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How is Word for Mac these days? Is it still bloatware? I haven't tried it in years.

Yes, very much so.

I tend to try and stay away from "pros and power users are upset" threads given the tedium, but I think it's an interesting observation that I've heard for so long how "no one uses iWork, real men [or women] use MS Office, it's the gold standard" and now all of a sudden, it turns out that people do, in fact, use it and it even has power users. Go figure.
 
"They are used for professional purposes by professionals. Therefore, they are pro products."

While I understand and sympathize with this point of view, this comment is not really helpful to the debate. In every profession there are tools that are considered professional level and consumer level. This is true for photographers, auto mechanics, accountants, doctors, etc. This does not mean that a particular person cannot do pro level work with a consumer level product. But there are certain features or build quality in pro set tools that only professionals need that help them work more efficiently in a wider variety of circumstances than the average consumer will usually encounter.

In this case a writer can use a simple text editor to make his or her living, which therefore makes said text editor a professional tool for that person. However it does not mean that said text editor would have all the features needed that a wide variety of professional writers would need to accomplish a wide variety of professional tasks, and therefore it cannot be classified a "pro" tool.
 
I haven't had a problem.

Keynote still smashes powerpoint out of the water, Numbers has all the functionality you could need and Pages personally I have found no features missing, I use the suit daily too as I'm studying a degree.
 
Why would they buy MS Office? Why do they not simply continue using there old pages? It works exactly like before, so what ist lost here?

I used pages now for a few hours on my iPad and must say, it is brilliant. I have on my Win7 Computer Office 10 to compare but could do everything I wanted now on the iPad. Faster, more beautiful und much much easier.

No templates? I got dozens, why do people say there are no more templates? I can print the documents out and send them as pdf, perfect.

Best 9 Euros I spend.

Fair enough. But do you know how long Pages 09 will be supported? Remember, it's 32 Bit only…

And how should people use Pages 09 if documents from others, saved in Pages 2013 don't open and vice versa? Most people need a solution that works reliable now and in the future, and there your are with MS Office, which still opens my Word 6.0 documents without any major problems.

Please be aware I'm not talking about writing birthday letters or shopping lists. It's about using iWork within your business. The iPad is for sure a fantastic device to have fun, or maybe work with applications that work better for touch screens, but writing invoices, papers, contracts, exercises, books and so on is just not that comfortable on an iPad.

If iWork will be such a toy software in future, I will be forced to switch back to MS Office (which I really don't like at all, but it's the lesser of the two evils).
 
Reducing the complaints to "Some Power Users" is just ridiculous. People across all skill levels are complaining, and this, because so many important features have been removed.

Remember, the suite is called i_Work_ which clearly implies that it's a software to _work_ with, and not just to write predefined fun cards for birthday parties.

What happened for example with Pages? There's an app called TextEdit, which was perfect for those "Non-Power-Users" that just wanted to type some basic texts. Now Pages is more on par with this, instead getting more on par with Word.

Removing mail merge, address fields, images in header/footer and tables, word-by-word languages, the format bar, guidelines, vertical ruler, backwards compatibility and many more from Pages is a disaster not only for "power users", but for all of those who used Pages to create documents at work.

I'm speaking about teachers, architects, students, lawyers, freelancer, engineers, artisans, and so on. I know quiet a few of them that bought a mac just because of iWork as a great and enjoyable alternative to Microsoft Office. Most of them won't complain in forums as they are not "Power-Users" knowing where to complain, or have no time to do it. They just give up and buy MS Office.

The header of this article should thus be renamed in "Average Users can't use iWork anymore for their daily tasks".

yes
 
I read through about half this comment thread, and one major thing came to mind:

Why does Apple care so much about making iOS iWork feature parity with the Mac version? It looks like no one makes Keynote or Pages documents on an iOS device. Really not even a single commenter has mentioned how much they use their iOS device for document creation. A few people do minor tweaks, but you don't really need 'full feature parity' to do proofreading.

Also for that guy who keeps saying he's a "power user" and doesn't notice any features missing, you must not be particularly observant or haven't used either Pages or Keynote very much since the updates.

Oh well, I dropped Pages a long time ago due to lack of support for collaborative documents (good luck writing a serious scientific paper in anything other than Word). It's too bad Open Office is so abysmal, but maybe Impress will eventually be decent.
 
