iWork ’09 worth getting?

Blackhawk47

Blackhawk47

Blackhawk47

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West Yorkshire / Market Bosworth
Hi all.

I recently got my Macbook but have yet to put any extra software on it and one thing that I have seen is iWork 09.

I use MS Office 2007 at home and at work but from what I heard it isn't great on Macs. So is it worth me getting iWork because from what I have seen so far it should be brilliant for me. And I read that you can open/save in Word files so I shouldn't have any problems with it.

Does anyone here use and would you recommend it? :)

Blackhawk
 
Blackhawk47 said:
Hi all.

I recently got my Macbook but have yet to put any extra software on it and one thing that I have seen is iWork 09.

I use MS Office 2007 at home and at work but from what I heard it isn't great on Macs. So is it worth me getting iWork because from what I have seen so far it should be brilliant for me. And I read that you can open/save in Word files so I shouldn't have any problems with it.

Does anyone here use and would you recommend it? :)

Blackhawk
Click to expand...

I've used iWork, but prefer MS Office 08.
 
Didn't know you could get a free 30 day trial. I am on holiday for two weeks starting next week so I will try and have a play with it.

I have tried Open Office before on PC but never really got on with it. But I will have another go with it on the Mac. ;)
 
Ok, I can contribute to this :)

I've been an Office user for many years for work including Visio for a wide range of purposes on PCs.

Zip forward in history and after finishing with the job I was left with two options - mac:Office or iWork'09. So I downloaded the 30 day iWork'09 demo from apple to try iWork. Up to this point I have been using NeoOffice (the mac orientated pre-compiled package of OpenOffice).
First thing that struck me is how unclunky, fast and uncluttered it is compared to NeoOffice.
After the initial - how the hell do I do X as I've been used to MS Office.. I've finally got the hang of Pages, Numbers and KeyNote (PowerPoint). It's features are available in Office and I would say Office has more gadgets but when I thought about how often I used them it became clear that there's lots of features I don't use. Once I'd found the features I did use then I was away - the work flow is easier as it's not attempting to support multiple ways of doing the same thing.
NeoOffice at this point looks like the big lego blocks and is very very slow compared to iWork and MS Office. I've used NeoOffice a lot and I'm not going back!

iWorks can save your files as MS Office and export as PDF etc.

I found iWorks initially frustrating because I didn't know where X was - which I could find in two seconds flat in MS Office due to familiarity.
iWorks is extremely quick. I don't know how fast MS Office on the mac is compared to it but it leaves Office'03 in it's dust. It may still have a little way to go to be as good as MS Office.

Job's next target is the dominance of MS Office - so expect iWork to get better and better. Yes MS are looking to put VB support back in to mac:Office but at the same time it's a curse for MS who want to block Apple but can't as MS are using IPR from Apple in their new versions of windows in exchange for MS creating MS Office on the mac (I read that in a well respected Job's Biography).

I've grown to like iWork'09 a lot (I bought it four days into the trial period). It's quick and very easy once you know how todo things!

There- another opinion (or tired rambling!).
 
My friend has iWork '09 and I've tried it. I think the only good software on it is Keynote. Otherwise, nah.
 
I prefer using iWorks from a user point of view but it's difficult in an office environment.

Luckily I work for a creative agency so everyone here is on Mac any way. However, 99.9% of our clients aren't and it's a bit of a hassle exporting stuff all the time.

The biggest problem I have with pages it is that when ever I open a .doc it gives me warning messages which I have to review (or not). It's not a huge issue but it does mean an extra mouse click every time I open a file.

Panzer
 
I've been unfortunate enought to get lumped with a PC in work running Office 2007. One thing I would add is that Office:Mac 2008 is a whole kettle of fish altogether. Don't assume that one version of Office is going to be the same as the other.

I find myself loving the ribbon interface in 2007, and when I use 2008 it may as well be a whole different app as I have to flick through menus to find what I'm looking for. In that respect, if you're coming from a PC I'd give iWork a try as you'll be learning a new app either way! :)
 
Well thanks for comments guys. I will probably get iWork but will give the trial go anyway just to make sure I like it. I used to use very breifly in my old job MS Office for Mac and i never got used it.

Anyway will give iWork a go. ;)
 
I've not seen anything to handle references or bibliographies. I remember going on a google for information about it - in short there are third party applications but the those application developers can't integrate with Pages because Apple doesn't have an API for that.
So for formal papers etc it could be very time consuming.

It wouldn't surprise me if iWork'10 came with a heap of new features.
 
Had a play on Keynote and Pages today at the Apple Store in Exeter (FYI a very nice store). I will probably order online as it seemed a tad expensive in store £85, so will see if I can get it a bit cheaper elsewhere and I am sure I saw it on the Online Apple Store for £69. :rolleyes:
 
NickK said:
I've not seen anything to handle references or bibliographies. I remember going on a google for information about it - in short there are third party applications but the those application developers can't integrate with Pages because Apple doesn't have an API for that.
So for formal papers etc it could be very time consuming.

It wouldn't surprise me if iWork'10 came with a heap of new features.
Click to expand...

You have to buy MathType and Endnote to add the respective features.

iWork '09 added the ability for at least those two to integrate with it.
 
Draeconis said:
Does anyone have access to the HE site that could tell me how much iWork '09 is with the HE Discount? Cheers :)
Click to expand...

Its £34.50 with HE discount.

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