iWork or Office 2008 for a student?

[wvuwhat]

Hi guys!

I was looking at picking up Office 2008 at my campus bookstore the other day, but they were all sold out. I went back today, and saw they had it for $150. That's a little steep, especially considering I have '04. However, with as much typing as I do, I'd like to run native on my Macbook.

Then I saw that iWork '08 is only $39. That's quite the bargain! However, I couldn't help but think that even at that price, I'd still prefer Word, as that's what I always have used.

I've tried OpenOffice, Bean, NeoOffice, etc, etc... and I never like them as much as Word. Do you think Pages could officially switch me?

And, I am correct in knowing that all Word/Excel documents can import and export with iWork, right? Everything is compatible?

What would you guys recommend?

OH! And to add to the confusion... We also have "site-licensed" software. For $69, I can get Office '08 through that... What's the disadvantage to that? No box? Is that it? I thought you might download it or something... but there's a shipping charge. So, I'm confuzzled.

I use iWork. I went to Mac last Sept. and vowed I would never own another piece of Microsoft software. I am taking 18 credit hours, half online (where I have to send .doc files to teachers thru a school website) and half in class. I have NEVER had a problem with teachers saying they can't open the exported .doc file. I use Keynote and Pages exclusively as a Comm./Advertising major and teachers say they like the way my Keynote presentations turn out and ask me where I did it at. I would say go head first and get iWork. I've had no problems and will never go back to Office if I have the choice.

 

[gloryofgreece]

which one is better for engineering? I tried my hands with neo office, but there is always some bugs, esp with auto format, which I experience with Office and Neo office. However text edit is really nice to use.
I was wondering people in engineering have to run excel---what was their experience with excel 08?

 

[northy124]

Haven't read thread all the way through.

I'd say get both if you can afford it as KeyNote is better than Powerpoint. But Word is better than Pages. Not sure about Excel vs Numbers as they are both equally good.

I have both and am very happy with each. You will be happy to have best of both worlds. BTW iWork exports of documents are not 100% compatible.

Just My 2¢

Northy124

 

[Eraserhead]

^^ For serious work Excel is far better than Numbers. Though for simple table layout Numbers is more useful than Excel.

Pages is about the same as Word, if I'm sending people documents I would use Word if they are editing them, or PDF if not.

For project work though the Pages export to Word isn't 100% so I wouldn't use it.