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People who ONLY use Pages etc and are happy

A

agent mac

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 9, 2007
96
145
Dear All,
I've always used the Office suite by default. Because it's just so ubiquitous. But with two new macs about to arrive (one home, one my wife's new business) it's a hell of a cost to buy Office 2016 (and I have no idea where the old Office 2011 disc is….!!) for two machines, and I just resent the business model of software companies 'renting' their programs to you. It's literally based on maximizing their revenue. In my eyes!
So if we just start using Pages and Keynote 100% full time, are we going to see little issues…formatting glitches when I work at home and send a doc to my school that uses Word? Or is it truly seamless nowadays which means why would anyone pay for MS when Apple give you it all for free?
Anybody with experience making this change?
Cheers,
Josh
 
I made the move exclusively to iWork just before my Senior year of my undergraduate degree. I have not run into any problems, except that the heinous font Calibri is not installed on my Mac (thank heaven). None of my professors had any issues opening my PDFs or Word documents (some required .doc others allowed .docx). My mother in law did have issues opening a document that had multiple tables and spacing adjustments using Office 2003 for Mac, but I never heard anything else. Hope that helps, and welcome to the light!

agent mac said:
Dear All,
I've always used the Office suite by default. Because it's just so ubiquitous. But with two new macs about to arrive (one home, one my wife's new business) it's a hell of a cost to buy Office 2016 (and I have no idea where the old Office 2011 disc is….!!) for two machines, and I just resent the business model of software companies 'renting' their programs to you. It's literally based on maximizing their revenue. In my eyes!
So if we just start using Pages and Keynote 100% full time, are we going to see little issues…formatting glitches when I work at home and send a doc to my school that uses Word? Or is it truly seamless nowadays which means why would anyone pay for MS when Apple give you it all for free?
Anybody with experience making this change?
Cheers,
Josh
Click to expand...
 
Since pages more comfortable for daily using i gave up win office. IMHO win office doesn't deserve that much money. just convert your pages document to pdf and send it. I rarely use open office for extreme situations.
 
If you keep your documents relatively simple, you'll be OK. The more complex the formatting of the document, the less likely an "Export to..." (MS Office) is going to work. And that goes both ways. For example, if someone sends you a Word file to review, edit and send back, there's (formatting) translation risk on the import and export. You import, fix a few visual bugs from the import, export, and it may or may not open and look exactly the same on MS Office.

Since I interact with both worlds (OS X and Windows) a lot, I found that I couldn't depend on iWork enough to know with certainty that my Exported (for MS Office) files would go to clients looking as I intended. Too often they did not. So, I eventually decided to allocate a partition for Boot Camp, installed Parallels and the Windows version of Office, set the mode so that those Windows files open with OS X windows on the same screen (as if they are native OS X programs) and I just use Word, Power Point, etc when I need certainty of compatibility. That guarantees how deliverables will look to recipients using Windows machines to view them.

If you need to deliver PDF files, no problem there. The above is mostly about working with Office files that come from or need to be viewed on Windows machines. iWork is great and all (I use it a lot) but it will let you down if you have to go back & forth with Windows users expecting MS Office docs (with more than relatively modest formatting).

Suggestion: Take your most visually complicated files made in both worlds and import/export them through iWork and then compare them through the lens of a Windows PC user. If you:
  • don't see any differences, iWork will likely work for you.
  • don't care about minor differences, probably the same.
  • do care about the differences, "think different," including potentially doing what I did to gain certainty.
Hope this helps!
 
agent mac said:
Anybody with experience making this change?
Click to expand...
I only use Pages, Keynote and Numbers and work in and with mostly Windows clients. Any documents that go to clients, go as PDFs to ensure they look the way I intended. I cannot think of a single instance where a PDF will not fit the bill for a client. Anyone?

PS. I'm sure someone will throw out complex numbers spreadsheets as not being easily exported, but complex sheets stay with me the client just gets the breakdown. If the client needs something editable, I create a webform and send them a link. The webform creates the calculations instantly using a bit of javascript and ajax for submitting.
 
