When I bought my MBP, I used NeoOffice for a while; the price was great, and it was overall a solid set of apps, but it had a few bugs that bothered me, in addition to being hard to navigate when I couldn't figure out how to do some things I knew how to do in MS Office (having used that for many years on PCs).
I've since bought Office 2008, and other than taking a bit to open when you launch it initially, I really like it. Before it was released, they talked about how they had a dedicated Mac development team for it, and how they didn't just want to make a port of the Windows version, but rather, wanted to make it fit in with the Mac aesthetic, and make it its own product. I definitely feel as though they've succeeded in this regard, and I definitely prefer Office 2008 to it's PC equivalent, Office 2007.
I bought iWork because I wanted Keynote, plain and simple. I launched the other apps briefly, but didn't really use them, because playing around in them for a bit (especially Pages) just felt strange; in the end, I didn't see any improvement over my experience in Word, and I felt as though there were things missing that I wanted to have at my fingertips. In all fairness, I haven't given much time to trying to learn the programs, and if I did, it's very possible that I would grow to love them. But since I haven't, I use Word and Excel for my word processing and spreadsheet needs, respectively.
Keynote, though -- Keynote is wonderful.
I still think iWork was worth the money, just so I could have it.
Take care,
Sojourn
I've since bought Office 2008, and other than taking a bit to open when you launch it initially, I really like it. Before it was released, they talked about how they had a dedicated Mac development team for it, and how they didn't just want to make a port of the Windows version, but rather, wanted to make it fit in with the Mac aesthetic, and make it its own product. I definitely feel as though they've succeeded in this regard, and I definitely prefer Office 2008 to it's PC equivalent, Office 2007.
I bought iWork because I wanted Keynote, plain and simple. I launched the other apps briefly, but didn't really use them, because playing around in them for a bit (especially Pages) just felt strange; in the end, I didn't see any improvement over my experience in Word, and I felt as though there were things missing that I wanted to have at my fingertips. In all fairness, I haven't given much time to trying to learn the programs, and if I did, it's very possible that I would grow to love them. But since I haven't, I use Word and Excel for my word processing and spreadsheet needs, respectively.
Keynote, though -- Keynote is wonderful.
Take care,
Sojourn