iWork or Office 2008?

I am a recent Mac user also, from my experience if you don't need extensive options, etc iWork is perfect! I was very tempted into purchasing Office for Mac but then realized that iWork is fine for all my needs.

The bottom line is what you really need your software to do for you. If you need 100% compatibility then Office would be the choice. The student edition is only $139 online and comes with three licenses.
 
DaveF said:
People not doing office-work at home. I don't bring professional work home to my personal computer. So, I don't need MS Office compatibility at home and am switching to iWork for personal use. My only concern is future compatibility of these files -- what happens to my files in five years?
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I can't remember last time I used a word processor for anything other than work related stuff. Can you give my some examples? Who knows, this may just open the floodgates of creativity in me :rolleyes:
 
akadmon said:
I can't remember last time I used a word processor for anything other than work related stuff. Can you give my some examples? Who knows, this may just open the floodgates of creativity in me :rolleyes:
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I'm in Toastmasters, so I will use Pages to write speeches and create meeting agendas. I do club finances in Numbers. I would also use it for creative writing, essays on personal research topics, etc. Other people might send me something in Word; I'd use Pages to read it.

I don't do substantial word-processing for personal use, but I do some and I need a tool. While TextEdit is quite robust, I want something more powerful in general. Pages seems like a good way to go. And I got it on the Black Friday sale with corporate discount for $50, shipped. So I'm giving it a go.
 
akadmon said:
I can't remember last time I used a word processor for anything other than work related stuff. Can you give my some examples? Who knows, this may just open the floodgates of creativity in me :rolleyes:
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I write short stories. And one novel, so far.

I use NeoOffice. I'll pay for iWork when it offers me enough more to justify the price for me.

I don't like MS Office, and I've never needed anything from it that NeoOffice doesn't give me with less headache.
 
iwork vs. Office

iwork '08 vs. office '08.
which is better for a high school student mostly for typing essays.
 
bryanxxx said:
iwork '08 vs. office '08.
which is better for a high school student mostly for typing essays.
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If you're mostly just typing essays, either is fine, really. Personally, I'd go with iWork since it's a lot cheaper. Keynote is great if you need to do any presentations, and Pages is more powerful at layout than Word (if you need to insert some graphs or something like that for a lab report or something). I don't think a high school student would miss any of the functionality Excel would offer over Numbers. I'm a college student, and I certainly don't.

However, if money is an issue, I'd definitely suggest checking out NeoOffice. it's the native OS X port of OpenOffice.org which has its own versions of Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. Personally, I prefer iWork now because it's much faster, prettier, and easier to use, but if you need to save the $79 go with NeoOffice. Not as flashy as MS Office, but it's fully compatible with all of the MS Office formats and offers almost the same functionality.

Oh, I should not you can't natively save to .doc or .docx, etc., MS Office formats in iWork, but you can export to the 2003/4 version formats. If you'll mostly be printing stuff to turn it, this won't matter, though. Also, NeoOffice can read and save to pretty much anything.
 
Based on how low the street price of Microsoft Office Home and Student is, I'd lean towards that for schoolwork.

Fewer configuration issues with files, and swapping them back and forth quickly, though sending stuff in .pdf is a decent method if they let you.
 
In academia, there really is no alternative to Word.. so I am locked into that program presumably forever. However, Keynote really steals the show for presentations. The clean, sleek, refined look truly stands out in a series of PowerPoint clones. I havent touched PP since I discovered Keynote.
 
 
i personally use Keynote for presentations (it is no comparison to Powerpoint), but also, try using the suite NeoOffice... it's free (originally distributed by Sun Microsystems I think) and works quite well. Not quite as polished as iWork, but... it's compatibility is nice, just like iWork. Oh.. that point was brought up already.

Another vote for NeoOffice then? Try it for a couple days at least. You might like it. I didn't think I would, but I did.
 
If you need to send or receive Office files for business/school, I would go for Office. However, if all your files aren't really needed to be sent I think iWork is great. I have both and both have their pros and cons. iWork is a great price for what you get when you compare it the Office.
 
Office 08 takes too damn much to load!

@home said:
I have Office 08 & It's never crashed yet.

I'm not bashing iwork, Tried it didn't like it for various reasons.

But Office 08 is ok in my book..no crashes ~ loads in 7 to 8 Secs.

Have fun with w/e you prefer
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Meanwhile, in my girlfriend's powerbook 12" loads fast and stay fine, and she's not running Leopard, she's on Tiger yet, and she is saying that, if i got those problems, she wont migrate 'till that problem be solve.

PS: When i say, takes too much to load, believe me, TOO DAMN MUCH, Word, Excel and Powerpoint, entourage is fast and msn as well.
 
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