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iWorks vs Office for Mac?
- Thread starter polythene pam
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polythene pam said:
Another vote for Office, despite by being a devout fan of all things Apple. I like Keynote and use it exclusively, but was very disappointed with Pages.
UF = University of Florida?
If yes, then UF does have a site-license agreement with Microsoft, which implies that any faculty/staff can get Office for next to nothing (or free). However, "staff" is defined as anyone who has collected a paycheck from the University. So get a job on campus that the University pays for, such as work study. Show the copy of your paycheck and get MS Office. They also have a "work-at-home" option. You get MS Office for free and a part-time job to boot. 😀
If UF is not University of Florida then ignore above. 🙂
Edit: Just realized that you already graduated from the University of Florida. Ignore above.
St. S
Raven VII said:
Awesome. Word proccesor software is all the same to me! As long as it has spell, check and grammar check I'm good to go. What's wrong with appleworks? Can it save papers in .doc format?
I've got a question pertaining to this...kind of.
I have Office X student/teacher edition, and it comes with 3 codes.
Can i use the same code over again on the same computer if i have formatted? cause when i installed tiger i did a clean slate. the other two codes have been used also.
am i boned?
I have Office X student/teacher edition, and it comes with 3 codes.
Can i use the same code over again on the same computer if i have formatted? cause when i installed tiger i did a clean slate. the other two codes have been used also.
am i boned?
solvs
macrumors 603
The codes are for the computer, not the installation. Your original code should work fine. Otherwise, you can e-mail M$ for support.
Also, the iBooks come with AppleWorks, which isn't great, but works. Tiger comes with a really nice version of TextEdit that opens and saves basic Word docs. Wait a bit to decide between the Office and iWork. You can use the Office trial for 30 days if you need it, and may get a better discount later on at school. iWork is great, but Pages is more of a Page Layout program than a Word replacement. Keynote is great, but PowerPoint isn't that bad. No Excel replacement, and AppleWorks is lacking with it's spreadsheet support.
Also, the iBooks come with AppleWorks, which isn't great, but works. Tiger comes with a really nice version of TextEdit that opens and saves basic Word docs. Wait a bit to decide between the Office and iWork. You can use the Office trial for 30 days if you need it, and may get a better discount later on at school. iWork is great, but Pages is more of a Page Layout program than a Word replacement. Keynote is great, but PowerPoint isn't that bad. No Excel replacement, and AppleWorks is lacking with it's spreadsheet support.
dmbfloydian said:
Unlike on Windows, the Mac version of Office doesn't authenticate the codes with Microsoft's servers. You can use the same code as many times as you like without any problems.
You cannot use the same code on two computers at the same time, which is why they give you three codes (for if you have three computers). Since you've formatted, you're no longer using that code, and are free to use it again, be it on the same system or a different one.
zen.state said:
My point was that PDF is compatible with practically any computer, even Amigas have PDF viewers. Hence he could email a PDF and the professor would be able to read it, there's no compatibility problem.
I really don't get the statements being made about people needing Office for compatibility at school. Unless you are emailing your work around for other people to copy, or something. If you are collaborating on a project, then you'll email and IM each other most of the time, and that certainly doesn't require Word. These collaborative projects often have a presentation aspect to them at the end as well, and Keynote pees all over Powerpoint.
For the most part, plain text is all you need to bother with. When you write an essay, then the software used is meaningless, because you can either email a PDF or print it out, as long as it meets the requirements (usually Times New Roman 10pt double spaced) then you can use any software to create it. The content is what matters.
So what to use? Try Pages, if you like it (like I do - it lets me just get documents created, no clutter, it just works) then use it. If you don't (like other people do, because they think it is a word processor and not a document producer) then see what deal your university does on Office.
In a business environment, yes, Office compatibility is often an issue. Getting the hang of Office at university isn't a bad idea either. But I hate Office, I detest Word, it does everything it can to stop me being productive. It isn't a Microsoft thing, I think that Excel is their only good bit of software and if you need a spreadsheet then Office is the thing to go for.
