do you use pages, keynote, numbers?

[ghanwani]

Do you use pages, keynote, numbers? With Microsoft's charging an annual fee for Office 365, I was wondering if I could get away with just using these apps, especially since I'm not really a power user.

However, I find them a bit hard to use given my history of MS Office use. For example with Keynote, I don't like that it starts the bullets in the center, and similar issues like that with pages. I'm sure I would get used to it if I tried, but also wondering if there are way to configure them so they behave more MS Office-like.

Which made me think it would be worth doing a poll here to see how many folks actually use it. If you do use one or more of them, would appreciate getting your experience with them.

 

[revmacian]

I'm sure I would get used to it if I tried, but also wondering if there are way to configure them so they behave more MS Office-like.

I wonder if this is a case of having to unlearn and relearn. I use all of them - Keynote, Numbers and Pages. I moved from Microsoft Windows to GNU/Linux in 2001 and then from GNU/Linux to OS X in 2012. I haven't used a Microsoft product in almost 20 years, so I didn't have to unlearn and relearn.

 

[JayMysterio]

I use Pages. I've just learned to adapt to use Pages for what I need, and now it's become the word processor I'm most comfortable with. If I needed templates there were others who made them long before I needed them, and I could add what I needed. I eventually made a specific template of my own, for what I specifically need.

 

[casperes1996]

Honestly for uni, I pretty much exclusively write in Pages, LaTeX and Maple.
I haven't used MS office. That is I've used the suite for a total of maybe an hour in my life (not counting a call center I worked at that used Access). I couldn't tell you how you'd set it up to work like Office cause I don't know how MS Office works. But I love using iWork. It does everything very nicely for me

 

[throAU]

First up, i have office 365 installed anyway because i need it for work.

That said...

Pages, numbers - not so much.

Keynote, i do use if/when i ever need to do a presentation. Because it is SO much more usable than powerpoint. And has the steve jobs transitions.

 

[casperes1996]

Keynote, i do use if/when i ever need to do a presentation. Because it is SO much more usable than powerpoint. And has the steve jobs transitions.

Yes! Keynote is so damn good. I've made some presentations I am genuinely extremely proud of with Keynote and it really wouldn't have been as good with anything else. I've used Apple TV remotes for changing slides and it's just so nice to work with

 

[throAU]

Oh also to elaborate...

If you're an office user, both numbers and pages are a bit weird.

Numbers is powerful in different ways to excel. Excel is a much more sophisticated number crunching tool. Numbers is better for small lists, laying things out, etc. Depends what you're trying to do - but if you're wanting to crunch numbers, especially in a work environment, Excel plain just works better. It's also easier to deal with other people's spreadsheets.

Numbers is better for pretty presentation.

Maybe others have different opinions, but that's mine after trying to use numbers as an excel replacement. Maybe it can function as one (to be fair, i've used Excel since Office 97, and only spent a few hours with numbers before giving up - as i need to use Excel at work anyway) but i just found it awkward to use for that.

 

[casperes1996]

Oh also to elaborate...

If you're an office user, both numbers and pages are a bit weird.

Numbers is powerful in different ways to excel. Excel is a much more sophisticated number crunching tool. Numbers is better for small lists, laying things out, etc. Depends what you're trying to do - but if you're wanting to crunch numbers, especially in a work environment, Excel plain just works better. It's also easier to deal with other people's spreadsheets.

Numbers is better for pretty presentation.

Maybe others have different opinions, but that's mine after trying to use numbers as an excel replacement. Maybe it can function as one (to be fair, i've used Excel since Office 97, and only spent a few hours with numbers before giving up - as i need to use Excel at work anyway) but i just found it awkward to use for that.

You're probably right, but if the goal is actually heavy number crunching, I wouldn't use either. Spreadsheeting has part of its purpose being the presentation. If the goal is the number work, use Maple or another CAS, write what you need in R or take the CSV too Python.

 

[throAU]

You're probably right, but if the goal is actually heavy number crunching, I wouldn't use either. Spreadsheeting has part of its purpose being the presentation. If the goal is the number work, use Maple or another CAS, write what you need in R or take the CSV too Python.

I guess heavy is relative. I'm talking in the context of an office, not a comp sci project

I see you mentioned earlier you are at university... in the real world things that should not be done as best practice ... hold businesses together.

You would be amazed and horrified at how many critical business processes are duct-taped together with CSV files, Excel, and text file import/export out of various programs in the real world.

Yes, its sad, but a lot of it is built by non-programmer accountants who know how to drive excel

 

[casperes1996]

I guess heavy is relative. I'm talking in the context of an office, not a comp sci project

I see you mentioned earlier you are at university... in the real world things that should not be done as best practice ... hold businesses together.

You would be amazed and horrified at how many critical business processes are duct-taped together with CSV files, Excel, and text file import/export out of various programs in the real world.

Yes, its sad, but a lot of it is built by non-programmer accountants who know how to drive excel

I'll believe that . I'd say though that for all that, Numbers is fine though..

Worked in a call center a while back, and I was only a caller so it was outside of my scope, but I kept thinking that their whole data infrastructure was so fragile, both in terms of security but also just loss of information

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Yes, extensively, but only iWork '09, not the new ported-from-mobile stuff.

Edit: I'm sorry for bumping an old thread with such a useless comment! It was linked to from a new thread, so I thought this must be new too!

 

[ghanwani]

Edit: I'm sorry for bumping an old thread with such a useless comment! It was linked to from a new thread, so I thought this must be new too!

It's a timeless thread.

Thanks for coming here and taking the poll.

I am quite surprised (in a good way) by the high number of folks that use iWork.

 

[LuisN]

It's a timeless thread.

Thanks for coming here and taking the poll.

I am quite surprised (in a good way) by the high number of folks that use iWork.

Did you try this? https://www.freeoffice.com/en/