iWork '08 vs. NeoOffice ?

[JonB3Z]

NeoOffice seems to have better compatibility with MS Office documents.

I use iWork 08 Keynote for presentations, as it blows away pretty much anything else -- most definitely including NeoOffice. But for word processing and the little bit I do with spreadsheets, NeoOffice is my choice.

 

[mysterytramp]

The general consensus here is that iWork is generally a better thing that OOo/NeoOffice. If I may ask, is anyone concerned about data portability on a larger scale?

The Open Document standard is a great concept but is anyone really supporting it other than Neo/Open Office? If not, what does that mean for the survivability of your data?

Pages can export to RTF and Word, so most data should transfer fine. Sure, something will burp if you use its advanced formatting features, but I'll live with that.

I gave up on Neo/Open after waiting years for fundamental Mac concepts to be included. Command-Q to quit? nope. Page Setup? nope. And there are a thousand other simple things that have been left out. Plus, it's so bloated with features that the ones you need are buried.

While I can understand some people may need Excel's advanced features -- and Neo offers a similar range of functions -- Numbers is a very capable spreadsheet which can handle very complex projects. It's sheet/tabling system means the software can approximate a relational database (don't expect Oracle, but you can definitely go beyond many basic flat file databases).

I highly recommend iWork, well worth what you'd spend to dump Neo/Open.

mt

 

[angelwatt]

The Open Document standard is a great concept but is anyone really supporting it other than Neo/Open Office? If not, what does that mean for the survivability of your data?

TextEdit can handle the open document format (ODF). Microsoft has stated Office 10 will support ODF. Survivability looks good.

Addition: It also looks like Office 2007 SP2 gained ODF support.