Has anyone made the transition from Microsoft Office to iWorks?

[8317645]

I just picked up a 64gb Space Gray 5s today. Just my luck I walked into the At&t store and they had one. Traded in my 4S in mint condition for $200 bucks.

Anyway, I see that iWorks is free with iOS 7, and I already have iWork on my Macbook. So has anyone made the transition from Microsoft Office to iWork so everything can sync up through iCloud? And if so, how has the transition been?

 

[Velin]

For Keynote, yes. In many ways Keynote is superior to Powerpoint, plus you can output into Quicktime or another movie format.

Not so easy for Pages and Numbers, because Word and Excel are ubiquitous.

 

[legioxi]

iWorks does not support all the same features as MS Office. If you just use basic items, then you should be fine. However if you're a power user, chances are iWorks won't cover you.

Or if you work on files created by others or send files to others as the exported files will not look correct. For anything that is just for my use, I use iWorks but anything I have to work on with others I use Office.

EDIT: One note, I don't do any presentations. I am only speaking of Excel/Word vs Numbers/Pages.

 

[8317645]

iWorks does not support all the same features as MS Office. If you just use basic items, then you should be fine. However if you're a power user, chances are iWorks won't cover you.

Or if you work on files created by others or send files to others as the exported files will not look correct. For anything that is just for my use, I use iWorks but anything I have to work on with others I use Office.

EDIT: One note, I don't do any presentations. I am only speaking of Excel/Word vs Numbers/Pages.

Yeah I would consider myself more of the basic user. Just using it for papers/essays. Basic spreadsheets as well.

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For Keynote, yes. In many ways Keynote is superior to Powerpoint, plus you can output into Quicktime or another movie format.

Not so easy for Pages and Numbers, because Word and Excel are ubiquitous.

That's good to hear. I never knew that Keynote was better

 

[Velin]

It's better in that it just looks better. It is easier to use. And the transitions and effects are both superior (imo) and are ones you would actually use for presentations. I've had people remark how damn good our "PowerPoint" looks -- and we're like, "our office runs on Apples."

 

[hallidc]

The transition for me went rather smooth. However as mentioned above, iWork doesn't support some of the features that are supported in Office, hence when I opened documents on iWork that was previously used in Office, my layouts were whacky and I had to re-adjust charts etc.

Other than a few notches here and there, I'm glad I transitioned over.

 

[Carlanga]

I have them both in my Mac and I use the MS apps 95% of the time. It's all about having the best compatibility possible to share the stuff. Plus word and excel to me are better than pages and numbers. The only real contender is keynote

 

[aristobrat]

Anyway, I see that iWorks is free with iOS 7, and I already have iWork on my Macbook. So has anyone made the transition from Microsoft Office to iWork so everything can sync up through iCloud? And if so, how has the transition been?

I've used Office since the 90s. I'm by no means a power user, but its ingrained in me enough that trying to find some similar functions in Pages and Numbers can be frustrating.

At work, everything is Office based, so using iWork there is a no-go because it's not 100% compatible.

At home, I'm trying to make myself using iWork (to get the experience, and the added plus of having stuff in iCloud).

The one thing about iWork/iCloud that bothers me is that I don't know how to automatically back up all of my files. If I store my iWork files locally on my Mac, they automatically get backed up to my Time Capsule.

 

[Crazy Badger]

I tried for a few days when I first switched across to the Mac, but had bought Microsoft Office for Mac within a week!

I could have probably managed with Pages and Keynote (although if you're working in a Office environment, compatibility issues might upset others) but Numbers doesn't even come close to replacing Excel.

They seem to have spent lots of time making it easy to create pretty graphs, so if that's your thing with spreadsheets maybe it would work, but for manipulating and analysing large sheets of data it's hopeless.

That said, the version of Excel in Mac Office isn't nearly as good as the version of Excel in Office 2007/10 (haven't tried the new one yet) and I often find myself running in a Windows VM if I have lots of data to play with.

 

[skaertus]

Microsoft Office is the only true alternative if you are engaged in business and you need a serious office suite.

iWork has just seen its first upgrade in over four years, and a lot of features were removed (instead of added). Microsoft Office has far more features. iWork syncs between Apple devices, but won't work in other environments such as Windows, and has virtually no penetration inside business.

If you need to have full compatibility with everybody else, then you should have Microsoft Office. But if all you need is a simple, easy and elegant office suite for your homework, then iWork may be worth considering.

 

[EvilQueen]

iWorks does not support all the same features as MS Office. If you just use basic items, then you should be fine. However if you're a power user, chances are iWorks won't cover you.

Or if you work on files created by others or send files to others as the exported files will not look correct. For anything that is just for my use, I use iWorks but anything I have to work on with others I use Office.

EDIT: One note, I don't do any presentations. I am only speaking of Excel/Word vs Numbers/Pages.

The same applies to presentations. I mostly do preso's and Keynote has some limitations that Powerpoint does not. There are work arounds but some are time consuming and some just don't work. Some media files do not work in Keynote which is a pain. An example is an animated gif. FGS...why can't those just work in Keynote after a drag and drop rather than having to go through 15 other steps to maybe make them work.

 

[Twimfy]

What is this "Microsoft Office" you speak of?