“Apple Inc.’s release of iWork ’08 this week is ’embarrassing,’ an analyst said today, not for its maker, but for rival Microsoft Corp.,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld. “Tuesday, Apple rolled out a refreshed iWork that added a spreadsheet, dubbed Numbers, to the earlier mix of a word processor/page layout Pages and presentation maker Keynote. But it was iWork’s ability to handle the Open XML file format — the new native format for Microsoft’s own Office 2007 application suite — that Michael Gartenberg of JupiterResearch LLC talked about.”
“‘This was the ultimate insult to injury,’ Gartenberg said. ‘Not only has Microsoft not delivered the ability to read and write Open XML in its Mac Office, but at the end of the day, Apple was the one who delivered,'” Keizer reports.
“Gartenberg referred to Microsoft’s problems developing Office 2008 for Mac, which the company announced last week would be delayed until mid-January. Among the roadblocks, said Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit (MBU), is the shift to Open XML as Office 2008’s native file format… ‘This is embarrassing for MBU,’ Gartenberg said,”Keizer reports.
Keizer reports, “Ironically, one of those who praised iWork’s handling of the Microsoft file format was a program manager for Office 2007. “[iWork ’08] reads the Office Open XML files with very high fidelity,” said Brian Jones on his company blog… ‘What this really shows is Microsoft’s inability to ship software on time these days… It’s going to be hard for Microsoft to get those people who try and buy iWork back,’ Gartenberg said. ‘Microsoft’s let down its Mac customers.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iWork ’08 should embarrass Microsoft for many more reasons beyond just being able to open up Open XML files, but we’re not so sure Microsoft is even capable of being embarrassed – just look the Zune or their flagship OS or their CEO; a huge embarrassment who, we pray, will continue to helm the ship all the way to the bottom.
Many Mac users — the majority, we believe — think they need Office, but really don’t. Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and see for yourself.
Just another reason in my list to justify completely leaving MS office.
Apple’s Steve Jobs stated that Numbers would not be able to import or export all files to Excel, meaning that Numbers is not likely to compete directly with Excel.
Additionally, if Numbers cannot handle algebraic equations, logarithms, exponents, and simple statistics it is unlikely that iWork will make a significant dent in MS Office sales.
Insert joke about flying chairs in space provided: ____________ _________________
While I was waiting for an Apple Store employee to help me purchase my new iMac, I started watching the Numbers demos on one of the computers. By the time I was helped, I was convinced and bought my copy…
So far, I’m beyond satisfied.
I wish I had a solution for when people email me Word documents and Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. Am I not locked in to M$?
Or use the free and open NeoOffice – it works just as well, opens more file formats than Office, etc..
Apple is kicking some major sand in Ballmer’s face. How gritty is is!
Uhh, do you think it was really coincidental that Office 2008 “slipped” into early next year just a week prior to iWork shipping? I certainly don’t! Microsoft found out this was shipping and conveniently decided that there were “too many problems” with the development process as a way to show Apple who they were dealing with (after all isn’t Office the MOST important software for the Mac?). Of course, this is going to bite them on the butt when Mac users stop caring if Office ever ships….
I just installed iWorks this afternoon.
My quick tests looks promising. I may say goodbye to Microsoft forever. MBU looks like a bunch of jokers after you see how slick the new pages and numbers are (keynote was already completely polished before ’08).
Office? Who actually “needs” Office?
Hell, I’ve used AppleWorks and MacLink Plus for years and never felt the need. When I send files I usually send PDFs, since they can’t be monkeyed with on the other side. Rarely do I send an editable file. When I do, it’s an RTF, not a Word file.
As it (sort of) says in the article, it’s all about file formats and seamless translation, not about the tool or the OS you use. I can’t wait to try out the iWork ’08 demo.
Yeah, NeoOffice works quite well, too.
Weirdly, the primary reason I stick with MS Office 2004 is Entourage. Pages is more fun and flexible than Word; Keynote is infinitely more elegant than PowerPoint; and Numbers looks like it will handle 90%+ of my spreadsheet needs. But iCal, Mail and Address Book are three disjointed apps that do not come close to adding up to Entourage.
Fortunately, you can sync Entourage with iCal and Address Book — a necessity if you are an iPhone user like me. But I really look forward to day — in October?? — when we get some apps with more professional functionality, to say nothing of iPhone support for stuff like Notes and Tasks.
