I'd personally use Open Office before I'd use iWork on a Mac. If you're wanting to choose between your two though, I'd go Office 2011 without hesitation.
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iWork vs. MicOffice
- Thread starter MacFeen
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I use iWork because its just for my personal use, and I don't have to send files to anyone else. However if it is part of your work and you need to send files to others, Office is better because most other people that you'll work with will have Office ...
If you are going to college for business don't even mess around. Get Microsoft office. iWork is for stay at home mom's to make pretty flyers and grocery lists.... real work gets done on Excel
Keynote does make prettier presentations than powerpoint though.
Stay at home moms and doctoral dissertations (psychology).
It worked just fine for me but mine is a different discipline from business.Honestly either will work. At my school iWork is $39 and Office is $75 so you could go with both with your university discount. If you're a business student, familiarity with Office will be useful. Plus, the citation manager in Office makes citing so much easier, which I find useful for school.
People say Office is better, because of all the features.
I say iWork is better, because it doesn't have the bloatware that Office does.
Instead, it focuses on getting you done. Keynote is miles beyond Powerpoint. Pages is faster, and easier, than Word. Numbers is the only part of iWork that really lags noticeably behind its Office counterpart.
My solution is both. If I need to collaborate, then I open it in Office. If not, iWork (or Scrivener) it is! Of course, that solution isn't always the easiest, nor is it the cheapest, which is probably its biggest downfall.
I say iWork is better, because it doesn't have the bloatware that Office does.
Instead, it focuses on getting you done. Keynote is miles beyond Powerpoint. Pages is faster, and easier, than Word. Numbers is the only part of iWork that really lags noticeably behind its Office counterpart.
My solution is both. If I need to collaborate, then I open it in Office. If not, iWork (or Scrivener) it is! Of course, that solution isn't always the easiest, nor is it the cheapest, which is probably its biggest downfall.
If you are going to college for business don't even mess around. Get Microsoft office. iWork is for stay at home mom's to make pretty flyers and grocery lists
Keynote does make prettier presentations than powerpoint though.
Get them both. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. In my consulting job, I'd use numbers to create nice looking charts for my boss to read, use R (free programming language, much more sophisticated than excel) to actually crunch numbers, use excel to open csv files, use pages to write reports and then import into word to utilize word's features, and use keynote to make presentations. I remember constructing my resume on word, many hours of frustration and nothing. Pages took 5 minutes and was ridiculously easy to use. I consider both iWork and Office to be essential to my work.