AcousticDoc said:
Try using NeoOffice. It's free, and does everything you'd need.
http://www.neooffice.org/
Otherwise, use Appleworks. It's also free for you, and will do everything you need. 🙂
DakotaGuy
macrumors 601
HasanDaddy said:
I could not agree more. Office 2004 is about as good as it gets. The other great thing is you are completely compatible with the Windows world when it comes to documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Office is a must for any student, teacher, businessman, businesswomen, government official or military person. If you don't fit into one of those catagories you might be fine with iWork or Appleworks.
taeclee99
macrumors 6502a
AcousticDoc said:
There is a cool free online office alternative called goffice. Sadly it doesnt work with safari but does work with firefox.
www.goffice.com
Slightly off topic, but ...
For technical or scholastic writing I much prefer Mellel over Pages or Word. Mellel has some built in reference tools which makes for a clean and efficient writing environment, especially when combined with a bibliography program like Bookends.
Mellel, Pages, and TextEdit have an "export as msWord document" function which mostly works. The export function is no better/worse than the hiccups that occur when msWord files made on a Mac are opened up on a Windows machine and visa versa. Generating a PDF document is the best way to electronically submit your document anyway.
I echo the opinion of others that Keynote is superior to Powerpoint.
I still keep a copy of msOffice for msExcel. iWork does not have a spreadsheet program, yet.
BTW, msOffice 2004 is much better (i.e. stable) than msOffice X.
For technical or scholastic writing I much prefer Mellel over Pages or Word. Mellel has some built in reference tools which makes for a clean and efficient writing environment, especially when combined with a bibliography program like Bookends.
Mellel, Pages, and TextEdit have an "export as msWord document" function which mostly works. The export function is no better/worse than the hiccups that occur when msWord files made on a Mac are opened up on a Windows machine and visa versa. Generating a PDF document is the best way to electronically submit your document anyway.
I echo the opinion of others that Keynote is superior to Powerpoint.
I still keep a copy of msOffice for msExcel. iWork does not have a spreadsheet program, yet.
BTW, msOffice 2004 is much better (i.e. stable) than msOffice X.
IJ Reilly
macrumors P6
Another vote for Pages, which despite what some will say, does not suck at all. I've used Pages every day since it came out for all of our business work (how about that for "real world"?) and have been about 97% satisfied with it. It knocks Word dead cold for clarity of implementation, and "compatibility" with Word isn't a major issue. It does export to .doc files you know, though I've always thought that was a terrible method of document exchange anyway (a great idea only for people who really don't care about how their documents look), whether or not you accept the theory that Word is the "standard" (I don't).
I really want pages. Keynote 2 I need. I use Keynote 1 for all of my presentations and they rock! I blow my students away with them, and none of my co-workers can figure out how I do it.
Remember though, you do get a 60 day free trial of Office 2004 pre-installed on your new iBook, so you can use that for a while. You can't print with the trial verion but so what, I don't print off a laptop anyways, just transfer the document to another computer when you need to print. I guess you could keep reformatting your computer every 60 days to keep using it for free if you are really cheap but want to use Office 2004 but I do not think that is practical. If you want a god Office app, 60 days should be plenty of time for you to save up to buy Office 2004.
FFTT
macrumors 68030
I would get iWork and try Pages, but the real advantage to iWork is Keynote for your presentations and then I would try the free
Office for Mac included with your purchase.
AppleWorks is really not all that bad either.
Then once you check out your options, I would contact your school purchasing department to see if they may have a bulk purchase discount on Office for Mac through the school.
Office for Mac included with your purchase.
AppleWorks is really not all that bad either.
Then once you check out your options, I would contact your school purchasing department to see if they may have a bulk purchase discount on Office for Mac through the school.
Office is Dog slow. If you can type at a decent speed MS word will lag. It only seems trivial but is can be VERY annoying when you are a student coming from MS word on a MS computer. Especially when my old P4 1.9 desktop is instant when it comes to MS word (as it should be). Coming from that and typing on ms word on a mac it was very slow. Very annoying. Unusuable.
I plan to convert to apple when the intel iboos/powerbooks come out. By then hopefully Apples will be able to run word processing applications that do not lag.
Word even lags on some imac G5s I've tried :\
I plan to convert to apple when the intel iboos/powerbooks come out. By then hopefully Apples will be able to run word processing applications that do not lag.
Word even lags on some imac G5s I've tried :\