By the way, there is also NeoOffice — which never seems to get the credit or attention it deserves. And it, too, can read and write the XML files.
Under no circumstances … I mean fscking none …will I upgrade to the next Microshit Office. Its over. Numbers and support for so called open xml spells the complete end to MS office for me. And I have A LOT OF CORPROATE CLIENTS.
Unfortunately for most of my clients, iWork neither displays, modifies, or exports Word documents properly.
I hate to say it, but I need pivot tables for my work. Numbers needs to have this in its pipeline or I cannot justify moving to it no matter how clean it is.
@ Mr. Dave
iWork can open and edit all Word and PowerPoint files and most Excel documents. Plus it’s really easy to work with and you can make some fantastic looking stuff with it.
You should download Apple’s 30 day trial and give it a spin.
“after all isn’t Office the MOST important software for the Mac?”
I think it might be OS X. Just a guess.
I love iWork 08. It is really a very nice product. But I still need two things:
1. pivot tables in Numbers;
2. An Entourage/Outlook alternative. Entourage is not the worst software ever made, and it does provide just enough functionality to interoperate in a Windows environment. Mail/iCal/Groupcal are not yet good enough because they rely on opening up IMAP functionality on the Exchange server, and there are some legitimate reasons for sysadmins not to do so [Groupcal is not a bad little product, but again, the combined package is not robust enough]..
I’ve been an iWork user since it’s first version, and now I’m absolute certain that I won’t be purchasing MS Office anymore. I don-t use Excel much, more than to check some files that clients send me for design purposes (lists, essays, articles and so on). If you haven’t tried iWork yet, you have to!
Microsoft has lost me. I bought the iWork ’08 Family Pack two days ago to replace Office 2004. I won’t be buying any future versions of Office either.
I love apple and the products….
but HOw about a headline that reads “Apple Embarasses itself with iMovie ’08” ?
Apple really fumbled that one.
“Additionally, if Numbers cannot handle algebraic equations, logarithms, exponents, and simple statistics it is unlikely that iWork will make a significant dent in MS Office sales.”
Yeah because most EVERYONE uses those features.
Numbers is just what I was waiting for. Buh-bye MS Office! iWork ’08 will be on my doorstep on Monday; meanwhile, I’m using the trial version and loving it.
Now, we just need Intuit to spiff up their crappy Quicken for Mac product.
iWorks
IT WORKS… I dumped Office totally now!
Numbers does all the numbering in a slick refined, logical manner that ONLY Apple seems to understand. Numbers excels over Excel as do all the iWork programs. Microsoft has been LAGGING behind in Apple upgrades in Microsoft Office, even though it claims Office for Mac has functionality that Windows version doesn’t… well GUESS what it caused incompatibilities!!!!
Very bothersome.
Better yet, my taxes, and invoices are easily imported and calculate perfectly in this new application.
I am so glad I bought it. DOWN with all Microsoft apps for me.
A++ Apple
Keep up the GREAT and very much appreciated work.
Tomorrow I am buying iLife’08. Just as a treat.
Since I still running ’06… even the slightest improvement LEAPS over Microsofts updates.
j
paddywack, I agree with you. The company I work at uses excel extensively and the forumlas/sheets they’ve created only work on Excel. I’ve tried NeoOffice and Numbers to no avail.
The really fscked up thing – and proof MS has no clue – is that this one sheet we use was built on/for Excel 2003. Well, i’m the guinea pig for Office 2007 and it is just a complete clusterfsck now. The sheet won’t open. All kinds of problems. The developer seemed so down that it would probably have to be rebuilt eventually for Office 2007. He used to work for MS, you’d think he’d know they would eventually fsck everything up.
But, I won’t be buying iWork 08 anytime soon since I can get by at home with NeoOffice.
So with iWork ’08 out now, whats the point of waiting for Office 2008 for Mac when it gets realeased next year?
As much as we like to make fun of Microsoft, I seriously doubt that the reason for the delay on Office 2008 for Mac is due to the ability to read the Office 2007 file format. I’m sure the delay was caused by the need to transition the code base from PPC native to Universal, incorporate new features, and test. Office is the last of the big applications using Carbon, I believe.
However, it is a bit embarrassing that Apple’s iWork suite was released first. iWork has most of the bases covered now. I’d say, if it works for you after trying the 30-day trial, make the switch.
