It's not an atrocity and not meant to compete on the same level of MS Office. And Keynote is really good, some even prefer it over PPT.
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Microsoft Office for iOS Updated With iCloud Drive Support
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It's not an atrocity and not meant to compete on the same level of MS Office. And Keynote is really good, some even prefer it over PPT.
I can't comment on Pages, but Numbers is an atrocity, the UI is poorly designed in terms of entering data or formulas. Importing Excel spreadsheets causes errors and strips the imported document of much of the data. Working on medium to large spreadsheets is an exercise in frustration imo.
I use Pages and Keynote all the time, though I do have Office, I set that all docs and ppts automatically opened by Pages and Keynote, its so good. Seriously, there is no comparison. For presentations, especially good looking and having nice design, nothing can come close to Keynote. Pages is great for word processing. Both handle MS formats just fine.
I think that maybe Numbers is not as good as Excel. But for my simple needs such as tables, occasional formulas, conditional formatting, charts, Numbers is just great. Its charts are way more attractive. Add here Apple's Mail and who needs Office? On my Macbook air, no MS software is installed. Same for ipad and iphone ; tried Office and deleted it. Yes, its my subjective assessment but fully objective. I have bought Mathtype 6.7 and there is not a single thing I need from MS world to mess my workflow. Word just chokes on any document with multiple graphs and more than 20 pages. Pages is just fine. Some say that newer Pages lacks the page-management of older Pages, but I never noticed it. All in all, its 2-1 in favor of iWork. More templates for Keynote certainly would be welcomed; but MS templates are very boring even though they tried to improve them hard.
For Pages, I would like to see such Font management feature as creating a list of recently used fonts on top of Fonts menu, but other that, the symbols management, adding images, textboxes, formatting text in textboxes etc is incredibly good in Pages.
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I just export Pages as doc or pdf file, looks great.
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Look, I would get on board with MS office on iOS except for one thing: without a subscription it is crippled. Happy to pay a one off price, but a subscrption? No.
Hi Tim. Have a fun time hobnobbing at the Grammys?
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Don't you make any money at your job?
OneDrive has great potential, but unfortunately it has a major issue for Mac and other users, who have files named in a way that MS cannot process.
It harkens back to pre-2010 cloud services: it simply refuses to sync folders or files with certain characters in the name.
None of the other major cloud storage services have this limitation and I have not seen it for years. It's like DOS.
It will probably cause me to let my subscription lapse, because I am not using it, due to these sync issues.
Otherwise it's a great price for a lot of storage. But the inability to handle stuff like ":" or "/" and a bunch of others in file and folders names is a deal breaker for me.
It harkens back to pre-2010 cloud services: it simply refuses to sync folders or files with certain characters in the name.
None of the other major cloud storage services have this limitation and I have not seen it for years. It's like DOS.
It will probably cause me to let my subscription lapse, because I am not using it, due to these sync issues.
Otherwise it's a great price for a lot of storage. But the inability to handle stuff like ":" or "/" and a bunch of others in file and folders names is a deal breaker for me.
Yeah, why doesn't Apple just sit back and let everyone else pass them by on everything???
For one thing, I personally HATE Chrome and wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I don't like Safari either. I've had to make some changes (e.g. classic theme restorer plus a good theme) but Firefox still has the capability to LOOK and act like a proper browser, not just a money making machine that only looks at ONE area (i.e. supposedly "fast" whereas CONTROL is what I want, not some minimalist browser designed to sit on Youtube all day long).Honestly, what you say reflects the opposite on Apple (i.e. with their levels of capital, WTF can't they lead in EVERY SINGLE AREA? Apple always seems to have excuse of not enough resources. Well, letting hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars in "resources" sit there while all these companies take over all these product areas is ridiculous. Yes, Apple makes TONS of money, but it is on relatively few products. It could expand into all these areas with all that wasted money just sitting there doing nothing.
Good move for Microsoft. I trust the privacy and security of iCloud more than Dropbox although Dropbox still seems to sync up faster than iCloud.
I have gone through the comments on this thread and see a common theme: everyone is arguing based on their personal needs. Both iWork and MS Office have their advantages and disadvantages. Below is my pet list based on my own needs and wants.
Advantages of iWork:
- Free on all platforms.
- Sufficient for most business purposes and virtually all personal ones.
