I'm going to be buying my first MacBook Pro shortly and I'm wondering what is better to get, iWorks or MS Office. I've always used PC's and both my work and my wife's use MS Office documents. I know iWorks is compatible with Office stuff but is it compatible with Office 2003 as well? We would mainly be using Pages/Word and PowerPoint/Keynote. We have a number of Word and PPT documents we will be saving on the MBP when we get it. Any advice? I know Open Office is an option but I'm only interested in iWorks and MS Office. Thanks.
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iWorks vs MS Office. Which to get?
- Thread starter craiger902
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Just to make sure.
First line when you start a new post:
"Are you asking a question? Try searching first. Answers to many questions can be easily found."
I searched using the term iWorks and didn't see anything relevant in the first page. Thought this would be easier than searching through the other 39.
iWork is great and I use it daily. It is sort of compatible with MS Office. That means you can open simple documents and resave them in MS Office format. The problems arise when the documents start getting more complex. There are hidden formats in Office that iWorks won't reproduce and vice versa.
So if you are working with a friend you two can find a way to cooperate and deal with each other's minor formatting issues. If you are collaborating at work then you will be odd man out just because you are slightly different. Sometimes these things get political and you can suffer for the slightest issue.
So, if you are mostly making documents for yourself and exporting mostly as PDF then iWorks is great. If you have to collaborate a lot with other Office users then get that. Probably the cheapest way is to buy the student version. I think this allows two installs. They never ask if you are a student. This is MS's backdoor way of discounting the software.
So if you are working with a friend you two can find a way to cooperate and deal with each other's minor formatting issues. If you are collaborating at work then you will be odd man out just because you are slightly different. Sometimes these things get political and you can suffer for the slightest issue.
So, if you are mostly making documents for yourself and exporting mostly as PDF then iWorks is great. If you have to collaborate a lot with other Office users then get that. Probably the cheapest way is to buy the student version. I think this allows two installs. They never ask if you are a student. This is MS's backdoor way of discounting the software.
Office for mac is hopeless if you do serious works.
I have to use both office 2004 and 2008, still i lack a lot of compatibility.
Equations made in Office 2007 (PC only) will not work in either Office 2004 or 2008 for mac.
Spreadsheets containing VBA scripts, such as statistics will not work in office 2008, but it will work in Office 2004
If the spreadsheet is made on an Office 2007, you will have to convert it first.
If you are into any kind of work that involves documents with equations or have to do any kind of statistics with spreadsheets, you rather want to get VmWare or Parallels and install Office 2007.
I have to use both office 2004 and 2008, still i lack a lot of compatibility.
Equations made in Office 2007 (PC only) will not work in either Office 2004 or 2008 for mac.
Spreadsheets containing VBA scripts, such as statistics will not work in office 2008, but it will work in Office 2004
If the spreadsheet is made on an Office 2007, you will have to convert it first.
If you are into any kind of work that involves documents with equations or have to do any kind of statistics with spreadsheets, you rather want to get VmWare or Parallels and install Office 2007.
Of course not. "iWorks" as s search term is way to broad.
Did you see miles search? "iwork vs office" >> POW.
i personally don't like the latest version of office for mac so your best bet if you end up going with office for mac is to go 2 versions back to what came out before the version of office to be paired with windows vista.
I am a student and iWork does all i need. pages is a find word processor and numbers is great for balancing my checking account, and for that matter keynote is just plane fun to use for presentations. but why get it over office. other than the fact your going to save at least 50bucks I cant think of a reason if you really need the beefiness of office though 9/10 features in office go unused anyway.
I am a student and iWork does all i need. pages is a find word processor and numbers is great for balancing my checking account, and for that matter keynote is just plane fun to use for presentations. but why get it over office. other than the fact your going to save at least 50bucks I cant think of a reason if you really need the beefiness of office though 9/10 features in office go unused anyway.
