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For College? Office or iWork
- Thread starter cav23j
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As an 'older' (ahem, 37 year old) college student and full-time Network Administrator, I have used both Office and iWork. iWork has little if any issues (that I've seen) with opening/reading/saving Office documents. I prefer Word over Pages, but since I do a ton of presentations - I prefer Keynote as Keynote blows Powerpoint out of the water. The transitions and animations in Keynote are amazing. And for the price, iWork is the way to go.
I haven't checked lately, but Microsoft was offering Office 2007 Ultimate to students for $70, but you'd have to run it on Windows.
Good luck with school!
Jason
I haven't checked lately, but Microsoft was offering Office 2007 Ultimate to students for $70, but you'd have to run it on Windows.
Good luck with school!
Jason
Do you need to submit as a doc, or print and hand in?
If it is electronic submission, I'd suggest word. My pages at least (09) doesn't like formatting between pages and doc files - indented quotes no longer are indented, italics change to normal, and embedded videos go all over the place.
Not very useful when submitting masters level work...!
If it is electronic submission, I'd suggest word. My pages at least (09) doesn't like formatting between pages and doc files - indented quotes no longer are indented, italics change to normal, and embedded videos go all over the place.
Not very useful when submitting masters level work...!
Office, if you can get your hands on it. I have had numerous of compatibility issues with iWork. Thank goodness Office saved me!
if you buy MS Office 08 you get the 2011 upgrade for free when it's available, i bought it a few days ago because of this.
Microsoft's website:
A lot of schools give out MS office for free - I would just ask the computing services department (or whatever your school may call it) before buying anything and use either openoffice or neoOffice until then.
Depends on the school, your major, and the individual professors. In my classes (physics), I do not accept Word documents-- PDF's only. Also when I work with research assistants and most colleagues we use PDF, plain text (often LaTeX) or basic Word documents (i.e. the kind that Pages has no issues opening).
I think the "share-ability" of Word documents is greatly overstated. I used to have quite a bit of trouble going between different computers with Office on them. Font issues, margin issues, etc. If all you care about is the text, it doesn't matter what package you use. If you are worried about formatting, distribute PDF's. When I do collaborative writing, we always separate the content from the formatting, which is done at the end by the first author. So it doesn't really matter how material gets passed around-- PDF's, plain text, latex, simple word docs.
Basically, try them out and find which one you like to work with. If you like iWork better than Office, get both. The academic version of office is cheaper than some textbooks (man, textbook prices really piss me off), and maybe your school has Office for even cheaper (my university offers for $21).
crackpip
I think the "share-ability" of Word documents is greatly overstated. I used to have quite a bit of trouble going between different computers with Office on them. Font issues, margin issues, etc. If all you care about is the text, it doesn't matter what package you use. If you are worried about formatting, distribute PDF's. When I do collaborative writing, we always separate the content from the formatting, which is done at the end by the first author. So it doesn't really matter how material gets passed around-- PDF's, plain text, latex, simple word docs.
Basically, try them out and find which one you like to work with. If you like iWork better than Office, get both. The academic version of office is cheaper than some textbooks (man, textbook prices really piss me off), and maybe your school has Office for even cheaper (my university offers for $21).
crackpip
Zotero compatibility
If you're in a program where you'll have to write a lot of research papers, you may want to go with Office, because it's compatible with a nifty Firefox extension called Zotero. (Just Google Zotero...easy to find.) The program allows you to very efficiently keep track of all of your research materials, and it integrates with Office so that you can quickly insert references and compile bibliographies. Unfortunately, iWorks is not compatible, so I end up doing all my personal work in Pages, and then using Word for school-related work.
If you're in a program where you'll have to write a lot of research papers, you may want to go with Office, because it's compatible with a nifty Firefox extension called Zotero. (Just Google Zotero...easy to find.) The program allows you to very efficiently keep track of all of your research materials, and it integrates with Office so that you can quickly insert references and compile bibliographies. Unfortunately, iWorks is not compatible, so I end up doing all my personal work in Pages, and then using Word for school-related work.
I have both Office '11 Beta and iWork.
I use Office for work, as I create spreadsheets and need Excel because of compatibility issues.
Outside of work, I use iWork. I like it a lot better - it has a nicer UI, and is easier to use.
If compatibility isn't going to be an issue, I'd definitely recommend iWork.
I use Office for work, as I create spreadsheets and need Excel because of compatibility issues.
Outside of work, I use iWork. I like it a lot better - it has a nicer UI, and is easier to use.
If compatibility isn't going to be an issue, I'd definitely recommend iWork.
I second NeoOffice. If all you need to do is create documents and presentations it will suit you fine. Plus, it's free.
I use both Office and iWork. I use Office when I am forced to and iWork the rest of the time.
About the only thing I find Office good for is when I politically need to be absolutely compatible. Otherwise I use iWork and submit PDF results.
I'm becoming a real fan of using Pages in layout mode for writing reports (usually less than 50 pages). Great for mixing photos, charts and text.
I got Office for free, sort of. We had to buy office for a machine at work. We bought the student edition. It allows two installations. So we used one at work and one on my Mac (via Parallels).
About the only thing I find Office good for is when I politically need to be absolutely compatible. Otherwise I use iWork and submit PDF results.
I'm becoming a real fan of using Pages in layout mode for writing reports (usually less than 50 pages). Great for mixing photos, charts and text.
I got Office for free, sort of. We had to buy office for a machine at work. We bought the student edition. It allows two installations. So we used one at work and one on my Mac (via Parallels).