Numbers opened ALL my Excel docs – Pages & Keynote do the rest of Office docs – SO – I’ve waited years for this, dragged Office to the trash and emptied. The MacPro is now so clean – and I’m sure a tiny bit quicker !!!!
@Spock:
For 90+% of Office users, there’s NO point waiting for O/2008. Remember, those same 90% use Excel primarily for … LISTS. The number of people I work with who even know that vlookup or hlookup exist, not to mention what they’re for: ZERO.
Magic word: ten, as in less than TEN percent of Office users use even half the functions that aren’t included in iWork 08.
It has been my pleasure to receive word docs, in various versions of word to type set, 64 to 160 pages. i used to try and do the edit and corrections to the text in word itself…. talk about tribulations. I import the doc into InDesign now, down two shots worth of canadian to calm my nerves, and preform what amounts to an exorcism to rid the doc’s style sheets, dink with the tables to get the page rolls right, etc… i get shivers just thinking about it… but the Canadian, good soft whiskey cetainly does the mind good… a requirement to work with modern word… 5.1 was fine though
The article states that iWork can *open* those Open XML files, but can’t save in that format. WTH! So if someone sends me such a file, I can’t mod it and send it back in that format. If that’s so, it’s not there yet.
That ‘MacDailyNews Take’ was hilarious!
…we’re not so sure Microsoft is even capable of being embarrassed—just look the Zune…
Here’s the ZuneTangDailyNews Take: The reason Microsoft doesn’t appear embarrassed by its Zune is because Microsoft has nothing to be embarrassed about! The Zune is a marvel and once you hold one in your hand it’s hard to put down. Magnificent features such as the awesome user interface to the FM radio to squirting your friends latest chart topper put the IPOD to shame. It’s Apple who should be embarrassed. The iTunes Store doens’t even have points! Losers.
Your potential. Our passion.™
@SirROM:
I believe you may have hit the nail squarely on the head. People, don’t be surprised if Office 2008 never ships at all. The shot across the bow had been fired, and it’s gonna be interesting!
I’ll be buying iWork ’08 soon, but I would be more happy if Apple supported a real open format, Open Document Format, not the fake open format by Microsoft.
@Poppycock
I kind of agree with you, I wish Apple would combine iCal, Mail and Address Book into one app and industrialize it a bit. It’s sad when MS has a more elegant treatment of ANYTHING than Apple. As nice as iWork is, I’ll still buy the next version of Office just to get an updated Entourage.
MS Office was delete the moment I saw Stevie’s presentation of iWorks.
I bought iLife 08 and iWork 08 today and all I can say is “bye bye Microsoft”.
Numbers is fantastic!
I hate spreadsheets with a vengence and have never really learnt how to use Xcell properly, but with numbers I was up and doing stuff in spreadsheets that I never knew could be done.
Its so simple to use and im amazed Microsoft never designed Xcell like this years ago!
On another note – the new version of keynote is incredible too!
Everyone is missing the real reason why M$ is shipping Office 2008 late.
It’s not about programing, it’s not about file compatibilities.
The idiots at M$ figured users waited to buy the new Intel Macs because there wasn’t a universal Photo Shop program available and the higher ups at M$ figured they could delay the public from purchasing new Macs until next year – by delaying the release of MS Office 2008.
What knuckle heads, what arrogance at M$ – they see the adoption rate of Vista is slow and they hope to get their service pack out by Fall’07 and hope this will give a reason for the public to stay with M$. They are playing with fire, all they’ll end up doing is causing the adoption rate of MS Office 2008 to a fraction of what is could have been.
The delay was a huge miscalculation on the part of Gates and Balmer.
My 2 cents!
I have bought and installed iWork 08. The first thing I tried was to import an Excel spreadsheet that I made for tracking my stocks. Just two columns, date and amount, and a chart. The Numbers version was excruciatingly slow, even just to move the chart around the canvas. I figured something was wrong with the import, so rebuilt the spreadsheet in native Numbers. Still just as slow. Also had a bug in specifying the minimum value in one of the axes. I normally use a PowerMac G5, so tried it all on a recent model MacBook Pro. Same result.