960design said:
I only use Pages, Keynote and Numbers and work in and with mostly Windows clients. Any documents that go to clients, go as PDFs to ensure they look the way I intended. I cannot think of a single instance where a PDF will not fit the bill for a client. Anyone?
Click to expand...

Th only real issue I've had with pdfs are occasionally a stage font won't render properly or a character is not recognized and I get the open square character instead, or a question mark.

In addition, it's not easy to create a fillable form and then export the data to a spreadsheet. Form example, I use a webforms to collect email addresses which are ten uploaded to a tool via a .csv file. While most clients can reach the form some are unable do to access restrictions on work computers, so they get a fillable pdf from which I then export there data to a .csv file for upload.

I would say for 99.9% of the time iWorks is fine, but that .1% can be a real headache.
 
I prefer to produce documents in Pages, even though I get Office 365 for free through my employer. I tend to open documents in Word, but anything I produce starts in Pages. I'll export to Word if I have to share with someone. So far, after doing this for two years, I have had no issues with anyone I work with (99% Windows machines).
 
Good advice so far.

I'm growing to like the new version of iWork... particularly because of the seamless interoperability between iOS and OSX versions. (Still prefer iWork '09) But if you will be primarily working with MS Office docs then I recommend installing LibreOffice as well. I have found LibreOffice to do a better job with preserving formatting of MS Office documents than iWork. LibreOffice is free.

Unfortunately, the icon sets in LibreOffice look pretty weak. I ended up installing an alternative MS Office 2013 icon set for it. Helps it look cleaner and more polished. But that's a personal preference.
 
I retired, and no longer have to deal with Microsoft-generated documents. It was just easier to deal with them in Word/Excel than translate back and from to Pages/Numbers.

Now, though I still have Office 2011, I use Pages and Numbers exclusively. They do everything I need with a minimum of fuss, which is why I use Apple to begin with.
 
Every since Apple decided to make Pages, Numbers, and Keynote free for new Mac purchasers, I have dumped Office completely. I don't really think Office has that much of an advantage over Apple's suite anymore, and Apple's products are now free! I like being 100% Microsoft free - if only I could get rid of it at work...
 
I'm starting to play with Pages and Numbers finally, after having them sit on the hard drive for over a year. Not too bad, taking some time to get used to considering I use Office at work and have a license for my Mac through work.
 
Used it for many years since getting away from Claris Works, as others have said I send all my docs out in PDF form so they can be viewed as I intended. Best regards...Ed
 
I still use both. Collaborating and VBA are the two things that drive me to use MS Office. Otherwise, i use iWork. And, for what it's worth, Office 2016 for Mac is pretty nice.
 
I have "Pages etc." on all of my iDevices w/o any special reason as I don't use the apps in this package. Not my cup of tea. Tried, wanted to like, but failed. I am not a fan of MS Office either, but there is nothing better (for me). (Still nostalgic about the times when I used ChiWriter or WordPerfect 5.1).
 
How would Keynote work when you receive a PowerPoint presentation for editing that PPS? Will that PPS file be easily read and/or converted to Keynote? Can a native Keynote presentation be easily converted back to pps or ppt?
 
riviera74 said:
How would Keynote work when you receive a PowerPoint presentation for editing that PPS? Will that PPS file be easily read and/or converted to Keynote? Can a native Keynote presentation be easily converted back to pps or ppt?
Click to expand...
In my experiences, not very well. Presentation editing/converting is the weakest of all 3 document types when going between MS Office and Pages/Numbers/Keynote.
 
riviera74 said:
How would Keynote work when you receive a PowerPoint presentation for editing that PPS? Will that PPS file be easily read and/or converted to Keynote? Can a native Keynote presentation be easily converted back to pps or ppt?
Click to expand...

Pretty poorly. Presentations contain a lot of special formatting, fonts, graphics, etc.; all rapid up in a file type that needs to be decoded and then converted. In some cases, one app has a feature the other doesn't directly map and so must guess or simply not convert it. My general rule is create and edit in the software you will use and don't try to convert.
 
It is hard to believe after all these years that Office started on the Mac...

