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How do you feel about iWork?

M

m1stake

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 17, 2008
1,518
3
Philly
Is it good? Bad? How does it compare to Office 2008? In the past I have heard that it's Office support was hit or miss and had limited features. I will be using all of the applications it contains, and would like to feel comfortable knowing that it plays nice with Office, and can do whatever I want it to do. Are the features numerous? Useful? Is it buggy or rock solid?

Thanks for your answers. I have tried searching with limited success and did not find a definitive answer to my question. I currently use Office 2004 for Mac and would like something that... sucks less.
 
iWork is really nice. I like how it's like a Microsoft Office to Windows but its iWork to Macs. It's also cheaper :D . I personally like it better because it's different and it's something Window's Users can't have :) :apple:

Also as said before, try it out!
 
Thanks for making me aware of this trial! I'm downloading it now on stolen wireless using the 802.11b airport card, so it's going to take 15 minutes. Guess I'll try opening my work schedules and old word documents and take everything for a real spin tomorrow.

As you mentioned also, $80 seems like a steal even next to the $150 home and student, and seems downright FREE next to a $500 copy of Office Pro.
 
Office 2008 is really not all it is cracked up to be
If you can find 2004 use it, nor wait till the next version

Or you can try NeoOffice which is free and Open Source.

iLife is good with Pages/Numbers/Keynote, but Numbers still needs some work

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
I got the first version of iWork, and I felt that Pages needed a lot of work. So I waited and then bought iWork '08, Pages is awesome with one caveat - it's not a Word replacement necessarily. I couldn't see typing a research paper or term paper on it (I've read that people do - but I couldn't). Put as a page layout program with some word processing capabilities - It Rocks! Play with the download

Keynote, even in version 1 of iWork was better than Powerpoint and has only solidified it's lead. I make quite a few presentations a year and people always ask me afterwards "Was that Powerpoint?" I smile and shake my head and say "No, it's Keynote"

Numbers, I feel, really wasn't meant to go head to head with Excel. It's basically "The Spreadsheet for the Rest of Us". I don't see Apple trying to bring Numbers up so that it can do all the things Excel can, but it is serviceable.

My humble review -

Coachingguy
 
You really shouldn't bother wasting your money on it. I did and I really regret it - it's naff.

I switched to mac recently, and love it, but I hate not having Microsoft Office now. I know you can get office for mac, but it just isn't the same as using it on vista.

There's so few features on iWork, simple little things that you can do on office that you can't on iWork.

As they said, try it out for thirty days, see how you feel about it - but if anything, you should get Microsoft Office.
 
I see it as a stronger alternative to Office. Sure it can't do some of the things office does but it has amazing templates, numbers has far better functionality than excel when it comes to that final document.

Plus i love to export it as a PDF as people always seem amazed that normal people can create these! Although you can export as a word document (bit nasty though) and even plain text if you must!

I won't go near office these days and for it's price, alternate and more relevant features (who needs to use half of the features in office), the templates that make my work look like a pros and not to forget the simple reflection tool... Sooooooo pretty!
 
I suppose it comes down to how many features you use in Office.
Personally, I'm quite knowledgeable of Office, and use it an awful lot - So that'd be why I regret getting iWork.

The lack of features is alright for those inexperienced, or people who just need to create simple documents. I suppose it just adds to Mac's 'ease of use' thing.
 
I don't know. I've tried to use it many times, but in the end always gone back to Word. As someone says, I have to write my final dissertation for university and I just feel safer with word. It's formatting tools are fantastic.

.docx is annoying me though. My university hasn't updated all the computers yet so while some tutors can others can't open it.
 
I personally don't like iWork, i find office better for completing tasks for me, it is more compatible than iWork, which is needed for me, i'm in a school where they use windows
 
SpaceMagic said:
I don't know. I've tried to use it many times, but in the end always gone back to Word. As someone says, I have to write my final dissertation for university and I just feel safer with word. It's formatting tools are fantastic.

.docx is annoying me though. My university hasn't updated all the computers yet so while some tutors can others can't open it.
Click to expand...

You know you can save files as 97/03 documents?
And if you're talking about office for mac, I've never used it, but can you not export it as a .doc file or something?
 
Interesting to read the opinions on this. Here's mine:

I have a lab of 30 or so Macs and several at home. I no longer install Office on any of them. I cannot stand it when I have to open Word (or any other Office app), not because I don't like them, not because they are MS product, but because iWork is so much better, for me.

