I have not used iWork 08 yet, and am on the fence about whether to get it or not. I use Office 2004 for the Mac for my needs at the moment. What I need to know is if I create a document in Pages and need to send it to a Windows collegue, will it export the document to a Word document without screwing up any of my formatting and if so, will it still look the same when my Windows based collegue opens it up. Also, will it open any Word file?
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MS Office 2004 or iWork '08
- Thread starter rossgumbrell
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Why don't you try the trial?
For stuff I do (text with maybe a table and a few pictures for school) the compatibility is 100% perfect. For some people who have complex formatting, there can be a few differences. BTW I've not tapped into the greatness of Pages which is the Page Layout bit AT ALL...
Most people say that [fill in the blank] is not a good product because they don't actually try to use it and understand it. They sit down with it and expect it to work like [fill in the blank 2] and when it doesn't, it's awful.
MS Word is bug ridden, haphazard, and in consistent but so much of the world users it, like Windows, that they've gone to ignoring most of the mess.
Pages is quite useful but like many unconventional products, it takes time to get the best from it. People who have spent time in page layout and word processing applications will likely be the quickest to benefit from it.
Keynote has been able to export to PowerPoint since version 1.0. You just have to make certain that you don't use Keynote-only features in your project.
you know, I think I got a disk with that one it with my iLife 08 software....I need to find that and give it a try...
As someone who is a huge Mac fan, I am very, very disappointed with iWork '08.
I am a very patient person who has grown to love all my Mac products but iWork has made my last 2 weeks a living HELL with their ridiculously poor options in their Pages application. I can't go back when I want to, I have trouble moving cursors in paragraphs, etc....it's a joke.
If you are like me and use Word Documents for work and school, stick with Word. It is one of the few things Microsoft has made that is easier to use and MUCH BETTER simplicity wise for the average .Doc user
I am a very patient person who has grown to love all my Mac products but iWork has made my last 2 weeks a living HELL with their ridiculously poor options in their Pages application. I can't go back when I want to, I have trouble moving cursors in paragraphs, etc....it's a joke.
If you are like me and use Word Documents for work and school, stick with Word. It is one of the few things Microsoft has made that is easier to use and MUCH BETTER simplicity wise for the average .Doc user
Office 2004 *crawled* on my system... Word, with a 200 page manuscript, was unbearable. Type, wait a minute for the letter to appear, type again. Good lord, don't cut and paste. Pages flies through it like it should. Keynote is lightyears ahead of Powerpoint to me in terms of ease of use and resulting product. Having used Office 2000, 2003, and 2007 at work (and not liking 2007 at all), I think I'll stick with iWork even after 2008 is released.
Now, granted, it took some time to get used to the different interface...
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24" iMac 2.16, 3 gb ram
Now, granted, it took some time to get used to the different interface...
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24" iMac 2.16, 3 gb ram
Even though I love Office 2004 I decided to try iWork '08. Everything I had seen about iWork was impressive, so I figured why not give it a try?
I must say that I was very disappointed with the entire suite of applications within iWork '08. Pages in particular was a joke, a deplorable excuse for a word processing application. It's nothing more than the next version one would expect to find in an AppleWorks 2007.
I sold iWork '08 and haven't looked back. As soon as Microsoft releases Office 2008 I will buy it.
I must say that I was very disappointed with the entire suite of applications within iWork '08. Pages in particular was a joke, a deplorable excuse for a word processing application. It's nothing more than the next version one would expect to find in an AppleWorks 2007.
I sold iWork '08 and haven't looked back. As soon as Microsoft releases Office 2008 I will buy it.
niether good for real writers
The main reason I voted for iWork is not that it's so good, but that Office is so terribly terribly bad.
It also depends on your environment and what your needs are.
At my work, all I need to do is create the occasional "how-to" document or report, occasionally with a spreadsheet in it but nothing really that fancy (no high-finance just regular budgets, data tables and stuff). iWork would actually be great for this, but I find that I have to keep using Office mostly because my fellow workers are (to be kind), "not computer savy." Now this is a major University, so it's not like they are country bumpkins or anything, but they will likely "discover" iWork 09 when there is a bigger wave of switchers later on. For now, it's just unrealistic to expect them to actually use the easier tool over the more familiar one. They are basically scared of change (like most computer users ironically).
I have shown them all the features and so on and they agree that it's better or easier for this or that... then they go use Office.
At my home, I am writing a book, developing a couple of screenplays, and I do layout and design work for others. Again, you would think that the page layout capabilities of iWork would be perfect, but in fact it's not, because my demands are actually much higher for those projects. Pages is a layout program, but you just can't write a book with it. To do a book or any kind of serious document, you need more that Pages can ever offer. It's actually closer to something like Microsoft Publisher (which ironically would never be used by any real publisher either).
Office is also not capable of producing anything approaching a book-length document in any reliable fashion. After all the revisions, Office (at least the Mac version), is a buggy POS that would not even sell if there were any serious alternatives.
I find that serious writers on the Mac mostly use Scrivener but it too has it's little weird quirks and bugs. Being as it was designed and produced by someone who is a writer themselves, it has some great, sensible features found nowhere else. By the same token, you have to want to write the way that person likes to write, and that sometimes is a very bad thing.
For instance it's the only word processor I ever found that you cannot set the number of character columns in the main editing window.
I voted for iWork 08, but I have to agree with some of the comments here.
The main reason I voted for iWork is not that it's so good, but that Office is so terribly terribly bad.
It also depends on your environment and what your needs are.