I am a total Apple bigot, but obviously, Numbers has a long way to go before it is as useful as Excel. I won’t be deleting my MS Office anytime soon.
re: I have bought and installed iWork 08. The first thing I tried was to import an Excel spreadsheet that I made for tracking my stocks. Just two columns, date and amount, and a chart. The Numbers version was excruciatingly slow, even just to move the chart around the canvas. I figured something was wrong with the import, so rebuilt the spreadsheet in native Numbers. Still just as slow. Also had a bug in specifying the minimum value in one of the axes. I normally use a PowerMac G5, so tried it all on a recent model MacBook Pro. Same result.
I am a total Apple bigot, but obviously, Numbers has a long way to go before it is as useful as Excel. I won’t be deleting my MS Office anytime soon.
____
If numbers is slow then it must be your machine!
I use a basic mac mini and it whizzes – no slow performance here – and thats with many apps open too!
I’ve been learning my Numbers for the past couple of days, and wouldn’t you know it, the one thing I wanted to do with it caused it to crash. Other than that one item everything else I’ve tried with it runs like a breeze. I’ve heard people say that it can choke on really big “tables” but so far not for me. I think Numbers will follow the history of Keynote – a little rusty at first then it gets polished to a high luster after a couple of updates.
Oh, and a customer of mine sent me several Excel files, and I imported them into Numbers, then exported back to Excel and sent them back. Other than the table of contents that Numbers adds to an Excel export, and password protection being removed, he couldn’t tell the difference.
I stick with Office for Entourage too!
It is a much better email client than Apple Mail, especially if you need to manage multiple accounts and connect to an Exchange server.
If Apple mail offered a similar feature list and the same type of display options, I would never need to use Office, even though I always get it for free from my company.
@ Zune Tang
BEFORE you throw up your usual bullshit, go out and buy a mac and use the software before you post anything here.
I love the way you try to rip to shreds Apples iWork and other products and yet, surprise surprise you have never even used it.
A word of advice – you want credibility?… then ACTUALLY try using a mac and the software.
If not – THEN JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP.
QuadCore:
“Everyone” I work with uses algebraic equations, logarithms, exponents, and simple statistics. This includes undergraduate and graduate students, academicians, and administrative staff. In otherwords, educated people in university systems.
What demographic group do you belong?
What groups do you suppose that Numbers is intended to be used?
What features of spreadsheets do you think are (i) important and (ii) unimportant?
re: I stick with Office for Entourage too!
It is a much better email client than Apple Mail, especially if you need to manage multiple accounts and connect to an Exchange server.
If Apple mail offered a similar feature list and the same type of display options, I would never need to use Office, even though I always get it for free from my company.
—-
My company only uses mac mail and we have no problems what-so-ever with exchange servers.
I avoid office like it’s the Oxygen channel.
ZuneTang never fails to make us laugh.
I hope the iWork will be able in Finland during next week. It’s family pack time…
Well, I have just ordered iWork 08. I am transitioning back to the Mac. I’ve resurrected my PowerBook G4 that is still handling tasks remarkably well and plan on purchasing a new iMac in a couple days.
As of fall (September), I will begin allowing my students to submit assignments via the University’s “Blackboard” in either Word/Excel or Pages/Numbers format. Unless we begin to seriously look at alternatives to MS products and actually use them in the business settings, the monopoly will continue.
That said, Apple has to be prepared to support well these new users who will make the transition. For me, I don’t want to run Windows on my Mac. I want good Mac programs without having to buy and run Windows. iWork 08 is a great start. Now we just need a good finance program like Quicken for Windows. The Mac version is Intuit’s embarassment.
last time I looked, open office was free and actually embraces the ‘true’ open XML standard, not Microsh*t’s attempt thereof. I use OO on my mac (Writer- think Word, Impress- think Powerpoint and Calc- think Excel) and find it (them) good enough for the price! It even comes with a database Base that is pretty damn good and it undergoes regular updates. So why even pay for iWork…
Develop a sense of humor. Zune Tang has one.
I really wish Apple would develop iHumor so the dour douchebags around here would finally get the joke.
I say port iWork to Windoze!
A glass of ice water to those in hell.
I opened several of the Numbers templates and fiddled around with changing values in the cells. It took a huge amount of time to recalculate, every time. This is not good at all. Files are very slow to open too. 1.67 GHz G4 Powerbook.
I am using the Numbers trial software to put together a simple spreadsheet with a pie chart. This software is excruciatingly slow. Plus the chart looks horrible. I’m using my trusty PowerBook 100.
@ TommyBoy impostor: Lay off my handle poseur.