Rtf

The inability to export to RTF is kinda big. I wouldn't consider it a power user feature, it is a nice option when working with cross platform applications.

I agree...this might be an app killer for me. I work as a professor and when I want to have students submit work to me that I can "edit" I always ask for RTF so I can always open it.

RTF opens on an iPhone right? Why not keep it?
 
Apple "dumbed down" GarageBand as well.

There is no way to use 3rd party amp sims anymore. And there is no way to use Ezdrummer anymore either. No way to add any Apple or other 3rd party effects to any of the channel strips. It's a MESS. Horrible.
The quality team should be ashamed of themselves.
 
For the most part I think Pages is the one that took the biggest hit. Numbers is actually better than the previous version - holds more cells, is much faster on large spreadsheets and now has filters. If they put pivot tables in Numbers it would be quick good and competitive with Excel.

Based on what I have read on both sides of the issue - I would say the normalization across the OS X and iOS versions was the result of cleaning out the code and makes it easier to add features across all versions.

I mentioned in another thread that this is what Google did when it refactored its code. It was very feature hobbled before its transition to HTML5. Once they completed that re-write - there was an avalanche of new features. Case in point -Google's spreadsheet (web version) software has pivot tables and multi-level filters. Being on a browser or in a mobile OS does not mean a product has to be hobbled in features.

I think where Apple messes up here is on how it communicates its strategy.

----------

It's a bit more nuanced. The reason why we haven't seen an update of iWorks for so long must surely be the rewrite. In addition a complete rewrite can only be an indication that they see the new versions as a base platform to build on for the coming years.

I don't defend the absence of missing features at all, but it is clear that we are following a similar path as FCP and that gives me the confidence that we will see a reintroduction of missing features over the coming time. And this time with shorter intervals.

This
 
How is Word for Mac these days? Is it still bloatware? I haven't tried it in years.


It's actually not as bad as before.. Maybe it's just a placebo effect but with the recent patches, i find it running (and opening) much smoother
 
Apple "dumbed down" GarageBand as well.

There is no way to use 3rd party amp sims anymore. And there is no way to use Ezdrummer anymore either. No way to add any Apple or other 3rd party effects to any of the channel strips. It's a MESS. Horrible.
The quality team should be ashamed of themselves.

Well, there's Logic you know.
 
Pages problems? Not here - I kept a copy of 4.3 tucked away, just in case.
I do hate the new version.
 
I think where Apple messes up here is on how it communicates its strategy.

This.

If it is true that they are planning on adding a bunch of the features they removed back, and doing it soon, what would have been the harm in saying that? Seems to me they should have learned their lesson from FCP. Why would they want to go through that again?

This is one reason I'm skeptical that this is what they're actually planning with iWork (though I hope I'm wrong).

For me, Pages is unusable for one simple reason: it's not possible to save styles with list formatting. I'm an author and I use Pages to write my manuscripts, and I cannot do that without functioning styles.
 
Those criticizing Apple are missing a very basic point here. As clearly said during the keynote, the MAIN goal of these new versions was to attain full compatibility with their iOS counterparts.

What does this mean for the road ahead? It means that the iWork suite has been re-developed from the scratch feature-wise, so that every single thing that is the added in the future WILL be added to both iOS and OS X versions.

Now is this a good approach? In my personal view, no - for the same reason that a desktop should remain a desktop and a tablet/phone a tablet/phone.

But Apple's strategy is more than clear at this point in time; they have started from the scratch again so that Federighi and his team can see what needs to be done on BOTH platforms at the same time...no wonder both platform development teams work together now.

In conclusion, things such as "Export to RTF" will only be re-integrated if they make sense on BOTH platforms...are you happy with that? That's the way it's gonna be from now on.
 
That's not the point. Those features/capabilities were present in all former versions. This version is a disaster.

Of course it is, unless you view everything in absolute terms. Garageband was always a consumer grade program, which should enable users to compose music in a fun and easy way.
 
Some people mentioned GarageBand before, but it must be stressed again: GarageBand has gone the same path of the iWork suite. The latest version is quite the downgrade from them previous version.
 
Keynote still smashes powerpoint out of the water, Numbers has all the functionality you could need and Pages personally I have found no features missing, I use the suit daily too as I'm studying a degree.

Worst comment ever.