At my work, all I need to do is create the occasional "how-to" document or report, occasionally with a spreadsheet in it but nothing really that fancy (no high-finance just regular budgets, data tables and stuff). iWork would actually be great for this, but I find that I have to keep using Office mostly because my fellow workers are (to be kind), "not computer savy." Now this is a major University, so it's not like they are country bumpkins or anything, but they will likely "discover" iWork 09 when there is a bigger wave of switchers later on. For now, it's just unrealistic to expect them to actually use the easier tool over the more familiar one. They are basically scared of change (like most computer users ironically).
I have shown them all the features and so on and they agree that it's better or easier for this or that... then they go use Office.
At my home, I am writing a book, developing a couple of screenplays, and I do layout and design work for others. Again, you would think that the page layout capabilities of iWork would be perfect, but in fact it's not, because my demands are actually much higher for those projects. Pages is a layout program, but you just can't write a book with it. To do a book or any kind of serious document, you need more that Pages can ever offer. It's actually closer to something like Microsoft Publisher (which ironically would never be used by any real publisher either).
Office is also not capable of producing anything approaching a book-length document in any reliable fashion. After all the revisions, Office (at least the Mac version), is a buggy POS that would not even sell if there were any serious alternatives.
I find that serious writers on the Mac mostly use Scrivener but it too has it's little weird quirks and bugs. Being as it was designed and produced by someone who is a writer themselves, it has some great, sensible features found nowhere else. By the same token, you have to want to write the way that person likes to write, and that sometimes is a very bad thing.
For instance it's the only word processor I ever found that you cannot set the number of character columns in the main editing window.
I am using Office on only one computer now, just for pure work needs that I must have Excel for. On all others, it is iWork '06 (kids) and '08 (wife and I). I also have NeoOffice on my MacBook for the heavier Office loads, but for the most part I try to stick with iWork. I really like Pages and Numbers.
Take a look and try the software and you'll see for yourself: http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/
I don't remember MS Word being fast since version 4.x and that was around 1990. Ever since the Windows 3.x version arrived, the thing has been plagued with bloated and buggy code.
Still, the unpatched version of the iWork '08 applications aren't as smooth or fast as they should be.
By the way, if you're wanting to show the machine you have attached to every post, go into User CP and edit your signature.
Riddle me this?
I deleted MS from the computer the day I came home with iWork 08...
I also deleted the NeoOffice. (Which I had used quite a bit, but its quirkyness annoyed the heck out of me)
I only have iWork now and I am happy. (on my laptop, admittedly, I still have MS 04 because I did pay for it, and it is on another machine)
Question, and this will make me much camper, happy: How can I set Pages to open Word files by default?
I deleted MS from the computer the day I came home with iWork 08...
I also deleted the NeoOffice. (Which I had used quite a bit, but its quirkyness annoyed the heck out of me)
I only have iWork now and I am happy. (on my laptop, admittedly, I still have MS 04 because I did pay for it, and it is on another machine)
Question, and this will make me much camper, happy: How can I set Pages to open Word files by default?
No, I thought that it would, too, but it does not.
The answer is: Get Info>open with> (select application)
It is great to know, because it drove me batty!
Yeah, I know; just haven't gotten around to it... and since I referenced the machine in the post, I figured I'd better put what it was.
Well, I just bought a key for the iwork trial, and got rid of the word icon on my dock, permanently I hope. I won't miss office, because more often than not is cause for disaster whether on mac or on pc.
There no point in praising keynote anymore, it's light years better than power point, unless of course you must play a keynote presentation on pp, at which point things can get messy. Some time wasted to finetune a presentation last week but not a disaster. Keep it simple and you'll be fine anywhere, use a mac to impress with keynote.
Pages and numbers work fine and do what they're supposed to do. Plus the level of compatibility with office documents is now becoming acceptable, so I can work with others.
This is no 'revolutionary software' as apple would have it, but it's good enough for simple tasks (where working with word/excel can be confusing/annoying), and this is how I intend to use iwork. For those who complain about numbers, I can see their point, but I think they should be using more appropriate software for what they're doing.
For serious writing I use Mellel, which works fine with bibliographies etc and is rock solid.
There no point in praising keynote anymore, it's light years better than power point, unless of course you must play a keynote presentation on pp, at which point things can get messy. Some time wasted to finetune a presentation last week but not a disaster. Keep it simple and you'll be fine anywhere, use a mac to impress with keynote.
Pages and numbers work fine and do what they're supposed to do. Plus the level of compatibility with office documents is now becoming acceptable, so I can work with others.
This is no 'revolutionary software' as apple would have it, but it's good enough for simple tasks (where working with word/excel can be confusing/annoying), and this is how I intend to use iwork. For those who complain about numbers, I can see their point, but I think they should be using more appropriate software for what they're doing.
For serious writing I use Mellel, which works fine with bibliographies etc and is rock solid.
i Work 08 all the way!! I get comments from all my professors on the beautiful papers i turn in...and i am a Biochem major
my MBP arrived a few days ago and of course it had trials of office and iworks08. IMO putting a microsoft product on a Mac is just wrong. I did need my word processor to be .doc compaitable though and since iworks08 can't save documents as .doc's (unless i missed that setting), i went with neo office which seems to do all that i need it to. why buy an office sweet when you can get a free one?
If they crippled Office 2008 without Publisher and Access then I see no reason to upgrade from 2004. Excel, Word, Outlook clone of another name, and Powerpoint can easily be replaced by open source alternatives, the built-in Mail, iCal, and iWork for me.
