutes, so I can't post a fully formed opinion, but here's what I have to say about it...

If you have Office already, then it's probably a waste of money. If you don't have Office, and are using AppleWorks, then I would say it's an improvement. In the few minutes I played with it I liked the way the workflow was layed out, and it seemed like a pretty decent word processor and a pretty decent layout program. Doesn't look like it excels at either. Keynote is great if you need a presentation program. I'd say at leasy equal to Powerpoint, if not better.

If the regular price was $50 rather than $80 it'd be a great addition to Office, but at $80 it's tough to justify it if you already have Office. If you don't have Office then go ahead and get it. It's pretty good now, and can only get better with future updates.

Rob

PS Templates are lame no matter what program they came from. People who are savvy can spot something based on a Word template a mile away and are generally unimpressed. Pages templates are new, but will soon fall into that trap. Better to spend the time to create your own template for you newsletter and then use that for future editions.

 

[dotnina]

Why is there so much confusion about the educational discount? It sounds to me like you qualify pretty clearly.

Straight from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/education/contact.html

K-12 and Higher Education institutions, educators, faculty, staff, and students can purchase Apple hardware, software, professional development, and services at a discount. See our Price Lists for the latest pricing information.

You can get to the edu store from the main http://store.apple.com page -- check the right-hand column for the link to "education."