New to Mac -Iwork or MS Office ?

[shyam09]

I got it today and have office installed(demo) It is very similar to what I'm used to so I like that.

I'm going to get the iWork's demo also to compare but it'll have to really impress to get me to change.

The new Mac is great, but it is different and I have lots of learning to do already.

great
let us know your opinions too!

 

[TexasDad]

I played with numbers yesterday. I really like the multiple tables visible at once.

I may end up with both before I'm done.

 

[blueruck]

Office or Works, depends on your needs.

The OP appears to use a lot of templates etc in Office. The switch to Iwork would be awful. He must stay with Office.

In the work world, I was never able to switch from Office to Iwork. I can't tell my clients that my MAC can handle their files.

 

[Big D 51]

I use MS Office because it was easier to use since I have been using MS Office products my entire life. I really haven't gave iWork a chance though so not sure if my vote should count.

Good luck.

 

[dsiee]

Why not both?

I personally have went with MS office for word and excel then purchased keynote off the app store for like $20 or something ridiculously cheap (in comparison to M$ office). I did this because keynote is far quicker to compose good presentations whilst excel and word are great for compatabilty.

 

[joedoeman]

I am also new and I really need to know if in Word 2011 you can use the same keyboard things I have on my PC. Where you hold alt then press a key to input certain commands?

 

[The Economist]

I once had Office on my Mac, it was deleted after a week because I hated it, I hated how it created some data folders in my documents folder and apparently there was no way of changing this.

If you need compatibility then by all means get Office for Mac. Compatibility is an issue, between documents of Office and iWork. However, if you are willing to change some of your templates and create them from scratch, get iWork. If you are an Excel power user stay with Office.

Here's my take:

Excel is far, far superior to Numbers for processing raw data and making calculations, Numbers is very limited and has a long way to go; on the other hand, Numbers lets you easily present data in a very comprehensible and beautiful way. It is only useful for light work.

Powerpoint has finally caught up with Keynote with version 2010 on Windows, I'm not sure about Mac's version. I still feel more comfortable with the workflow in Keynote.

In my eyes, the beast in iWork is Pages, for a long time it destroyed Word in every way. Word 2010 on Windows nearly caught up with Pages, but I still find it way easier to write and edit a work on Pages. If you learn how to use Pages you'll create beautiful documents, easily and fast.

If you get both, please watch the iWork's tutorials on Apple's website. iWork is only useful until you learn that it works differently than Office.

 

[TexasDad]

iWork's - If I buy it from the apple store it is $79?

If I buy pages, numbers, and keynote separately from the app store they are 19 each ($57)

What else does iWork's include? Or is it just a better buy to buy them separately?

 

[saberahul]

iWork's - If I buy it from the apple store it is $79?

If I buy pages, numbers, and keynote separately from the app store they are 19 each ($57)

What else does iWork's include? Or is it just a better buy to buy them separately?

Depends on your needs. Keynote works very well with PowerPoint. Numbers, not so much. Pages, OK. I primarily use all 3 and only send out my files as PDF's which are exported as exactly what your document looks like on the screen so there is no formatting issue. If you do buy, definitely buy them from the MAS as the process is easier and Apple has made it cheaper there (they don't want you to buy the boxed version).

 

[ScottNWDW]

iWork's - If I buy it from the apple store it is $79?

If I buy pages, numbers, and keynote separately from the app store they are 19 each ($57)

What else does iWork's include? Or is it just a better buy to buy them separately?

If you buy iWork from the Apple Store you will get the CD-ROM to install from. If you buy it from the Mac App Store, no CD-ROM. My opinion is to buy from the Mac App Store, it's easier and the updates will occur automatically through the Mac App Store. In addition you can buy just the apps you will need rather than all 3.

 

[doctorfresh]

In my opinion, MS Word is a word processor that can do some layout publishing. Pages is a layout publisher that can do some processing.

For the majority of document tasks, Pages can do it all. If you need a fully functional word processing program (say you work at a law firm), and need compatibility, annotations, document comparison, track changes and the like, then Word would better suit you.

I am a barrister (advocate in most other countries) and need to produce carefully and formally formatted documents. I use Pages for this.

In fact, both have pros and cons. I miss 'forms' from MS Word, but I prefer the fact that I can have several tables on one tab/sheet in Numbers.

However, I use several machines including iDevices, so with iCloud the choice was a no brainer.

 

[arjen92]

well MacRumors doesn't advocate torrenting so none of us can give you a "yes" opinion technically, but MR aside, don't go torrents. Sure it's free, but it is illegal and you don't get the proper updates Microsoft releases [AFAIK], and with Office barely supporting OS X Lion [office definitely works, but it hasn't supported all the lion features yet [full screen, etc]

Now since you use only Word and Excel, [on your PC] I figure that Office 2011 will be the User Friendly one for you since you know what Office feels like, but YMMV

what i suggest is you download trials of both of them [un-installations are extremely simple on macs ] and try them for yourselves.
My vote goes out to Office, but Pages and Numbers aren't bad [though they aren't as feature packed as excel]

TRIAL LINKS:
iWork
Office 2011

they are both 30-day trails so you can download them at the same time, and then purchase either one and uninstall the other, or whatever...

Yes, uninstalling office 2011 is really easy. It only takes 11 steps, hunting for files.... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2398768

I would go for Office, because if you're used to your files and stuff, pages is gonna mess it up. It's gonna work totally different. I use both, and to be honest and find them both confusing, but I like word slightly better.

I use indesign for making documents.

 

[raptorstv]

Can I download MS Office for Mac via torrent?

 

[svensven]

I'd vote for iWork. It's faster and easier to use.

 

[jojoba]

I have both. I use MS Office for when I need to edit docs that have been created in MS Office, or when I need to collaborate with colleagues on docs or presentations. For everything else, I use Pages and Keynote.