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Office or iWorks?
- Thread starter MauerFan
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I have both and have used Office for Windows forever. I recommend going with Office for Mac as well. Far more features, better compatibility and you're already used to how it works.
I use MS Office for Mac daily and can tell you it runs perfectly fine. I routinely share files with Windows users and have no problems at all. 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.
Depends on what you want to do with the documents.
For sharing around (including submitting editable docs to faculty) Office is probably better.
If your documents are for yourself or going straight to print or PDFs then iWorks may be better. If your faculty will accept PDFs... then you may not need Office. If you collaborate a lot, then you probably do. If you need fancy schmancy footnotes then you need to do some more research.
Office has more features... but if you aren't using those features they can get in the way. iWorks has most features that most people need, and it's better at making your documents look good.
For more details, you should read one of the other 900+ threads that already exist.....
For sharing around (including submitting editable docs to faculty) Office is probably better.
If your documents are for yourself or going straight to print or PDFs then iWorks may be better. If your faculty will accept PDFs... then you may not need Office. If you collaborate a lot, then you probably do. If you need fancy schmancy footnotes then you need to do some more research.
Office has more features... but if you aren't using those features they can get in the way. iWorks has most features that most people need, and it's better at making your documents look good.
For more details, you should read one of the other 900+ threads that already exist.....
Try NEO Office or one of the other variants. It's free and will handle most school needs. I know a number of students who used it for. Four or more years of school no problem.
If we have iWork on a Mac, and a Windows user has Office, can we seamlessly share files back and forth? (like .doc, .xls, etc) Or not so much?
Ask your school if they have any discounts on office for Mac. My college allowed purchase for $80 (some may offer it for free) and the local public school district allows download for $10 through the home use program for parents to purchase on behalf of students. Dept of the navy civilians and active duty can also use the home use program at that price for personal use through NMCI.
which for school
I recommend Office for MAC. Unfortunately, most schools are still running windows computers. It is nice to be able to take a Microsoft office document that you created on your Apple computer using Office for Mac and email it or put it on a thumb drive and be able to open it on a school computer when you have to print a file at school. Also, with presentations, PowerPoint is still more universally utilized than Keynote.
Many schools have licensing where you can get Office for Mac at a discounted rate.
I recommend Office for MAC. Unfortunately, most schools are still running windows computers. It is nice to be able to take a Microsoft office document that you created on your Apple computer using Office for Mac and email it or put it on a thumb drive and be able to open it on a school computer when you have to print a file at school. Also, with presentations, PowerPoint is still more universally utilized than Keynote.
Many schools have licensing where you can get Office for Mac at a discounted rate.
same recommendation from me, office for mac has more features, and better compatibility with Microsoft Office on Windows. Also look out for student discounts, I used this website to buy office for myself (http://www.software4students.co.uk/products/microsoft-office-for-mac-2011) and they are Microsoft approved retailers.
Overall, I think MS Office a superior product. It has more features, is the industry standard and Microsoft seems to update Office more then apple does with iWork (On OSX).
I found numbers to be very lacking in what it has to offer in functions and compatibility with excel. While the UI is quite well done, the stuff behind the UI is lacking.
I found numbers to be very lacking in what it has to offer in functions and compatibility with excel. While the UI is quite well done, the stuff behind the UI is lacking.
Agree with the others, you might be better off with Microsoft Office for mac. I work in a windows environment and frequently have to collaborate with people on Word docs and Power Point presentations, as do my students because they do a lot of project work. I think the iWorks office is very nice, but with MO for mac you don't need to worry about compatibility issues when you're working with others on a product.
Funnily enough, I use iWork for all of my "work" and NeoOffice - the Office clone - for my "play".
It all depends on a person's particular needs. I wouldn't recommend iWork for everyone... but for a large set of people, iWork is better than Office.
Sweeping Statements.... sigh.....