The Numbers is excruciatingly slow. I am using my robust Apple II with Intel 64-bit processor emulation (which allowed me to run Numbers on MacOS X Tiger).
I invited Ballmer down to a posh little bistro today. It was strange and a bit uncomfortable. I sipped on a liquidity squeeze while Ballmers doppelganger across the room choked on a credit crunch. Ballmer sat licking the sweat off his chin and looked down at his hands a lot …big fingers. After an uncomfortable silence I said, ‘wow’. Then I said it again but this time in upper case, ‘WOW’. He went forward straight down head to the table. I wrote iWork ’08 on the back of his head with a big fat sharpie. It was very tasteful. Oh, yeah ..Ballmer, if you’re reading this ..you’re welcome.
“Embarrass and Extend”
GO Apple!!
DEFII –
I use QuickBooks for the Mac, and have used Quicken. I know there are some things that supposedly Quicken only does on PCs, but I’ve completely run my small business on Intuit since I started seven years ago. Quicken has never lost data, and now that it can save in the PC format, my accountant is happy.
So what’s so bad with Quicken and QuickBooks??
The Numbers is excruciatingly slow. I am using my robust Apple II
VisiCalc, dude. The app that started it all…
Crazy to think they ran a spreadsheet with less resources than Vista needs to draw a single icon on the screen.
We tried Numbers in our company and we can do anything we want, no problem with formulas and/or speed. Too bad we were caught and ended up in prison.
Other than that, numbers are just fine.
… and Bill keeps selling more of his stock….
Basic truths:
Zune Tang is not funny (if you believe he is-watch some Monty Python or Coupling to learn what funny is).
Trolls or misguided people always complain and throw up phantom problems no one else experiences.(Really, what the hell are some of you doing to your machines?)
Apple always embarasses MS.
This so-called Numbers program barely moves. I’m running a state-of-the-art Commodore 64 computer with the GEOS environment loaded.
Who wants to bet, given the code basis for Safari, that it won’t be long before there is an actual “Apple Office?
iWork 08 is a definite must buy for me now. I have worked without the iWork suite for 6 years waiting for an answer to Excel, while remaining unwilling to pay through the nose for MS Office. A very welcome day!
iLife ’08 is an embarrassment to Microsoft as well. For that matter, so was iLife ’06, but with ’08 they really made a huge leap.
This becomes clearer when you compare something like photo, movie, and productivity apps on the Mac and PC, and what they’ll cost you:
Apple Mac Software: Spend much less (but get much more) than on a PC.
here’s what I don’t understand: apple owns filemaker, so why isn’t filemaker part of iWork? iWork needs a database app to round it out so it can compete with office/access in small business environments.
What about iWork08 and ODF?
iWork ’08 is a classic 80/20 app, in as much as it contains the 20% of overall functionality that 80%+ of the user-base actually use.
Hopefully, Apple have implemented some sort of plug-in architecture so that third-party developers can add in functionality like equation editors (for Pages and Keynote) or database interfaces [XML, ODBC, etc.] (for Numbers).
As it stands, you get three elegant (and in the case of Pages and Keynote, increasingly mature) applications for $79 – under $30.00/app which is pretty good value. Need more functionality like diagramming or whatever, go and buy something like Omni’s Graffle which costs a fraction of the cost of Visio (the family pack (5-user) of Pro only costs $225.00) but doesn’t drive me up the wall.
uptime 16 hours. Damn Numbers caused kernel panic. Other than that Numbers is amazing. I fall in love instantly. Office is soooo gone. I am very happy that I no longer can justify Office at our office. We do not upgrade or buy new licenses of Microsoft Office.
Unfortunately many do still need ‘Office’, anyone working in science and maths does need it, I hope that iWork will evolve to cover this.
It isn’t acceptable to translate correctly some of the time, every single symbol, bullet point, font, graphic, and formating must be translated, people often pass the same document back and forth between users adding to the document.
I use QuickBooks for the Mac, and have used Quicken. I know there are some things that supposedly Quicken only does on PCs, but I’ve completely run my small business on Intuit since I started seven years ago. Quicken has never lost data, and now that it can save in the PC format, my accountant is happy.
So what’s so bad with Quicken and QuickBooks??
