In my experience, people use Word because that's all they know. They'll use it for horrible things, like sending copy or images, creating stupid signs, and making ridiculous attempts at Desktop publishing. I even read about one idiot who "makes websites" in Word.
I understand that most people use Word for things other than word processing. Word is not the best piece of software for handling these tasks.
Most college students could get by just fine with TextEdit, most office workers would be easily served by Google Docs, and there are far better options for professional writers, such as LaTeX or Mellel (if you have to have a WYSIWYG editor). MathType pales in comparison to the native mathematical typesetting features of LaTeX. Everyone talks about collaboration but Word has nothing on MacTex and a Github repo. That said, there's still a use for Word if you're creating documents that are going to be printed or stored in PDF and you lack the skill to use a better tool. In my opinion, creating documents that are stored in Word is foolish. Long term storage should be made with .txt files and PDFs.
I do not agree here.
Although several college students would be just fine with TextEdit, they can benefit of Word's features, even though not using all of them. Grammar check, for instance, is very useful, and it does not require any deep knowledge of Word.
Some office workers can do their jobs with Google Docs, but not all of them. I work in a law firm and Word is the only option. I have to exchange documents with clients and other attorneys and everybody uses Word. Some documents use complex formatting such as cross-references. I cannot afford to use something else, as incompatibilities may arise. And I cannot say to the client that I use the free Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office; it is no excuse, especially considering that the client is paying fees and expects the delivery of top-notch work. No, I cannot use Google Docs. Some office workers can afford to use Google Docs, but lots of them cannot.
As for professional writing, I have my doubts. I tried using LaTeX and I came to the conclusion it fits well people who works with maths. However, I cannot and will not use LaTeX. Nearly nobody uses it, and there is a learning curve I am not willing to take. Mellel is good, but it suffers from serious incompatibilities with Microsoft Word. The thing is, every piece of professional work that I have ever written had to be sent to someone else for publishing or anything else, and this person expected to receive a Microsoft Word file. I always have to convert the file to .DOC or .DOCX and ensure it will keep the formatting when opened in Microsoft Word. It did not take long for me to reach the conclusion that the most straightforward choice was to use Microsoft Word to write the document. Anyway, I did not find any reason not to use Microsoft Word. Word 2013 for Windows seems to me superior to all other word processors it consumes less memory, has more features, and the features are easier to find and use. So, why not use it? Just because I should be anti-Microsoft?
Excel is a different story for many types of analysis. I have a heavy background in stats so the gap between Numbers and some dedicated statistics application such as Stata or R is relatively small. Still, I do use Excel at the expense of Numbers.
I understand that Microsoft Excel is a must-have for many people and that Numbers does not fill the gap. I do not use Excel extensively, though.
Keynote is so much better than PowerPoint, it's not even funny. The only possible exception would be embedding Excel docs into PowerPoint.
I have never used Keynote extensively. However, I was under the impression that, after many years without a significant update, PowerPoint had taken the lead. Anyway, it does not matter. All my presentations have to be opened in someone else's computer, and this computer is always a PC running PowerPoint. Therefore, I have to use PowerPoint. If I use Keynote, the presentation may be better, but I will not be able to show it to my audience, so it is pointless.
Considering your posting in this thread, it sounds like you need a PC.
I don't know. Perhaps I do.
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For those of you that did not know, what we know today as Microsoft Office was originally a Mac application. Word, PowerPoint and Excel were originally written for the Mac. This was before Windows exploded onto the marketplace with Windows version 3.1 and then Windows 95.
In the early years of Windows up to about the the time Windows 98 came out, Office on the Mac was superior. Microsoft then switched their focus to the windows version and development on the Mac version slowed down. Since then, Microsoft's focus was on Windows.
Beginning this year, we've seen them refocus their efforts to other platforms as well. with this refocus, I think we will see the Mac version get some more attention and parity between the two will likely even out at least as far as the core Office Apps are concerned which would include, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, One Note and Outlook.
Yes, Microsoft focused on Office for Windows over the years and Office for Mac which came first lagged behind.
I really hope Microsoft is doing something about it.
I have found some piece of news today that may be interesting:
http://www.zdnet.com/admins-wanted-for-mac-outlook-setup-survey-7000033405/
It refers to a blog post here:
http://www.officeformachelp.com/201...outlook-for-mac-exchange-setup-script-survey/
According to these news, a survey is being conducted about planned changes in Outlook for Mac. The survey will end on October 31, 2014, and the blog poster is going to meet Microsoft's Mac team in early November 2014. The poster cannot reveal any additional information about it because he is under an NDA with Microsoft.
Can this mean that these changes to Outlook will show up in the next Office? And that, considering that the poster will meet Microsoft's team in November, that the next Office for Mac is not going to be released before the end of the year?