- The UI is elegantly designed, simple to use and wonderfully uncluttered.
- Uses a side bar which saves headspace on smaller/portable screens like my Mackbook 13" Retina.
Disadvantages of iWork:
- Fewer features than MS Office.
- Slower to boot up on non-OS machines and may be completely unusable in many Fortune 500 company IT environments (mine included).
- Requires added steps to export to the industry standard formats of MS Office.
- No "paste as unformatted text" option for Numbers. This means reformatting ... time and time again ... anything you copy/paste from a differently formatted doc, like a webpage.
- No "Ctrl + D" option to pull data from the cell above (pet peeve).
- iOS Pages does not have "reflow" so I'm forced to constantly scroll right and left to read an entire sentence.
- iWork files are bigger than MS Offices by as much as 300%. Becomes a noticeable problem when syncing with little signal like at my office.
Advantages of MS Office:
- It is the industry standard for most businesses and the U.S. government.
- It has more potentially useful features than you'll probably ever know existed, let alone actually use.
- It may not be free, but you probably already have a functional copy of the program for Mac anyway.
- Word for iOS has "reflow" so that I'm not forced to constantly scroll right and left to read an entire sentence.
- Document sizes are one third the size of iWork files so they sync faster. This is a terribly useful feature in the black hole of an office I work inside (I'm convinced that the walls are lined with lead or whatever it is that blocks my signal).
- Excel lets me do amazing things that I either can't or just don't know how to do in Numbers.
Disadvantages of MS Office:
- It costs money.
- In a handful of years the 2011 versions we have will no longer be supported and we may have to decide if we want to shell out $100 a year for the new version. The alternative will be to get used to life with iWork and all the headache of remembering to export to a MS Office version, not to mention worrying if the document will retain its formatting.
- It suffers from the Ribbon. Most computer screens are wider than they are taller. The menu bar + ribbon takes up 1/5 of my screen so I turned it off ... permanently. Someone at MS didn't think this one through.
- It needs a less cluttered interface: there are so many features to manage that it is easy to get lost. Maybe it would help to have a basic, mid-level and advanced selection of options, instead of stuffing a ribbon so full.
- It is a Microsoft product. I'm an Apple fanboy and I don't like MS on principle (much like rooting for your favorite team, this is completely irrational, but then again, I'm only human).
At the end of the day, to each their own. Personally, I doubt that iWork will ever go away: someone much more astute than me (kds1 maybe?) once said that iWork is insurance against Microsoft pulling support for MS Office from Apple platforms, leaving Mac & iOS users high and dry.
I have gone through the comments on this thread and see a common theme: everyone is arguing based on their personal needs. Both iWork and MS Office have their advantages and disadvantages. Below is my pet list based on my own needs and wants.
Advantages of iWork:
- Free on all platforms.
- Sufficient for most business purposes and virtually all personal ones.
- The UI is elegantly designed, simple to use and wonderfully uncluttered.
- Uses a side bar which saves headspace on smaller/portable screens like my Mackbook 13" Retina.
Disadvantages of iWork:
- Fewer features than MS Office.
- Slower to boot up on non-OS machines and may be completely unusable in many Fortune 500 company IT environments (mine included).
- Requires added steps to export to the industry standard formats of MS Office.
- No "paste as unformatted text" option for Numbers. This means reformatting ... time and time again ... anything you copy/paste from a differently formatted doc, like a webpage.
- No "Ctrl + D" option to pull data from the cell above (pet peeve).
- iOS Pages does not have "reflow" so I'm forced to constantly scroll right and left to read an entire sentence.
- iWork files are bigger than MS Offices by as much as 300%. Becomes a noticeable problem when syncing with little signal like at my office.
Advantages of MS Office:
- It is the industry standard for most businesses and the U.S. government.
- It has more potentially useful features than you'll probably ever know existed, let alone actually use.
- It may not be free, but you probably already have a functional copy of the program for Mac anyway.
- Word for iOS has "reflow" so that I'm not forced to constantly scroll right and left to read an entire sentence.
- Document sizes are one third the size of iWork files so they sync faster. This is a terribly useful feature in the black hole of an office I work inside (I'm convinced that the walls are lined with lead or whatever it is that blocks my signal).
- Excel lets me do amazing things that I either can't or just don't know how to do in Numbers.
Disadvantages of MS Office:
- It costs money.
