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gr81mgbgt

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 18, 2008
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Its on sale at Office Max for $99.99, is this a good deal?
Is there a better price elsewhere?
 
Thats not a bad price... iWork is cheaper though, has fewer issues, and honestly has the same or more features, IMO.
I would never give Microsoft money for Office '08. Thats just me though.
 
Its on sale at Office Max for $99.99, is this a good deal?
Is there a better price elsewhere?

Which edition? actually, $99.99 is an awesome deal for any editions!
Some say Office 2008 sucks, but for me, my work suite combo is Word, Excel and Keynote. :)
Specially since I've used Window's office for my entire life until I had a chance to experience the Office 2008 on mac. Haha.
 
I say that unless you absolutely need "compatibility," which even with office for mac is lacking in some respects, I would go with iWork. It plays much nicer with OSX and doesn't have stupid bugs like spaces incompatibility. I have stopped using word myself as it keeps trying to be in the forefront and switches spaces for no apparent reason. Plus iWork is a bit cheaper.
 
iWork's compatibility is horrendous, though.

Tables made from .pages file can't even show properly on .docx, .rtf nor .doc...

iWork is actually pretty sad except for Keynote, which is far superior than Power Point by all means.

However, Excel 2008 and Word 2008 is a little better than iWork in my opinion..
I own both and there's a reason why I chose Excel/Word over Numbers/Pages... Specially Numbers.... ew.
And that's me after using iWork '09 since the week of release too...

Anyways, if you're used to shortcuts or the behaviors of any Office before.. You'll need some time to get used to iWork's way of doing things...

Just make sure you run all the updates as soon as you get the Office suite... runs much snappier and smoother for me. :)

For 99.99, I'd say Office is a better deal.
 
You are probably going to find a lot of bias against Office 2008 around here because it is a Microsoft product, however with that said I still feel it is the best choice for features and compatibility. I would agree that Keynote does have some advantages over PowerPoint, however I still use PowerPoint for all of my presentations and it works well.

We only have Windows PC's at the school where I teach so it is nice to know that everything I do at home or on my PC at school is going to be 100% compatible. iWork is compatible, however in my limited use not everything always comes out the way you expect it to when you try to move it over to Office.

For $99.99 you really can't go wrong with Office for Mac. It's not completely without fault, but it is a solid product and just works no matter what platform you are on.
 
Thats not a bad price... iWork is cheaper though, has fewer issues, and honestly has the same or more features, IMO.
I would never give Microsoft money for Office '08. Thats just me though.

iWork is missing many Features office has, not even close.

OP: I'd get it if I were you that sounds like a pretty good deal for any version really. While it does have issues, iWork never quite gets compatibility right.
 
i'd advise you to steer clear. It's only my experience, but MS Office for Mac 2008 was a nightmare! It crashed three times and didn't offer the functionality that iWork 09 does. If you're just using Office for the sake of habitude then I'd suggest you switch to iWork; it's Apple software and therefore native to Macs and relatively bug free and it offers almost the same features as MS Office (forgive me if I'm wrong on this, I refer only to my experience of using Pages and Keynote.)

Hacksaw
 
Office:Mac 2008 isn't half bad. Actually, it's quite good. Definitely better than it's Windows cousin. It plays well with OS X, too. I think you should get it if you want it. It's a perfectly fine office suite.
 
i'd advise you to steer clear. It's only my experience, but MS Office for Mac 2008 was a nightmare! It crashed three times and didn't offer the functionality that iWork 09 does. If you're just using Office for the sake of habitude then I'd suggest you switch to iWork; it's Apple software and therefore native to Macs and relatively bug free and it offers almost the same features as MS Office (forgive me if I'm wrong on this, I refer only to my experience of using Pages and Keynote.)

Hacksaw


iWork can't even come close to MS Office when it comes to features.
And I don't know when was the last time you've used the MS Office, but after the new updates, it hasn't crashed on me ever.


iWork is missing many Features office has, not even close.

OP: I'd get it if I were you that sounds like a pretty good deal for any version really. While it does have issues, iWork never quite gets compatibility right.
 
I'd love to try to use the updated version of MS Office, I was an Office user before I switched to Mac, but every time I tried to update it to Office SP1 it hung on me and I couldn't upgrade so I had to take it back to the shop :S
 
Office:Mac 2008 isn't half bad. Actually, it's quite good. Definitely better than it's Windows cousin. It plays well with OS X, too. I think you should get it if you want it. It's a perfectly fine office suite.

Are talking about Office 2007? If you you are then your wrong the PC version is way better!
 
I purchased iWork 09 just to mess around with it, but for excel I think office 2008 is much better and more feature packed, also easier to use. I think Apple goes overboard trying to make iWork easy to use for beginners and it kind of kills alot of the functionality that expert excel users need. anyways my only gripe with Office 2008 is the lack of vba support, I wish they would at least allow you to run macros even if you cant create or edit them. I usually create macros at work but would like to be able to run them on my Mac at home.

As for word or pages i didnt get a chance to play with it too much but they seem very similar, not sure how good the compatibility is. Keynote looked to be better than powerpoint and much flashier, but if you are a spreadsheet person and dont mess with vba macros then i reccomend office 2008.
 
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