Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Why aren't the Apple office apps more popular?
- Thread starter VitoBotta
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The great thing about giving presentations with Keynote is that it's really easy (assuming you install it on your phone too) to use the phone as a remote. Sure, that can be done with Powerpoint but Keynote is so much better all round.
I use Pages and Numbers for my personal stuff, but used Word and Excel when at work. I don't do a job that requires much of that any more, so although I do have an old-ish version of MS Office on my laptop it's rarely used.
There are definitely things missing - I couldn't use Pages for my recent University stuff as it has no Zotero plug-in, so used Word (well, until a masochist of a supervisor suggested LaTeX which, being a geek myself, I accepted the challenge.)
I use Pages and Numbers for my personal stuff, but used Word and Excel when at work. I don't do a job that requires much of that any more, so although I do have an old-ish version of MS Office on my laptop it's rarely used.
There are definitely things missing - I couldn't use Pages for my recent University stuff as it has no Zotero plug-in, so used Word (well, until a masochist of a supervisor suggested LaTeX which, being a geek myself, I accepted the challenge.)
That is the4 same here, more numbers use every day thaqn Pages, but I still use them both, I don't require Office compatibility. Before I started using M<ac a couple of years ago, I used to use LibreOffice Numbers is fine for what I use it for, the same as pages, like you, I will export to PDF.
A mate still uses lotus 123.
iWork apps have also gotten very good at exporting into formats like Word and PowerPoint. On occasions when I've had to build PPT decks for work, I have recently started working in Keynote and then exporting into a .pptx file. I open that up in PowerPoint as a last step, go through and fix a few small things and save it again. Works surprisingly well and means I get to work in Keynote, which has a way better UI.
I know there are no substitutes for some stuff -- like, no hard-core data wrangler is going to use Numbers over Excel for instance -- but the iWork apps are very capable for a lot of uses.
This thread has prompted me to load my MS Word CV into Pages, as my CV is about the only personal document I have left which uses MS Office apps.
It took about 5 minutes to sort out two minor issues (page margins too big; a table of text had too much spacing between rows) and that's it. Done.
So when a recruiter asks me - having just been sent a PDF - for a Word version I'll tell them I use Apple Pages and let's see what they say 😁
It took about 5 minutes to sort out two minor issues (page margins too big; a table of text had too much spacing between rows) and that's it. Done.
So when a recruiter asks me - having just been sent a PDF - for a Word version I'll tell them I use Apple Pages and let's see what they say 😁
There's a 1:10 chance a person I send a Pages document to, won't own hardware capable of opening it. That jumps to a 100% chance they can't open it if it's a business.
There's a 2 in 3 chance my Apple hardware doesn't have Pages installed on it.
There's also a 50% chance I'll be using a computer I own, that can't open it at all (because it isn't running macOS).
Then there's the fact that Apple broke backwards compatibility with Pages at one point, making 50% of my Apple hardware unable to open my Pages documents.
There's a 2 in 3 chance my Apple hardware doesn't have Pages installed on it.
There's also a 50% chance I'll be using a computer I own, that can't open it at all (because it isn't running macOS).
Then there's the fact that Apple broke backwards compatibility with Pages at one point, making 50% of my Apple hardware unable to open my Pages documents.
To follow up on Word and its interesting approach to changes in formatting, a FaceBook Reel
www.facebook.com
True story via viralfrog//tumblr | By Tim Mitchell | Facebook
True story via viralfrog//tumblr
www.facebook.com
I'd say that at least 90% of Apple users don't need or use the more advanced features available in Office products. I remember seeing a survey which showed that more than 90% of Office users on any platform (including Windows) never use 90% of Office features. For most people (Mac and Windows users), the only reason why Office still remains essential is to ensure cross-compatibility with the dominant file format still used by most organisations. So I would say the software itself is enough for almost everyone, not just for 'some'; but that compatibility is the sticker.
And that's why.
You want to collaborate with others? Unless everyone else uses an Apple device, you need Office.
You have a mix of devices in your household? You need Office.
You want to keep your documents for decades? Unless you are 100% sure that you will never switch desktop or mobile platforms, you need Office.
Apple is horribly difficult to use outside of Apple ecosystem. Just try opening a Numbers document in Windows, Android or Linux. And the web apps are s...l...o...w. Office can be used anywhere, and the web apps are reasonably fast.
If MS ever decides to stop developing Office, or raises prices too much, you still have a wide choice of 3rd party apps on every platform to use with your existing documents.
If Apple ever decides to stop developing iWorks, or raises prices too much, you better hurry up and export everything.