- In a handful of years the 2011 versions we have will no longer be supported and we may have to decide if we want to shell out $100 a year for the new version. The alternative will be to get used to life with iWork and all the headache of remembering to export to a MS Office version, not to mention worrying if the document will retain its formatting.
- It suffers from the Ribbon. Most computer screens are wider than they are taller. The menu bar + ribbon takes up 1/5 of my screen so I turned it off ... permanently. Someone at MS didn't think this one through.
- It needs a less cluttered interface: there are so many features to manage that it is easy to get lost. Maybe it would help to have a basic, mid-level and advanced selection of options, instead of stuffing a ribbon so full.
- It is a Microsoft product. I'm an Apple fanboy and I don't like MS on principle (much like rooting for your favorite team, this is completely irrational, but then again, I'm only human).
At the end of the day, to each their own. Personally, I doubt that iWork will ever go away: someone much more astute than me (kds1 maybe?) once said that iWork is insurance against Microsoft pulling support for MS Office from Apple platforms, leaving Mac & iOS users high and dry.
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For "light" users I might agree, but we business users (writers, graphic designers, image enhancers, photographers, and other business folks who have clients) organize our projects of one or more files as billable jobs/projects e.g. by customer, job number, or date created-- or usually a combination of these attributes as nested folders. We may have 100 or many more client folders with various file formats within project folders that are within client folders.
The same goes for archived projects which may be on an archive server, which for some folks I know can number in the thousands. It's much easier for us to find the client folder and then look for date or job number or project name. To serve our clients well, it's worth keeping project folders for a really long time. I just got an order that was an update of a 1998 project, a rare thing but hey, my customer is happy.
We may not use a cloud service for old work, but we like to be consistent in our filing methods. I've been okay so far for App-only file organization, but iPads in particular will soon do work formerly only done on desktops.
We all, myself included, should take care to not project our personal usage as a universal way to do things.
P.S. To iWorks users, it would be considerate to save a copy of the file in MSWord or MSExcel format if sending to others to edit, unless you know they are iWork users.
Yeah, why doesn't Apple just sit back and let everyone else pass them by on everything???
Honestly, what you say reflects the opposite on Apple (i.e. with their levels of capital, WTF can't they lead in EVERY SINGLE AREA? Apple always seems to have excuse of not enough resources. Well, letting hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars in "resources" sit there while all these companies take over all these product areas is ridiculous. Yes, Apple makes TONS of money, but it is on relatively few products. It could expand into all these areas with all that wasted money just sitting there doing nothing.
I have also asked this question. Why doesn't Apple blow the socks of the competition in every field it competes? I honestly don't know all the reasons, but I suspect that they are playing some things conservatively: what they are doing is working for them, so why push harder? This is a dangerously complacent attitude, of course, and we are seeing competitors catching or outstripping Apple in many regards. Imperfect though it is, MS Office is a good product with many uses. If it wasn't the business world would have dropped it long ago. The Surface 3 is a compelling concept that I nearly went with over my Macbook Retina. Google Maps continues to outshine Maps even after 3 years of work. I no longer use iWork because it fails to meet my on-the-go needs (Hi, Eddy Cue, I'm willing to come back to Pages if you'll just add re-flow and put the word counter off the document into a bar!)
Unfortunately some of us have to feed the (cats) and make a living working at one of the many businesses that use Office
But seriously, I can't tell if I like Office 2013 because I actually like the software, or if I'm deluding myself into liking it because I don't have a choice but to work on it 12 hours a day.
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I really like the ribbon, but this is a really, really smart criticism that Microsoft needs to fix (or at least allow for a little more UI flexibility)
Mildly Useful
Office apps for iOS do not appear to support saving NEW files created in app to iCloud. You can only edit and (automatically) save existing files. If I'm wrong, and I hope I am, I'd like proof. Otherwise, this is an only mildly useful addition.
Office apps for iOS do not appear to support saving NEW files created in app to iCloud. You can only edit and (automatically) save existing files. If I'm wrong, and I hope I am, I'd like proof. Otherwise, this is an only mildly useful addition.
