Office 2008 vs. iWorks and financial software

[coriforia]

I just bought a macbook pro online and am waiting for it to arrive any day now! This is my first mac so I'm not too familiar with the software. Should I get office 2008 or iWorks? Currently I only need the software for occasional home use (I'm not a student) but I am thinking of starting my own home business so I do want to take that into consideration. I heard though in the iWorks version of excel you can't delete individual cells, only rows or columns - is that true? Also, if I need to send someone a word file, will I be able to do that with iWorks?

Also, I currently use Microsoft Money and so I won't be able to use that anymore. I hear Quicken sucks for mac. I've been doing some research and have heard of both iBank and Moneydance. Anyone have experience with either of these? I don't need anything super complicated, just pretty much helping keep track of checking accounts, credit cards etc (no stocks or anything like that).

Thank you for your help!!

 

[IJ Reilly]

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[pixiedusted]

I'm a former (longptime) Microsoft Money user and a recent Mac convert .

I'm using iBank3. Like you, my finances aren't that complicated, and I'm finding that it pretty much suits my needs. I didn't try to export my Money files.

Most of the software that I looked at before settling with iBank seemed to have issues with importing files.

 

[ckeck]

If you are planning to start a business soon, you will likely want to shoot for the best compatibility possible, so I would say to go with Office 2008 for now. Might just want to buy a copy of iWork in addition anyways as its fairly inexpensive (can also check eBay). The main reason why I would say Office 2008 is because Numbers is currently no match for Excel '08. The next version of numbers I'm sure will be much better and more powerful, but this is a ways out.

In regards to financial software, I have spent years trying to find the best solution and I have tried just about ALL of them including those mentioned above.

For extremely simple input and management, I would recommend Checkbook (http://splasm.com/checkbook/index.html)

If you want to take it up a notch and have better budgeting, forecasting, etc, I would look into Moneywell (http://nothirst.com/moneywell).

I currently use Checkbook but I'm thinking about switching to Moneywell soon. Both are great apps though.

 

[Siron]

If you are going to start a business you will most certainly want to get QuickBooks. I use it for mine and it's so easy to use. At the end of the tax year export a copy to your accountant so they can do your taxes. QB only runs in Windows. I also use Money and don't want to move to Quicken so I use Parallels to run XP and these two programs. I am going to try Crossover by Codeweavers to see if I can run Money or QB. I haven't used this program but apparently it doesn't require you to have a copy of Windows installed and is much quicker than Parallels that has to start XP in a virtual window. Their website says that Money 2005 runs okay but says that Money 2007 and QB are "untested". Well I intend to test them.
Alan

 

[ckeck]

If you are going to start a business you will most certainly want to get QuickBooks. I use it for mine and it's so easy to use. At the end of the tax year export a copy to your accountant so they can do your taxes. QB only runs in Windows. I also use Money and don't want to move to Quicken so I use Parallels to run XP and these two programs. I am going to try Crossover by Codeweavers to see if I can run Money or QB. I haven't used this program but apparently it doesn't require you to have a copy of Windows installed and is much quicker than Parallels that has to start XP in a virtual window. Their website says that Money 2005 runs okay but says that Money 2007 and QB are "untested". Well I intend to test them.
Alan

Why go through all that trouble when you could just use MoneyWorks (www.cognito.co.nz)?

 

[Tazy]

If you're considering business presentations, definitely lean towards iWorks.
IMHO, the presentation software in iWorks is a huge step ahead of PowerPoint. The slides look markedly differently from the bland powerpoint templates.

I do agree that Numbers is not as advanced as Excel. But you could keep tools such as OpenOffice (aqua edition) for such uses -- it is free!

I'm going through the same decision process and have concluded that the word processor in iWorks is quite compatible with M$Word. This is not the case with OpenOffice. However, this might be a limitation of OpenOffice Aqua edition (it is still a developer release).

So here is the final toolset decision from my point of view:
- Word processing: iWork should do the trick
- Presentation: iWork WILL do the trick
- Spreadsheet: consider OpenOffice if you're budget constrained.