My experience has been that PDF files are preferred for submission the majority of the time in college. The iWork apps have no problem exporting things as PDF.
If collaboration with others is needed then people often prefer Google Docs. So the decision for me was between iWork and Google Docs, and I never needed the MS Office apps.
Why do you think MS Office apps are better for most people? You mentioned Excel. I use Numbers without any issues.
I had to relearn how to do some things but that’s not really a fault of the program.
I agree. For most people, iWork is just as good as MS Office because most people only use a small fraction of the capability these productivity apps offer. I agree that MS Office has more features....especially Excel, but that really doesn't matter for most people. iWork is simpler and more streamlined, which some folks prefer.
For most people, the main advantage of MS Office is compatibility. But, that has nothing to do with which app is better. The metric system is indisputably better than the imperial system, but the US has stubbornly stuck with an inferior system.....I assume because of the switching cost......that's another discussion.
Pages and Keynote are my default. I love them. Numbers is a strange spreadsheet. I feel like it's unintuitive and I find myself having to learn how to use it again and again. I don't have that issue with Excel or Sheets.
I keep trying Numbers again because I find Pages and Keynote so intuitive and fantastic to use. I wonder if I'm missing something in Numbers.
Last edited:
I use all three pretty regularly, once in a blue moon I will use Google apps for something niche (e.g., surveys) otherwise it's all iWork. I used Pages and Keynote all through college and graduate school--no issues, still have plenty of docs from those days sitting neatly in iCloud. I stopped using Office a little over ten years ago and haven't missed it.
Looking back, the only version of Office I actually miss was V.x, it felt like the most "Mac" of all the Office suites--even the box was Aqua style.
Looking back, the only version of Office I actually miss was V.x, it felt like the most "Mac" of all the Office suites--even the box was Aqua style.
I mostly use google docs at home now. It has a nice balance of features and simplicity. The apple apps don't have the functions I need, and Numbers is just too weird for me as a long time excel user. As one user noted above, they're trash. Actually Keynote is fairly decent, but the others are trash.
At work, I use excel and powerpoint. I never have a write a word doc thankfully.
At work, I use excel and powerpoint. I never have a write a word doc thankfully.
As others have mentioned, the Apple suite is not 100% compatible. But there is also the reason that you need to export a document if you want it saved in office formats. So it's one additional step.
And last but not least, they are useless in any collaborative environment, where you might need to have several people working in the same office document at the same time.
Like it or not, MS office formats are standard everywhere.
And last but not least, they are useless in any collaborative environment, where you might need to have several people working in the same office document at the same time.
Like it or not, MS office formats are standard everywhere.
Article title: "Why aren't the Apple office apps more popular?"
This is why. Because people who use Excel tell others that you can't use Numbers for anything except business use, and even then, that it's not good enough for business use.
I don't use Numbers for business purposes; I use it to track my bank accounts, spending, my upcoming holidays, etc. Those aren't business purposes, and they don't need macros or databases. As I said, it covers 99.999% of what consumers would use it for, and it does it really well.
People can use Numbers if they want, and they can ignore it if they want, but telling people not to use it because it doesn't do all the things that Excel does is like telling people not to shop at Aldi because they don't sell Waitrose Mushroom Pesto.
I'm not telling people that they should or shouldn't use Numbers or Excel, I'm saying people generally don't use spreadsheets at all. Can they? Sure. Do most of them? No.
I'm saying in business it's often not up to the task, plus the whole not being cross-platform hurts...a lot. Like it or not, the desktop/laptop market is mixed and needs to be able to interact at the application level, in both directions.
They’re the best. Was also great about them as how good the clipboard works. I don’t even notice, but the recent office is broken their clipboard so for example, if you copy a cell in Excel and then before you paste it the data you copied us deleted. You can no longer paste it. That’s stupid or what I do is copy bold then paste somewhere else and I bold it so I know I already got that data well in Excel if you copy them bold you can’t paste it stupid. Pages works way more phenomenal than word. I think it’s gonna take over only if Apple allows I work to be used on other operating systems other than their own.
I use Pages, Keynote and Numbers to run a small business. I’ll add FreeForm too. I can’t make documents look that good that easy using other apps. Numbers make “numbers” fun. Pages is actually a “publisher” as much as it’s a “text editor”. Free Form is my whiteboard and Keynote is miles ahead of the competition.
Apple’s lack of marketing is frustrating because I’m afraid someday they’ll just give up on these amazing apps.
Apple’s lack of marketing is frustrating because I’m afraid someday they’ll just give up on these amazing apps.