iWork compability across OSes

[dbwrobel]

Hi, I'm currently a college student and I'm using the iWork suite on my mac and on my ipad; working between these devices is not usually an issue however now that I've started my grad studies I'm required to use a PC at school. Is there a 'best' or most compatible file format to work with between the two operating systems (I do have the option to install any suite I prefer on the school PC)? At home/on the iPad I would prefer to continue using iWork since I already paid for it; although if worst comes to worst I'm willing to switch office suites to have the best compability across all devices.

Also, I do require the use of formulas, is there any way to have compatibility across all devices in this sense (I thought of perhaps using latexit but am doubting this will work on the ipad).

 

[MrCheeto]

iWork is fully capable of putting out file-types that are 100% compatible with Power Point, Excel, and whatever other garbage.

Man, the Mac hatred never ends. My boss said I'd have to buy a PC because he wasn't going to put up with compatability issues. I agreed that if there were any, he'd just have to fire me. I'm still working with him, BTW, but he hates the fact that he can't find any shortcomings with my Mac.

 

[dbwrobel]

iWork is fully capable of putting out file-types that are 100% compatible with Power Point, Excel, and whatever other garbage.

Man, the Mac hatred never ends. My boss said I'd have to buy a PC because he wasn't going to put up with compatability issues. I agreed that if there were any, he'd just have to fire me. I'm still working with him, BTW, but he hates the fact that he can't find any shortcomings with my Mac.

I second that, I totally would prefer a mac at school but my supervisor has the impression of it being too expensive, not worth the price, etc etc...I guess on the bright side I didn't have to pay for the pc in my lab at school. Do you know if on the PC side open office would do? Also, can you open up things saved in pages on Microsoft Office or Open Office?

 

[MrCheeto]

As far as I know, every common Office format can be opened by iWork. Just double-click the file and it will open with the appropriate application. Also, as I said, you can save files in iWork to Office formats. Therefore, you could open them in Office applications.

Open Office... just the thought of that suite stresses me out. Great, I'm having a relapse -.-'

 

[bkap16]

I second that, I totally would prefer a mac at school but my supervisor has the impression of it being too expensive, not worth the price, etc etc...I guess on the bright side I didn't have to pay for the pc in my lab at school. Do you know if on the PC side open office would do? Also, can you open up things saved in pages on Microsoft Office or Open Office?

Nothing else can open .pages documents, but Pages can save as .doc which both Office and Open Office can open.

 

[dbwrobel]

Nothing else can open .pages documents, but Pages can save as .doc which both Office and Open Office can open.

Do you know if there is anyway to carry formulas across from one platform to the other (ie. add them on the mac in pages, do some editing on ipad, export as .doc, open on windows and edit, go back to editing on mac, etc).

 

[MisterMe]

Do you know if there is anyway to carry formulas across from one platform to the other (ie. add them on the mac in pages, do some editing on ipad, export as .doc, open on windows and edit, go back to editing on mac, etc).

You are on a fool's errand. Use Pages for the merits of Pages. One of the merits of Pages is that it includes an excellent conversion filter for Word. The excellent conversion filter does not turn Pages into a Word clone. It is a convenience that allows you to use the converted document with at most a few touch-ups rather than having to retype it. Only in a non-critical case would you send a document converted to Word to business or academic colleagues or superiors.

An earlier poster declared that iWork is 100% compatible with Office. Nonsense. Nothing is 100% compatible with Word:win except other installations of the same version of Word:win, and perhaps not even those. Certainly different versions of Word:win have issues with each other.

My own experience is that Word:mac is excellent at opening Word:win files--often better than Word:win of a different version. Having said that, I found that the only thing on my Mac that would handle a recent Word:win file was NeoOffice.

Problems arise with embedded graphics and other objects. Word:win users tend to come up with novel strategies for formatting their embedded graphics. When their strategies go bad, you need to throw everything that you have at these documents. It would be foolish to remove Word:mac from your arsenal.

 

[talmy]

Yep, it really depends on how compatible you must be. The conversion process, even between Word for Mac and Word for Windows isn't 100% correct, and the same applies for Excel and probably PowerPoint. It all depends on which features are used.

I produce documents in PDF format, so the question is moot from my production viewpoint and I use mainly Pages, however I teach some college courses and have to read my students work. Wouldn't you know it, Word 2007 (Windows) has a new equation editor and equations cannot be read correctly even in the presumably newer Word 2008 (Mac). Also, since Windows Vista, documents created on Windows all seem to default to new Microsoft fonts which aren't on a Mac unless you buy Word 2008.

Frankly, if you have to collaborate with a Windows user, and they insist on Word, you need at least a Windows Virtual Machine with Word 2007. Otherwise you need to convince them to use OpenOffice.org.