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Microsoft Word (Office) or Pages (iWork)
- Thread starter srockford
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I prefer MS Office for Mac, for maximum compatibility with Windows users. If you don't want MS Office for some reason, there are many alternatives, such as iWork, NeoOffice, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Google Docs, etc. Searching the forum will reveal dozens of threads discussing these various alternatives and the pros and cons of each, such as this small sampling:
MS Office 2011 and Retina Display
Microsoft Office 2011 on Retina Macbook Pro
Microsoft office on retinaMountain Lion & MS Office 2011
Microsoft Confirms Office 2011 and 2008 Compatibility with OS X Mountain Lion
Microsoft office 2011 compatable with mountain lion?
Poll: iWork vs Office vs something else
Office or iWorks?
iWork (09?) VS Office 2011 for Mac
Office 2011 Mac vs iWorks?
iWork 09 vs Office 2011 on MBA
Poll: MS Office for Mac 2011 vs iWork
Poll: Office or iWork?
iWork vs MS Office 2011 for the basic user
MS Office 2011 and Retina Display
Microsoft Office 2011 on Retina Macbook Pro
Microsoft office on retinaMountain Lion & MS Office 2011
Microsoft Confirms Office 2011 and 2008 Compatibility with OS X Mountain Lion
Microsoft office 2011 compatable with mountain lion?
Poll: iWork vs Office vs something else
Office or iWorks?
iWork (09?) VS Office 2011 for Mac
Office 2011 Mac vs iWorks?
iWork 09 vs Office 2011 on MBA
Poll: MS Office for Mac 2011 vs iWork
Poll: Office or iWork?
iWork vs MS Office 2011 for the basic user
IMO what should drive your decision is how often you share files with MS Office users. If it is frequently and those documents contain complex formatting, just go with MS Office. If you will not be sharing with MS Office users very often, Pages is a very nice solution and as you mentioned the iCloud integration is a plus.
Pages is great for working on the fly, but it's nowhere near Microsoft Word when it comes to functionality.
Yup. I switched to pages a while back, and then switched back to office. It just has far more functionality and customizability.
Depends on how much you have to share/use with others.
But for the most part, I would get Office. I think it's an overall superior product.
I bought pages but can't use it on my Mac 'cause I'm still running Leopard. I'm intending to upgrade to ML sometime in the next few months in anticipation of the next MS Office which I then intend to get for my Mac and phone and then ipad when i get one. Hopefully, the next MS Office will, as I believe is about to happen on Windows, enable synching docs across all 3 devices either that or synch to Skydrive which will be just as good.
Office is definitely superior in my opinion. Also, if you really don't want to pay for Office then go ahead and get Libre office. iWork is pretty bad.
If you want Microsoft Word, then you havta buy the whole Microsoft Office bundle which cost $120 for one license, or $150 for three licenses. You can buy Pages by itself for just $20, and it will work on any number of Macs. Or you can get the whole iWork suite for $60. You havta buy the apps again if you want to use them on iOS, which is kind of lame, but then again you can't even use Office on iOS, and you can get an unlimited license for iWork on both OS X and iOS for the same price that you pay to use Office on one computer.
Just saying, economically iWork makes more sense, and if you're invested in the Apple ecosystem then it will be more useful and versatile for you especially with its iCloud integration.
Then again, the rest of the world uses Office. I haven't had any compatibility issues with Word and Pages, but working between Keynotes and Power Point is a nightmare if you find yourself in that situation. If you're worried about that sort of thing then Office might be better for you.
They both have their advantages. If you just have a Mac, then iWork won't be as much use to you. Office makes more sense then. But if you've got (for example) an iMac, MacBook, iPad, and an iPhone then iWork really shines. I got the best of both worlds, but I paid for iWorks myself and got Office as a graduation present.
Just saying, economically iWork makes more sense, and if you're invested in the Apple ecosystem then it will be more useful and versatile for you especially with its iCloud integration.
Then again, the rest of the world uses Office. I haven't had any compatibility issues with Word and Pages, but working between Keynotes and Power Point is a nightmare if you find yourself in that situation. If you're worried about that sort of thing then Office might be better for you.
They both have their advantages. If you just have a Mac, then iWork won't be as much use to you. Office makes more sense then. But if you've got (for example) an iMac, MacBook, iPad, and an iPhone then iWork really shines. I got the best of both worlds, but I paid for iWorks myself and got Office as a graduation present.
I think MS are bringing out a version of Office for the idevices and Macs that integrates like iWorks.
It's been rumored for years, but MS hasn't made any announcements though and I wouldn't count on it by any stretch of the imagination.
I use both of them and OpenOffice, both for document creation and spreadsheets. Experience tells me that MS Office is the best option for text documents, especially if you use the Mac version (curiously enough, MS has a better MS Office layout in the Mac version than in the Windows version; I use both).
IMO Numbers suits my needs much better and is more user-friendly than Excel is. But then you have the compatibility issue, which obliges you to export files every time you need to share them; it can get to be annoying because you can't just modify the file and save, because then you have to export again.
In the end, it depends on whether it's only you who will have to work with the files (then go for the iWork suite, because it is iCloud integrated) or you will have to share them with other people, and then I recommend MS Office. Like it or not, Office has become the standard software.
Microsoft Office, hands down.
Openoffice is great too, if you don't want to pay anything.
Will easily replace Microsoft Office.
You're better off with OpenOffice than iWork
Openoffice is great too, if you don't want to pay anything.
Will easily replace Microsoft Office.
You're better off with OpenOffice than iWork
They've definitely said there's going to be one for the ipad* so I'm presuming iphone too so that changes things vis-a-vis the next Mac Office which will be the first one that can integrate with the idevices version.
*unless it's just the Skydrive app
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Do you have a cite - I just heard about Skydrive possibly coming. Office on the iPad has never been confirmed by anybody at Microsoft as far as I have can tell. Best you get are rumors from people who claim that MS has one. Nothing official on the record about the office suite.
No. I thought I'd double check after I posted and the first page of resuts didn't throw up anything concrete. I Can't remeber where I heard/read it. I'm pretty sure I did see it somewhere and it wasn't just Skydrive.
I've just dl the trial version of Office for Mac and in the intro page with a few little icons and info about features there's one that says 'Access your files anywhere'. Anyone know what that means? Is it just a reference to being able to upload a file to Skydrive? If not then does it mean somehow files from my Mac can be accessed from other devices online? That doesn't sound likely. I'm going to investigate myself but I'd appreciate a quick sum up. Thanks.
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Pretty sure it was just a rumor site. If there was an official announcement it would be really available from google.
It is just a marketing phrase. Probably referring to multi-platform compatibility or something similar. It could mean anything though. I wonder if they explicitly mention something in small print or something since Office on the Mac doesn't integrate with Skydrive like Pages does with iCloud last I checked.
I don't think they are talking anything about Office for iOS though - there are already office suites on iOS (non Microsoft thought) and there is native support for viewing word documents from things like email.