The ribbon as it is would be fine for anyone wanting access to all the advanced features and had a tall screen. In fact, that is what is meant for, I believe, because you can add features you want to a customizable bar. Personally, I find the ribbon very cluttered, but maybe that is just me. After working with it for a while, my mind edits out the options I don't need and it isn't so bad. Then I go back to an iWork app and breathe a sigh of relief because it isn't packed features ... which is also its drawback
I'll say this: when you're working in single apps, Apple's approach to file management is brilliant. When you open Pages or Numbers, you don't have to go digging through folders to find what you want. They're all right there in front of you, all organized and grouped in an efficient, easy to find format.
...but when you're working with multiple files amongst multiple applications, it blows. Having to import and export files from one app to the next is sloppy, time consuming, and inefficient.
As old as the fold structure is, I haven't seen anything yet that's replaced its functionality entirely.
I know what you mean but that solution has already been resolved in using tags. It's not all the way there yet because on iOS the tagging system hasn't yet been made obvious but in Yosemite tagging is front and center and it will continue to receive more prominence over folders over time in the interface. Tags fix the problem of multiple files amongst multiple applications being accessible in one "location".
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We use iWork primarily for our business which revolves around client projects. And we have created a tagging system that works far better than the old folder system did. Mainly because tags allow far more flexibility than folders. Apple's file system is heavily dependent on switching your filing system to being more based on tags... with folders only serving as strictly defined top level organization. And this is exactly what folders are best used for. The deeply nested folder system with the classic issue of "what folder does this go in?" is completely resolved by Apple's tagging system combining with the new app based folder system with shallow subfolders.
The thing about tags is that it isn't really any easier or better. It's more a lateral upgrade. It has some advantages, mainly the fact you can have more than one tag per file, but at the end of the day, tagging a bunch of pictures as "Spring Break 2015" isn't any different than slapping them all into a folder labeled "Spring Break 2015".
Very well written peace. Since I don't use many functions of Excel and even Word, existing set of features of Numbers is good enough for me. It may be not enough for some business use, but probably mostly macros and scripts thats are missed. As for Pages and Keynote, i think that most business needs are met as well.
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That's not the issue. I bought 365 license and have office (work) license as well. However the software just doesn't feel comfortable to use, convoluted, changes for sake of changes, etc. Many functions are mostly useless. Only good thing in Office is its font management, namely list of heavily used fonts on top of fonts menu. Thats all.
If you have say, a dozen documents on a project and an additional dozen images that are used in those docs and you then use say, 6 of those images (e.g. Stock photos) in another client's project, and use some of the assets again in a later project(s) for one or both of those clients, wouldn't you want discrete and complete folders for each project?
If I pull one of the projects off an archive drive, I want a complete "package" (folder) of the assets used in that project. Since I might share project files with a client, I don't want that client to see tags referencing another client.
Just as I would never trust my files with iCloud (far too unreliable and too many restrictions), I would never trust my content with iWorks.
I tried iWorks a few years back (it was Apple, so it had to be good) and besides the compatibility issues with my colleagues, I had another surprising issue. A few years later, I could not open my files anymore. Apple forces you to upgrade to the latest and greatest software but has no backwards compatibility.
I got the infamous "your document is too old, save it with pages version xx first". A version I did not have anymore.
You can say all you want about Microsoft, but at least they realize this is a big no-no in any professional environment. I'm sorry, but iWorks is for recipes and Christmas cards.
I tried iWorks a few years back (it was Apple, so it had to be good) and besides the compatibility issues with my colleagues, I had another surprising issue. A few years later, I could not open my files anymore. Apple forces you to upgrade to the latest and greatest software but has no backwards compatibility.
I got the infamous "your document is too old, save it with pages version xx first". A version I did not have anymore.
You can say all you want about Microsoft, but at least they realize this is a big no-no in any professional environment. I'm sorry, but iWorks is for recipes and Christmas cards.
Thanks for the kind words! You hit it on the head by noting that the main business uses Numbers can't fill are ones that involve macros and scripts. But, absolutely, most business needs are met by the iWork suite.
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So why is iCloud still so expensive compared to Dropbox? With Photos coming out and now Office, it would seem like they would want to price it at the exact same price as Dropbox.
I agree, they also need a true folder like Dropbox or OneDrive has on OSX
I agree, they also need a true folder like Dropbox or OneDrive has on OSX
Inovated
This is pretty good for people who have to use the MS suite, i love iwork but i have to use MS office for school and stuff
This is pretty good for people who have to use the MS suite, i love iwork but i have to use MS office for school and stuff