The main reason we switched to “MYOB” accounting software is because “Quicken” allows your book keeper to steal from you without leaving a trail to follow. For example: you can write a check for $500 to a supplier you have on file, go into the software and turn off the tracking, change the name on the check to “joe book-keeper”, print the check out- cash it. Go back and turn the tracking back on and you won’t even notice that the check went to the wrong place as it will still show that the check went to your supplier. Two of my suppliers had this happen to them in the last 3 years, 1 had a little under 20K taken the other just over 2K. They figured it out when their supplier discounts didn’t go up for the amount of $$ they were spending with them.
So, for that reason only- the possibility for someone to easily steal from you with a program designed to let them do it…
As it looks right now, there’s no way I would trade in Office for iWork. First main deal breaker is the missing dictionarie/-s. I write in 5 different languages and really like the way I can switch between dictionaries in Office. Secondly, iWork doesn’t have a thesaurus – go figure.
i am really glad a lot of people seem to like open office and neooffice. especially if you are trapped on windows i recommend them myself…..
but if you are on Mac, and go get the 30 day trial, unless you are totally blind, you have to admit that iWork blows them away in most areas.
i am not saying they don’t have their place, in fact i am very glad they have a place, and i expect more good things to come from them. but honestly, open keynote (for example) and be honest with yourself. iWork is a great little collection of apps…..
Why pay for iWork? Because NeoOffice is a slow Java application that creates crappy looking PowerPoint/Keynote presentations. Impress impresses nobody and makes PowerPoint presentations look like a beauty queen.
MW: Answer- Steve has given me the answer to finally being able to get rid of NeoOffice on my system.
re: I opened several of the Numbers templates and fiddled around with changing values in the cells. It took a huge amount of time to recalculate, every time. This is not good at all. Files are very slow to open too. 1.67 GHz G4 Powerbook.
—-
i Work 08 and iLife 08 are optimised for intel Macs – NOT ancient G4 powerbooks.
My advice to you is try it on any mac that is newer than a G4 and you will be amazed how fast it is.
Time to upgrade your hardware I think…
BTW – Dont even think of using Lepoard when it comes out on your G4 because it aint gonna work.
I rec’d my iWork yesterday and have spent a bit of time with it. I really do like it – so much so that I’d like to abandon MS Office. But my major problem is that I *need* EndNote and thus far, they are not willing to support Pages. That’s a real bummer, because iWork is so nice to work with.
i Work 08 and iLife 08 are optimised for intel Macs – NOT ancient G4 powerbooks.
Yeah, an iBook that is less than 2 years old that may be still under AppleCare is “ancient”. As the members here mentioned several times, Steve doesn’t want customers who can’t afford a new computer every year. If you can’t afford to spend $1100 on a new computer every year, go buy a “junky” Dell… Apple is not going to cater to working people raising a family. We don’t want “those kind” of people owning a Mac..
Woooo Hooo Steve!!!
Then don’t buy iWork 08 or iLife 08 if your hardware can’t handle it. If what you have works, keep using it.
These are not forced upgrades. We’re not dealing with MS here…
Then don’t buy iWork 08 or iLife 08 if your hardware can’t handle it. If what you have works, keep using it.
These are not forced upgrades. We’re not dealing with MS here…
Oh I agree Buddy. I think 10.5 needs to be Core 2 Duo Intel Only. Apple can’t keep supporting this old technology (some of it over a year old!!!!!!)….
As is always mentioned here at MDN, Apple doesn’t need people using their BMW’s who can’t afford to upgrade ever 9-12 months, (opps, that’s right, you really can’t “upgrade a Mac much), I mean replace their computer ever 9-12 months…
Gooooo Steve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry. No built in equation editor. This is a big problem for me. I need that feature.
Just my $0.02
Oh I agree Buddy. I think 10.5 needs to be Core 2 Duo Intel Only. Apple can’t keep supporting this old technology (some of it over a year old!!!!!!)….
Whatever.
This same shit-fit has came up whenever Apple has done a legacy break. Be it from Apple II to 68k Mac, to PowerMac, to G3/G4/G5, to Intel.
Part of owning technology is knowing whatever you’ll buy will be out of the limelight within six months. Apple’s money is NOT made supporting multi-generation old hardware. The fact that new software even RUNS on it is remarkable, and tells me Apple isn’t all that bad.
You aren’t as left out in the cold as you think. Perhaps a “Vista Ready” PC would’ve been a better buy?
Part of owning technology is knowing whatever you’ll buy will be out of the limelight within six months. Apple’s money is NOT made supporting multi-generation old hardware. The fact that new software even RUNS on it is remarkable, and tells me Apple isn’t all that bad.