If you are exchanging documents with equations you will be disappointed by Office for mac, because it simply doesn't work with Office 2007 for PC.
Only solution is to get MathType, and make sure the ones you exchange documents with use MathType as well.
Writing equation in Office is hopeless work anyways, because of it's limits and it is very slow to write in compared to MathType. You can use MathTYpe with iWork as well.
Get iWork!
I've owned both MS Office for Mac 2008 and iWork (NOT iWORKS!) and iWork is infinitely times better for the average student. The interface is very simple and intuitive. The programs bundled in iWork barely use up any resources and open documents very quickly.
MS Office for Mac 2008 is the complete opposite. Its interface is a cluttered and laggy, it takes a long time to open documents, and it drinks ram like orange juice. Not to mention it takes days for any of the programs to open.
Yes, you may encounter some incompatibility issues, but iWork can export files in Microsoft's formats and I haven't had any problems so far.
It takes some time to get used to, but iWork becomes a MUCH better and useful program over time. You will be in awe of how simple and effective iWork will make creating beautiful documents. I have switched from Office to iWork and I will never go back. It might also help to know that iWork costs half as much and Keynote absolutely DESTROYS PowerPoint.
Apple makes everything so simple; and now the've added that to schoolwork
I've owned both MS Office for Mac 2008 and iWork (NOT iWORKS!) and iWork is infinitely times better for the average student. The interface is very simple and intuitive. The programs bundled in iWork barely use up any resources and open documents very quickly.
MS Office for Mac 2008 is the complete opposite. Its interface is a cluttered and laggy, it takes a long time to open documents, and it drinks ram like orange juice. Not to mention it takes days for any of the programs to open.
Yes, you may encounter some incompatibility issues, but iWork can export files in Microsoft's formats and I haven't had any problems so far.
It takes some time to get used to, but iWork becomes a MUCH better and useful program over time. You will be in awe of how simple and effective iWork will make creating beautiful documents. I have switched from Office to iWork and I will never go back. It might also help to know that iWork costs half as much and Keynote absolutely DESTROYS PowerPoint.
Apple makes everything so simple; and now the've added that to schoolwork
I do have both - and I prefer using iWork most of the time.
Only if you have larger documents with TOCs (table of contents) that you want to be created automatically - use Word. Pages really doesn't get that right. Thats really very frustrating.
Only if you have larger documents with TOCs (table of contents) that you want to be created automatically - use Word. Pages really doesn't get that right. Thats really very frustrating.
Personally, I use MS Office and I think it works great, the Mac version that is. Couldn't tell about iWorks, I've never actually used it.
I have both iWorks'09 and MS Office for Mac'04. I can tell you that the iWorks programs open much faster all around. From opening to saving. Faster. But I have found that sometimes even the simplest things don't translate well. Example: Simple Keynote presentation with a fairly normal font that apparently is only in Keynote and not in PowerPoint. When I opened the presentation in PP the slides didn't look the way I had planned. Not messed up, but the font PP chose was a different look and feel than what I was going for. I like using iWorks and do when I know that the document will translate well to MS Office. If not then I use Office'04. Try the iWorks trial. See what you think and if it will work for you. Good luck.
I am a new Apple user, about 30 days. I had to make this decision so I went to Apples download page and downloaded the fully functional 30 day trial of iWorks, including opening my Word documents and saving in that format. Anyway, two weeks into my 30 day trial I bought iWorks 09 on eBay for a good price.
some people love iWorks and some have valid reasons for sticking with MS. Try it for free and then decide. I use Pages and Keynote but not Numbers. Many consider Keynote to be superior to Powerpoint.
some people love iWorks and some have valid reasons for sticking with MS. Try it for free and then decide. I use Pages and Keynote but not Numbers. Many consider Keynote to be superior to Powerpoint.
I'm the biggest Mac nerd you'll ever meet. And I use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. (Wouldn't touch Entourage with a 10-foot pole though).