FWIW http://spreadsheets.google.com/ is surprisngly decent, and includes many scientific/statistical functions...rot@ti.org said:
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iwork 06 vs office for mac 04 student edition
- Thread starter nickkelbackk
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nickkelbackk said:
After finishing my thesis using office 2004...
I will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever...
...ever ever ever use word again.
(ever)
I swear before all that is holy and profane in whatever religions you may follow - I'll write my dissertation in vi if i have to.
I just use whatever I have handy, and send it as an RTF file. 
Pff. Real masochists use pico.ph0rk said:
Ok heres a question...how do the other ones go with compatibility to PC? Say I did a document in one of the other word processors besides word would I be able to go on a PC at uni and access and use it?
I have only tried Pages twice, so my experience is lacking, but I would recommend Office. I didn't like how the fake language and pictures and stuff would open up when you selected a template in Pages. Thinking about it now, I guess its so you know where to place things, but I didn't like having to delete the words and pictures and would rather have it blank. I really like Office 2004. It looks better than Office on the PC (I think I'm running Office 2000 though, so that my be the reason).
buffalo said:
Or, you could just choose the very first available template in Pages:
No problems here.
dextertangocci said:It's M$ S**T
I hate M$
Can you stop trying to spread your evangelical "I hate MS" crap? Because unless you want to shed some light on why Office 2004 would not be a good choice for the poster, you saying it isn't adequate just because of your ingrained hate for MS (no, not a dollar sign, it is an S) isn't helping anyone or helping the images of Mac Users as ideological zealots.
As for me, I find Office 2004 better than Office 2003 for Windows, and currently (after trying other solutions) think it is a great piece of software. I highly recommend it not only for its obvious compatibility with the Windows world, but I think it is a well executed piece of software besides for some extremely minor annoyances such as automatic numbering weirdness...
WillMak said:
I don't believe there's a grammar checker, although I've found the one for Word to be pretty poor, actually. As for formatting, the Inspector is your friend, and has most everything you are looking for. It looks like this:
Center away!
wow thanks! that inspector really is handy. I think this is what turns most people off from pages. The fact that almost everyone is so use to word that trying to find things requires mental effort. If word wasn't universal yet, I would have never used my page 06. page 06 is quite fast on intel machines!
buffalo said:
This is a pretty typical criticism of Pages. "I haven't really used it, but I don't like it anyway."
Templates are actually one of Pages' strengths -- not necessarily the ones Apple provides, which I've only rarely used, but the ones you create yourself. Set up a few custom templates for yourself with placeholder text and images for the kinds of documents you create regularly, and you'll wonder how you ever lived without this facility. The way Pages handles text and paragraph styles is also a breeze -- far superior to Word.
IJ Reilly said:
Thanks for some more perspective IJ; sometimes it seems like we're the only two proponents of Pages around here....
but I think the tide of public opinion is turning in Pages' favor, as more people actually use it and get comfortable.
gauchogolfer said:
I've noticed this too. I feel as though iWork is starting to catch on. It would catch on a lot faster if Apple bundled it with systems.
IJ Reilly said:
I like pages, but it is weak in some key areas. gauchogolfer finds the grammar check function 'poor' - I would only say that if I relied on it too much. It is useful, for example, in identifying grammar errors prior to reading a draft. I find that really helpful. Of course, you have to take the suggested corrections with a pinch of salt. I'm saying I think the lack of grammar checker is a serious drawback (especially for undergraduates, and they NEED it). Apple could make a grammar checker that offers more in the way of style guidlines than MS Word. For example, I wish MS word could recognise bibliograpies. It's such a pain in the ass to click continue a hundred times while it tells you eg Lakoff, George. is a 'fragment!'
Pages also, as I said upon release of 2.0, needs to be able to handle footnotes and endnotes in a single document. Granted this is not a majority request--but it is needed in some academic fields.
You can search me and find out how many times I've said this: if you need images in your document, Pages is by far the best. Also, it selects much nicer fonts than MS Word - I hate those effing serifs!
To answer the OP: Get both. MS Office is probably cheapest if purchased on campus. Many universities have a special purchase program and charge less than $10 for it. BUT, I'd say leave entourage well alone. Mail is far superior IMHO... oh, and make everyone jealous and use keynote.
yojitani said:
As I've said before, I understand that Pages isn't going to be all things to all people, but also that I hope Apple doesn't try to make it become all things to all people. This is precisely the problem with Word -- far too many features have been shoehorned in with too little thought given to the underlying logic or organization, to the point where it doesn't do much of anything very well (assuming you count "simple" and "straightforward"). Based on the Word documents I receive, I'd estimate that 85% of the people using Word are almost totally baffled by it, which means to me that 85% of the people who are using Word should probably be using something else, something that puts its emphasis on usability and clarity, instead of on mass feature quantity.
IJ Reilly said:
I think you're definitely right there. Perhaps MS should have 7 different versions of office: simple to outrageously complex!
Still, I wish Pages were all things to me! I like using it, but because of these little missing bits, I can't always.
viccles said:
Pages and keynote can read word docs and ppt files respectively. For word and ppt to read whatever you've made in the apple app, you have to export. Generally, the export works well, but I'd advise having word or ppt around to make sure the export did what it was supposed to do.