I teach English, journalism, and advise the yearbook. I can see typing a term paper with it; in fact, I HAVE seen typing a term paper with Pages! No problem.

I agree that that the older version of Pages was unusable as a word processor, but with '08 that is no longer the case. It can open, read, and export Office documents. I simply have no need for Office anymore.

That said, I do not use Excel or Numbers, with the occasional exception of when someone sends me a spreadsheet document. But, again, I can read Excel files with Numbers.

In the end, I do have a copy of Office 2004 that I rarely use, and I have changed my default settings to have all Office documents with iWork apps.

My .02...
 
For a lengthy if not exhaustive comparison:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Comparison_of_iWork_and_Microsoft_Office

We've been using Pages for all of our business word processing since version 1.0 and find it to be more than adequate and continuing to improve. The ability to create custom templates for our reports and forms with placeholder text and graphics is a huge plus. I've found that most of the people who claim that Pages isn't able to do "simple little things" haven't really tried, or they expect Pages to do these things in exactly the same way as Word -- which thankfully, it doesn't!
 
Overall, I'd say iWork is a good buy. Inevitably, you'll have a few compatibility issues, particularly when you incorporate more advanced formatting, but if you don't mind playing around for a while, you'll always be able to resolve your problems. That said, I would say that the three components differ in quality.

Pages is a little weaker than Microsoft Word, and it can take some getting used to if you come from a Word environment; however, I use it every day for all of my word-processing needs. It also has a few nice features that Microsoft Word is lacking, and I personally like the Inspector interface. On the whole, it can do just about everything Word can do, and it's an effective substitute.

Keynote is absolutely superior to PowerPoint. It's easier to use, and it gives you more control over your presentation. Keynote includes the ability to export its files easily to Quicktime, PowerPoint, Flash, HTML, or even a special iPod format. This means that you can show a Keynote file on just about anything, making it more "compatible" than PowerPoint.

Numbers is not nearly as good as Excel. Excel is the reason I own MS Office, and if you really know how to use it, there is no competitor, but most people don't use the full power of Excel. If you just need a basic number-crunching and spreadsheet program with some essential formulas, then Numbers will do just fine.

So, my final rating is that out of the three components: iWork holds the clear lead in one (Keynote), Office holds the clear lead in one (Excel), and one is about equal with a slight advantage to Office (Pages vs. Word). If you really need Excel or you don't want to learn a new suite of programs, but Office. If you want the true Mac experience and a gorgeous presentation program (as well as free technical support if you have AppleCare), then go iWork.
 
For actual word processing (that is, typing), Pages is much superior to MS Word. There are certain features offered in Word that Pages doesn't have, but if you don't use those features, that doesn't matter. The biggest problem with MS Word is that it's too slow. Even on the latest computers, it lags behind my typing. Pages doesn't have that problem. Pages also handles graphics much better than Word and allows faster scrolling.

I agree that Excel is a little better than Numbers, but I still use Numbers nearly all the time since it does about 99 percent of what I need. Now when I need slightly more advanced features, such as a true scatter plot, I use OpenOffice, so I'm completely Microsoft-free!
 
What about the other alternative?

I think there's something people are missing here. What about OpenOffice? Yes, I know the current stable release needs X11 installed. However, the beta of OO3 runs natively on Leopard. It's as featured as most general users need, can read a multitude of international standards of file types (as well as MS) and can export natively to PDF. It also includes a database app, similar to Access, which iWork doesn't give you. All this for £0 (that's $0 at current exchange rate). Don't get me wrong. I love my MacBook, having got it last year as present to myself. I love iPhoto, and the online printing options). I just think "why pay for something that you can legally get for nothing?".
 
i was a little iffy too when deciding to iwork or not. what pushed to get was the price and a genius told me it was totally compatible with word, powerpoint, etc. Pages was pretty hard to navigate for like the first couple weeks because things aren't where you expect them be(or they aren't where they are in Word), but i got used to it and i am convinced <bold>Pages is superior to Word</bold>:D People say they just can't write a research on Pages, well that's probly cuz you haven't given yourself a chance to become accustomed to Pages, i've written like 7 page reports on Pages.:D I love the effects too, like the beautiful reflection and shadows. the templates make ur document look so pro and outstanding:cool: i seriously recommend it:apple: I haven't experienced keynote or numbers but they say it's awesome!:):apple:
 
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