iWork or Office 2011

magicroundabout · 24 Apr 2012 at 22:10

not knowing much about iWork and always (up until recently) been a Microsoft user, i was wondering what is best for the Mac?

I'm about to start a diploma with my current employer (NHS. Discount?) and need a decent word processing tool for personal statements and presentations but not sure which would be best to use.

any help appreciated

Jak3 Mac · 25 Apr 2012 at 07:14

Definitely get iWork, Office only runs slightly better on a mac then itunes does on windows! iWork is also cheaper then office.

Hxc · 25 Apr 2012 at 07:39

Jak3 Mac said:
Definitely get iWork, Office only runs slightly better on a mac then itunes does on windows! iWork is also cheaper then office.

Simply not true. Office 11 is perfectly good on mac.

magicroundabout · 25 Apr 2012 at 08:12

but which is best to get. obviously iWork is only £13.99 per item in the app store but office is £100. Is it worth the extra over iWorks?

Deku · 25 Apr 2012 at 08:49

magicroundabout said:
but which is best to get. obviously iWork is only £13.99 per item in the app store but office is £100. Is it worth the extra over iWorks?

No I wouldn't say so to be honest. I take it you've had a look at google docs? Even cheaper - ie free.

magicroundabout · 25 Apr 2012 at 09:11

no i haven't. Is it as good as iWork's?

also i've noticed on the Apple Store iWork's is £72 for pages, numbers & keynote, yet through the App store they're £13.99 each (£41.97) but i can't see any difference!

shine · 25 Apr 2012 at 09:20

magicroundabout said:
no i haven't. Is it as good as iWork's?

also i've noticed on the Apple Store iWork's is £72 for pages, numbers & keynote, yet through the App store they're £13.99 each (£41.97) but i can't see any difference!

It's cheaper to buy the digital download - no difference in functionality. I used both before settling on Office. It just made sharing files with clients easier.

You should also consider Libre Office which is free if you don't want to spend any money.

magicroundabout · 25 Apr 2012 at 09:28

looking at the functionality of pages, sharing seems quite easy. Which is of importance for when i need to send documents to my assessor etc.

i don't mind buying it if it's worth it. reading various reviews it does appears to be

pingwing · 25 Apr 2012 at 11:02

Student office for mac is something like £70-80 I think, its really good (as in the same as the last version of windows office). Some of the options are in different places but as an application there are many things right with it and it conforms to OSX rules of layout (which I though was nice)

lamboman · 25 Apr 2012 at 11:46

If you don't have a requirement to share files in Office formats, and are able to get away with using PDFs, I'd say Pages. It works fantastically well, is simple, has all the features you ever will need, and is dirt cheap. Otherwise, Office.

As for LibreOffice...if you need something temporary to get you by, for example if you want to view a PowerPoint document once a month, it'll suffice, but otherwise, it is absolutely awful.

magicroundabout · 25 Apr 2012 at 12:33

i've gone for iWork's. I thought for £13.99 it was a bit of a steal. plus it can save as word docs too so is an added bonus.

If it doesn't work out i've only ever lost £13.99 as opposed to £70 - £80 if i'd have got Office.

i'll have a proper play around with it later

lamboman · 25 Apr 2012 at 13:47

Do make sure that you give it a good play around first. Tweak it and get used to it. You will probably find that it'll do many things in a far more logical way than Office does.

Supercow · 25 Apr 2012 at 14:03

For what it's worth, I think office for Mac is awful.
Its so bad, I run a VM just so that I can run Office for Windows

uniQ · 25 Apr 2012 at 15:58

Office for Mac is excellent. I also have the full iWork suite and it's fine for light stuff but really doesn't come close.

shine · 25 Apr 2012 at 16:47

Supercow said:
For what it's worth, I think office for Mac is awful.
Its so bad, I run a VM just so that I can run Office for Windows

That is not my experience, I think Office is good on the Mac. My only niggle is that the cursor disappears in Word when switching between Word and a browser.

What issues have you had?

kirkster · 25 Apr 2012 at 17:49

I use both as well. Its more a compatibility problem if you have to share your docs if you save in iwork format.

MrMoonX · 25 Apr 2012 at 20:54

the latest office for mac runs great, I use it loads its fine

Qdos · 25 Apr 2012 at 22:13

Check to see if your course entitles you to get a cheap copy of Office through their student scheme? You might also be able to get a discount as you work for the NHS (we have a similar scheme run by Vectis).

I can't speak for 2011, but I do like 2008 as it hasn't yet migrated to that awful ribbon the Windows versions now have.

Libreoffice is a very viable alternative - I used it a lot as I was swapping between Linux, Mac and Windows on my computer forensics course and needed something all 3 OSes could use. Personally, I think it's brilliant and is completely compatible with MS Office.

Supercow · 26 Apr 2012 at 11:39

shine said:
That is not my experience, I think Office is good on the Mac. My only niggle is that the cursor disappears in Word when switching between Word and a browser.

What issues have you had?

You know what, I can;t remember

This thread spurred me to revisit Office for Mac 2011 and love it now.

Cannot remember why I was so dead against it, but I've now deleted my VM accordingly

Wonder if I tried iWork and hated the inspectors and confused it with Office for mac? Maybe it was an older version of Office for mac and how it managed Styles? ( a pet peeve of mine is if Word screws up the Styles I've worked so hard on to set-up and maintain)