Pages vs. Word

[skaertus]

I can get iWork for $71 through the education store on apple.com. I may just go ahead and get it. I can also download Office for Mac from my school for free. If I don't like it or it's too slow, I can always remove it. I have heard lots of good stuff about Keynote.

I don't actually plan on installing Windows on my Mac. If I absolutely need to do something on a Windows computer, I can use my desktop at home. I will eventually replace it, but it's just a year old and is still running pretty good.

As far as documents for school goes, I have had professors who are all over the place on the issue. Some will accept pretty much anything, but those are the ones who are computer savy and know how to open different formats. Right now, I am taking two classes and one will only accept assignments in .doc format, period. If it's not submitted in .doc, you get a 0 on the assignment. Pretty harsh if you ask me! The other said that we can use .doc or RTF. He specifically said no .dotx because he can't open them. Gotta love flexibility! LOL!

Microsoft Office has more features than iWork. Office 2008 is bloated and a huge memory hog, a bad program indeed. And it has some compatibility issues with Office for Windows.

However, if you want the real thing, you've gotta go with Office 2008. Pages does not even support cross-references, which is a basic feature of serious word processing. Excel excels Numbers in almost every way. Keynote is indeed superior to PowerPoint. But then you won't be able to reproduce your presentation in a Windows machine. As I often have to open my presentations in someone's else machine (always a Windows computer), I have to stick with PowerPoint.

 

[lamadude]

As others have said here, word is a much more complete text editor than pages. Right now I am typing my MA thesis in word 2008, I often need to switch languages and I need to manage a fairly large bibliography. The languages would be a nightmare in pages, and the bibliography would only work with an extra program like Endnote (word has basic bibliography functions built in)
I even prefer openoffice writer over pages.
Of course everybody has his own specific needs for an office suite so I can understand that for some people iWork provides enough functionality.

 

[boston04and07]

I have both on my Mac and prefer iWork soooo much over Office. I have the most recent copies of both, and Pages is a lot faster than Word and just integrates better with the OS. Also, Word does not work well with Spaces, which is a huge issue for me, and Pages has the awesome full-screen mode that Office lacks. Only issue with Pages is that it lacks autosave, but I have the habit of hitting command-S every five minutes so that's not so bad. In the end, I'd say iWork is a better deal over Office, since it offers similar (in some cases, better) functionality and isn't as expensive.

 

[DoNoHarm]

I think I'll chime in as I've extensively tried all three (msoffice, iwork, and open office) for over a month each in a college environment. Before i go into specifics, i'll also say that anyone thinking of getting one vs. the other should do the trial for iwork, then do the openoffice installation, and if both are unsatisfactory, go with msoffice. I think the reality is that all three programs are usable. it really boils down to personal preference. Open Office is a little slower, but as I watched the little ball spinning I kept on thinking how much money I was saving with a free program.

the thing I really liked in msoffice was the note taking mode of ms word that lets you take a voice recording while you type out the lecture. That's a huge feature for students.

in the end, however, I think my recommendation goes to iwork. everything looks better and it runs really fast. Specifically, the comment feature is great if you import notes into pages. Also the templates are awesome. And the price, while you have to pay, is not terribly high.

 

[Signal-11]

Microsoft Office has more features than iWork. Office 2008 is bloated and a huge memory hog, a bad program indeed. And it has some compatibility issues with Office for Windows.

However, if you want the real thing, you've gotta go with Office 2008. Pages does not even support cross-references, which is a basic feature of serious word processing. Excel excels Numbers in almost every way. Keynote is indeed superior to PowerPoint. But then you won't be able to reproduce your presentation in a Windows machine. As I often have to open my presentations in someone's else machine (always a Windows computer), I have to stick with PowerPoint.

I have to agree with this. iWork just will not cut it for heavily shared files in a cross-platform and cross-organizational environment. Particularly Numbers. I'm stuck on 2004 because I still need VB scripts.

For home user, iWorks is perfectly acceptable but for heavy lifting and compatibility, you have to go with MS Office.