Couldn’t agree with ya more Buddy!!! The hell with those people who bought Powerbooks a year and a half ago. That’s “multi-generation old hardware”. And if they can’t afford a new laptop now, we really don’t want those kind of people owning Apple Computers anyway, do we????
Erica, you have a valid point. Why can’t Apple include a spell checker like they have in Mail and Safari in Pages? I can only think that they are too focussed on US parochial customers.
The funniest post on this thread is when a math geek presumes that everyone in the whole world uses a spreadsheet to do math geek things. *blinks* I know he’s a math geek and so thinking outside the box isn’t his forte`, but come on!
What’s the point when PP presentations created in Windoze are not even compatible with MS PowerPoint for Mac?!
MS = MoronS….
I like Entourage, too, as an email and PIM app. BUT – Everything – and I mean everything – is stored in a single database file. I had my DB file go corrupt a few years ago, and even tried Entourage’s built-in DB recovery as well as third party, and nothing would rescue it. Gone!
Now, I did back up – but it made me realize, being all in one database file – what if my backup was of a *corrupt* db to begin with? So then I had to keep saving full versions of the entourage DB frequently enough so that I knew I’d have at least one valid DB file to re-load if need be.
that’s why I use apple mail – there’s something to be said for being able to backup messags and mailboxes at a FILE level – every message is an individual file. Very easy to incrementally backup – as well as archive mail folders.
All Quicken and Entourage users please investigate Daylite and Billing from Marketcircle – http://www.marketcircle.com.
Get off of Office forever
Holy crap, people. If I had to endure a slap in the face for every time I read “iWorks” throughout these comments (and by Mac users?!), then I’d be faceless from all the slapping.
It’s iWork, people. iWorks just makes me think of the Dark Ages, when Microsoft Works was on my long-since-replaced-by-a-Mac Sony Vaio.
Anyway, iWork ’08 makes Microsoft Office unnecessary for MOST Mac users. Unfortunately, too few may ever decide to dump Office.
I think that Bill Gates needs to really look at retirement from Microsoft and put his money into Apple stock. All of the new gadgets and toys that apple presents to the younger generations is going to KILL Microsoft. Our younger generation is the foundation for the future. I do take donations for speaking the truth please contact me if you like my speach and want to donate lots of money. Its just business. Business makes the world go round.
I think that Bill Gates needs to really look at retirement from Microsoft and put his money into Apple stock. All of the new gadgets and toys that apple presents to the younger generations is going to KILL Microsoft. Our younger generation is the foundation for the future. I do take donations for speaking the truth please contact me if you like my speach and want to donate lots of money. Its just business. Business makes the world go round.
I think that Bill Gates needs to really look at retirement from Microsoft and put his money into Apple stock. All of the new gadgets and toys that apple presents to the younger generations is going to KILL Microsoft. Our younger generation is the foundation for the future. I do take donations for speaking the truth please contact me if you like my speach and want to donate lots of money. Its just business. Business makes the world go round.
I think that Bill Gates needs to really look at retirement from Microsoft and put his money into Apple stock. All of the new gadgets and toys that apple presents to the younger generations is going to KILL Microsoft. Our younger generation is the foundation for the future. I do take donations for speaking the truth please contact me if you like my speach and want to donate lots of money. Its just business. Business makes the world go round.
I would go entirely MAC but unless I am overlooking something, there is no database software like MS Access for the MAC that has inspired me to want to re-write all of the reports and data entry forms I have created over the past 10 years.
you would go all MAC? cool!
…what is a MAC? isn’t that a networking thing? a MAC Address?
> As it looks right now, there’s no way I would trade in Office for iWork. First main deal breaker is the missing dictionarie/-s. I write in 5 different languages and really like the way I can switch between dictionaries in Office. Secondly, iWork doesn’t have a thesaurus – go figure.
Erika, iWork doesn’t have a dictionary or thesaurus because one is included with Mac OS X. Why re-invent the wheel?
Select a word, and then press Control-Command-D to open up Dictionary. It will show you the definition, and you can click to view its thesaurus entry.
[Sorry. No built in equation editor. This is a big problem for me. I need that feature.]
Appleworks 6 has a stand-alone EE. Copy it into a folder — save to harddrive. Copy, paste stuff — as needed.