iwork or MS Office

If you don't need to work with people using MS Office then get iWork. Office 2008 is a huge disappointment.
 
Literally this week I pondered that, and ended up with iWork.

In a nutshell, if you just need a basic word processor/spreadsheet/presentation functions then iWork is more than good enough for the price. If you need the more advanced functions of Office then iWork is a bit limited.

I haven't used Office 2008 but I really like Office 2007 on Windows. If you can't make up your mind that suggests to me you find them equally good so why not go for the cheaper option?
 
theheyes said:
In a nutshell, if you just need a basic word processor/spreadsheet/presentation functions then iWork is more than good enough for the price. If you need the more advanced functions of Office then iWork is a bit limited.
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Echo.

I tried both and ended up buying 2008 because it's a) faster than 2004 (better support for Intel chips, instead of rosetta emulating) b) happier working with all other Windows doc ppt xl documents c) I'm using a student edition, cheaper than normal but only slightly more expensive than iWorks - though "basic", it covers more grounds than what iWork offered me.

Don't get me wrong, iWork is a brilliant office apps, but sometimes i feel limited by it and worried, because in a rush, I'll save my document in my USB and head to uni for presentations e.t.c and realise I've balls up and saved it as .pages which for the life of me, doesn't work with any of my uni's apps. You're having to "export as .doc" or .ppt for compatibility, a hassle imo.

I've tried Neo-office awhile ago and liked it, helped me through 2004 slowness before 2008 came out, it's absolutely free and gets a fair bit of update. It feels like a Office 2000 and playing catch up to newer functions and what's available currently - but it's totally FREE. I do really hate the icon tho, they really need a more decent icon :p (but Im just nit-picking now)
 
MrMoonX said:
Which would you choose and why ive been using the trials on my macbook and cant make up my mind right now please help
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Depends...I'm sure you can open MS documents on iWork but also you can export them as well. Compatibility may not be 100% though.

However, if you share the documents with other people heavily then Office 2008 would be a better option. Otherwise get iWork.
 
I have both Office08 and iWork and I can honestly say I am not sure which one I like more. iWorks is pretty cool but I found some of the functions I kept struggling to find, for instance the subscript and superscript functions.

Office08 is a good bit of kit, it feels like a mac app and runs pretty quick.

I would go with whatever you can afford as both apps have their weaknesses and strengths.
 
well i used to use iWork 08 over office 2004, but now office 2008 has been released i went and got the student edition the other day, as already mentioned it is faster and has better support than office 2004, also i can easily share files with windows people at work easily enough, so that got me sold really.

I have tried NeoOffice and it is good but i stil prefer office 2008 over it as i had some problems with .docx files on it. :)
 
I use MS office 08 mainly cause I been using the software since version 2 on windows - its like smoking a bad habit but I'm just so used to it. - I not like office 07 on windows thou, the menu system confuses me when I'm so used to the old style, so I was more than happy seeing that hasn't been ported in to the mac version.
 
im not gonna be a heavy user as i dont work from home its only gonna be for home use so i think i might as well spend £45 on iwork as apposed to £99 on office 08
 
slinxy said:
I not like office 07 on windows thou, the menu system confuses me when I'm so used to the old style, so I was more than happy seeing that hasn't been ported in to the mac version.
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That's the exact opposite of what I think - the ribbon in Office 2007 is a fantastic upgrade and it's a shame to see that the Mac equivalent is a terrible style gallery.

My main issue with Office 2008 is that Entourage is still complete crap - it's been like that since it switched named to Entourage. The best option for Office on a Mac is still, and my opinion is that it always will be, running it through VMware.
 
Judging on the light usage you describe i'd recommend NeoOffice.

It's a good suite for the light-user and has some nice compatibility, it's also free :)

iWork is good, but if you could save £49 then it's £49 saved.
 
Caged said:
That's the exact opposite of what I think - the ribbon in Office 2007 is a fantastic upgrade and it's a shame to see that the Mac equivalent is a terrible style gallery.
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I really like 2007 and if 2008 for Mac had the ribbon I probably would have gone for it. The ribbon brought to the front features I never even knew were there. The Office team really deserve some credit for overhauling the UI on such a pervasive product imo.
 
The ribbon UI succeeds in bringing the "hard to find" options to a new level of accessibility, but fails terribly at aesthetic style.

I think the mix in Office 2008 for Mac is perfect :)

The 2007 UI just feels too cluttered, and takes up waaaaay too much room for my liking.
 
Caged said:
If you don't need to work with people using MS Office then get iWork. Office 2008 is a huge disappointment.
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How is it a disappointment?

Use iWork if you don't want to share with other users on Windows, although you can export as a PDF and share with anyone.

I would recommend getting Office 2008 personally - I use it all the time for all documents and is a huge improvement over Office 2004.

Rich
 
titchard said:
How is it a disappointment?

Use iWork if you don't want to share with other users on Windows, although you can export as a PDF and share with anyone.

I would recommend getting Office 2008 personally - I use it all the time for all documents and is a huge improvement over Office 2004.

Rich
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using the iwork trial atm have found out you can export to a .doc file and it works fine with windows office users
 
titchard said:
How is it a disappointment?
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Despite 4 years of development on from Office 2004 it's only really gained better performance on Intel. It's still full of bugs and doesn't support Exchange, or Office 2007 documents properly. Removing VBA makes Excel next to useless.
 
Caged said:
Despite 4 years of development on from Office 2004 it's only really gained better performance on Intel. It's still full of bugs and doesn't support Exchange, or Office 2007 documents properly. Removing VBA makes Excel next to useless.
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Isn't there a version that has exchange server support, but it's 3x the price :o
 
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