Apple does not seem to be interested in developing macs anymore, just keeping the status quo and use the Mac as a support product. They have the resource to make macs now the mainstream....but decide not to do this, but instead focus on toys....NEXT... The "spy ring" coming out next quarter.

Maybe a deal behind close doors with Microsoft kept the iWork's from expanding....remember...years ago....Microsoft bailed out Apple when they were on life support...remember Gates' big brother scene at a keynote presentation?.... :0

All Apple has to do is create a iWork's team that can create a competitive comparison to Office and business' may buy macs and make it mainstream. Business are tired of the ridiculous Microsoft contracts and would look for other options.

Most common users just do two main things: Surf the Internet and Word basically. Apple is half way there: Safari does the job (though I use Firefox) and Pages will do the basics. Keynote is great, but PowerPoint has a little more main options and is used more because of the intergration with the other Office products (convenience).

Apple mail..... Eh......what a disappointment. Is there just one "old guy" left working as the mail team just so they can work???? Outlook is the king unfortunately. Apple's fault.

Numbers is ok....but Excel is the diety of business. Again, Apples fault, not the superiority of the product.

If and I mean "if" Apple would focus on business', their mac business would increase. The IBM thing...come on...good PR photo shoot for diversity agenda.

They had an opportunity to take the business field when Microsoft took a hit with Windows 8. Many people JUST buy a pc because they use it at work and do not want to learn something new when coming home after a long day at work. Also, it is cheaper, but does not last long.

I personally love the simplicity of the iWork's style and maybe Apple just prefers that market niche which is ok. But if they want to increase mac sales, which it does not look like they really care, they need to gain market share in business and pro apps.

Pro apps...let's not get me started.... ;)

Sorry, work long hours finishing up a "business" project and I am sitting down using my "toy" iPad. To surf and write on this blog. :). Not much more I can do with the iPad except play "toy" games... :)
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sracer said:
Good advice so far.

I'm growing to like the new version of iWork... particularly because of the seamless interoperability between iOS and OSX versions. (Still prefer iWork '09) But if you will be primarily working with MS Office docs then I recommend installing LibreOffice as well. I have found LibreOffice to do a better job with preserving formatting of MS Office documents than iWork. LibreOffice is free.

Unfortunately, the icon sets in LibreOffice look pretty weak. I ended up installing an alternative MS Office 2013 icon set for it. Helps it look cleaner and more polished. But that's a personal preference.
Click to expand...

Sracer, how did you do that? Would love to change out the icons.

Sracer: "Unfortunately, the icon sets in LibreOffice look pretty weak. I ended up installing an alternative MS Office 2013 icon set for it. Helps it look cleaner and more polished. But that's a personal preference."
 
loby said:
Sracer, how did you do that? Would love to change out the icons.
Click to expand...

heres the link : MS Office 2011 or 2016?
sracer said:
Yep, I'm a big fan of LibreOffice.

I've attached an MS_Office_2013 icon set (I didn't create it) for use with LibreOffice. I find that it helps with the look and feel...
How to install the icon set... Make sure that you have run LibreOffice at least once and that you have completely closed it performing these steps.
  1. In Finder: Open the "Applications" Folder
  2. Locate the LibreOffice icon
  3. Right-click on the LibreOffice icon and select "Show Package Contents"
  4. (a window opens) Open the "Contents" folder
  5. (Contents window opens) Open the "Resources" folder
  6. (Resources window opens) Open the "Config" folder
  7. (Config window opens) Drag and drop the images_MSOffice_2013.zip file there.
  8. Close the window.
  9. Open LibreOffice
  10. (from the menu) Click on LibreOffice -> Preferences
  11. (preferences window opens) Click on "view" in the left side navigation panel
  12. (under "icon size and style:") click on the pull-down and select "Office2013"
  13. Click on OK.
Click to expand...
 
I stopped Office as soon as I got iWork on OSX but formthe record, I think th subscription is good for five users.
 
University student here, been using Pages for all my essays and what not for the past 3 years. Never been an issue! Find it so refreshing that you can focus on writing and not all the 120039 buttons that take up an insane amount of space.
 
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