What about pivot tables and linked objects, like tables and charts to Keynote and Pages from a source Numbers document? Or do you enjoy manually updating data in your presentations and business plan documents multiple times every week and month and quarter basically redoing work and wasting hours of time that could have been accomplished with the click of a button in Office...

Just one simple use case that shatters your woefully uninformed comment. I want nothing more than to use iWork for work...it is beautiful and easy...and also unfortunately completely useless as a professional tool in its current form...
 
No more

This is all very troubling. Another instance of dumbing down. I use Pages, and Numbers for my business and was rather looking forward to some new features. A solid foundation was built on IWorks, and the last few iterations have built on that. Now from what I see, there are lots of features that I use that have gone. I don't like the direction that Apple is taking now, they screwed up my IPhone 4 with IOS7, can't downgrade, screwed up FCP, and now the software I use for my quotations, invoices, order tracking etc.

It is interesting that Apple lost its main driving force and visionary, whilst Microsoft recently lost the "Dead weight" idiot that was holding it back. Where do they both go from here?

If Mavericks has the same sort of surprises in store that IWorks has, and Mountain Lion did, like hiding system files (Library), then I may well give it a miss, regardless of the fact that it is free (Only free cheese is in mouse trap).

I moved to OSX in 2006, because of the ease of use and productivity increases I was able to achieve. It may well be time to re-consider either a move back to MS (My software costs are tax deductible) or venture into Linux and open office that I already use, on occasion.

I'm sure that for lots of home users that don't use any of the now missing features they will do just fine. But here is the contradiction in Apple's strategy. They have increased their share of the office industry use. I've seen Mac's in companies now that never had them in the past. Why when you are increasing your market penetration do you ham string a product?

Just does not make sense.....
 
Some people mentioned GarageBand before, but it must be stressed again: GarageBand has gone the same path of the iWork suite. The latest version is quite the downgrade from them previous version.

Maybe, but if you want more, you can have Logic.

There's no pro alternative to iWork 13 apart iWork 09 or Office, and, when support for 32 bits will gone, I wouldn't need a expensive mac to use Office, I could easily go to a cheap PC.
 
Some people mentioned GarageBand before, but it must be stressed again: GarageBand has gone the same path of the iWork suite. The latest version is quite the downgrade from them previous version.

Then use the previous one? Where is the problem? You got something, you are happy with. Garageband, Pages, whatever. Now, they give you a new Version, free, they also leave you the old version.
You do not like the new version. So? Leave it. Check back in 6 month. Things might have changed then. They might not. Show Apple how bad you feel and stick it to them by NOT taking there FREE software and spend a few hundred on the competition. That will show them.
 
Apple could have gone one of two ways with iWork for the Mac: 1) Make it a powerful replacement for Microsoft Office or 2) Sacrifice advanced options (and remove some) to make it fully compatible with the iOS and web based versions.

It's hardly surprising they took the second option. But sometimes a step backwards is necessary. It advances the Apple ecosystem. It may take a while but eventually IMO iWork on all its platforms will approach MS Office for most users. Apple thinks long-term. Sometimes its painful. At least we can still use the iWork '09 apps until the iOS/Web/Mac version achieves parity.
 
The approach Apple should have done is to make their OSX software compatible with iOS 7. Apple alternatively took iOS iWork and turned it into OSX software, which they have doing with all their software including FCPX and Garage Band. This is clearly the wrong move and it is making me frustrated with Apple.

I do not own an iPad because iOS software lacks professional features I use frequently and easily. The iPad keyboard lacks keyboard shortcuts such as the control, option, and command keys. iPad users are stuck with "touch and hold" or "touch and drag" mechanics. If I stick with Apple software, I am forced to use dumbed down iPad mechanics, and software that was built to run on an A1 - A7 processor on my Mac Pro.

I give credit to Windows making their tablets run all the software a PC can with a full keyboard that attaches to it. How great it would be if Apple had that same insight.
 
Apple could have gone one of two ways with iWork for the Mac: 1) Make it a powerful replacement for Microsoft Office or 2) Sacrifice advanced options (and remove some) to make it fully compatible with the iOS and web based versions.

It's hardly surprising they took the second option. But sometimes a step backwards is necessary. It advances the Apple ecosystem. It may take a while but eventually IMO iWork on all its platforms will approach MS Office for most users. Apple thinks long-term. Sometimes its painful. At least we can still use the iWork '09 apps until the iOS/Web/Mac version achieves parity.

Wishful thinking.
 
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