MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Jan 30, 09 - 10:05 am Comment from: Demon

No one really need Microsoft Office.
iWork is a much better choice.

I've tossed Office from all my computers and couldn't be happier. iWork is a sleek, fast easy to use efficient system that puts Office to shame. But don't tell my boss Mr. Gates, he's already mad at me for chunking my Zune and using an iPhone.

Jan 30, 09 - 10:17 am Comment from: Ottawa Mark

I wouldn't agree with the "fully compatible with Microsoft Office" line..."Partially compatible" is more like it. It's not uncommon for relatively simple customized formatting in one program to not turn out quite right in the other.

That said, for generally basic stuff, I usually don't have trouble switching between the two...

Jan 30, 09 - 10:21 am Comment from: Zune Tang®

Why do you MAC lemmings get so excited about MAC's Microsoft Office wannabe software? The copiers in Cupertino are running at full throttle. Again. Just get the real thing. Ditch your imitation Windows machine and buy a PC running Office and be done with it already.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Jan 30, 09 - 10:23 am Comment from: Famous Grouse

Wow, a positive review from CNET. This month's check from Redmond must have bounced.

But seriously, what is the deal with Mail? Did they stop to think that anyone running iWork must have OS X which comes with a free mail program that is pretty comparable to the iWork apps as far as being adequate for let's say >90% of all users? Just because it's not bundled with the rest of iWork, they spin a negative point of it? Typical CNET.

Jan 30, 09 - 10:56 am Comment from: disposableidentity

We can do everything we need in iWork, and it's faster and better looking.

A company of 12, and we now only have one copy of Office "just in case".

Jan 30, 09 - 11:15 am Comment from: chaz

There are lots of plug-ins for excel that will hold users back. Also, integration with ERP systems like Oracle, Sap, Epicor, etc will also hold back adoption

Jan 30, 09 - 11:28 am Comment from: Jubei

Unless your a financial officer or wear the hat of "Master Beancounter" you won't need Office at all. iWork does the job and produces beautiful documents.

iWork 09 is awesome, but pages still runs slow. Which is why I still use Bean for text editing. Any graphical collage it's back to pages.

Keynote is still a winner.

Numbers, theres just not a split pane. Large tables still run too slow on them. And theres still that lack of Applescript to replace VBA/Macros. I'd love to get rid of macros all together with numbers. But thats not happening soon... dang

Jan 30, 09 - 11:38 am Comment from: DLMeyer

iWorks is a great suite of SOHO software ... but do you really think it's ready for the Enterprise market? Sure, it can take care of 90% of what they do there - 99%, if they were forced to use it - but there are quite a few things it can't manage. Which is OK by me.
I love it. I switched early and got my wife to switch with '08. But ... I'm not an Enterprise user, nor do I even communicate with them regularly.
PS: you need to roll Bento into the package.

I think it is interesting that nearly every review I read of iWork 09 talks about how cool it is that data from Numbers can be linked into Pages documents, and that it automatically updates.

Gee, we had that capability supported at the system level (and used by many applications) a decade ago in Mac OS9. It was called Publish and Subscribe.

As is often the case, I guess we make progress by going Back to the Future.

My understanding is that the new '09 version DOES include Applescript. BTW, it also includes the equivalent of pivot tables.
Jake

Jan 30, 09 - 12:34 pm Comment from: Micro Me

"Do you really need Microsoft Office?"

Been here, said this, many times. 'Fraid I do.

When you're the sole Mac in a PC workplace, and swap Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files daily (sometimes hourly) with your colleagues, only Office will cut it.

First, there are enough glitches surrounding Mac - PC transfers in Office (e.g., Track Changes) without risking the additional formatting imperfections of iWork - Windoze Office conversions. I already have IT's evil eye upon me, and I sure don't want to give them extra ammunition.

Second, my workmates sometimes need to sit down at my computer and deal with something on screen. The last thing I need is for them to be staring at their file in a different program.

Third, it's about perception. If you're seen to be using Office, you're more likely to be tolerated by IT. Admittedly, that's no longer working in my case, but it has helped keep them at bay for years.

iWork is good and getting better, but it's not a viable solution for Mac users in my situation.

Jan 30, 09 - 12:45 pm Comment from: thethirdshoe

Just ordered family packs of iWork and iLife from Amazon. Saved $10 on each.

I use Keynote on a regular basis. It is awesome and far surpasses Powerpoint in almost every regard.

I use pages more and more, getting away from MS Word.

I started using numbers a few months ago, after many years of Lotus 1-2-3 (remember that?) and Excel, it takes a bit of getting used to but I find that the more I get used to working with it, the more I like what I can do with it.

Over all I am very pleased and the price is right too!

The choice between iWork and MS Office is almost 100% dependent on how much interaction you're going to have with MS Office users. If you constantly interact with MS Office users, you're going to want to convert them...or reluctantly use MS Office.

I'd really like to be 100% Microsoft free. I'm getting close.

The gap is getting smaller and the sands of time are against M$. iWork 08 has been great. There's always room for improvement, though. I'd love to see the ability to output multiple tables from Numbers to one sheet only and have it look identical in Excel. Overall, though, I have to say from a graphics point of view, it's far superior to anything M$ Office can try to attempt. Try debating that one, Zune, heh. Office destroys vectors (saved from Illustrator, etc) and they always look perfect in iWork. I would also love to see a cmyk mode in iWork apps for true print-worthy output. Although I have to jump through a few hoops when saving Illustrator artwork out to Word-compatible files for my design customers, it's sure a lot better than working with Office. Office fails miserably on many things to do with graphics.

It would be a lot sweeter if I ran my own shop and used only one format. Word/Pages is not an issue and for simple spreadsheets, Excel/Numbers transitions are fine too.

PowerPoint/Keynote conversions are usually minor disasters. I spend between 20 - 40 minutes tweaking a file that I sent to PowerPoint 2007 from Keynote. Font sizes spaz out, embedded pdfs are a nightmare and I have to do all this correction in PowerPoint, which BLOWS in terms of usability by comparison.

I use OpenOffice. It doesn't cost anything and can be set to permanently write in MS Office formats. (Unless I have totally missed something, in iWork, you have to choose to save in MS Office format every time you save.)

"Gee, we had that capability supported at the system level (and used by many applications) a decade ago in Mac OS9. It was called Publish and Subscribe."

And it was done in Windows and OS2 nearly two decades ago. Why is OSX so far behind from that perspective? C'mon Apple, you're catching up on basics that have been around for donkeys years!

I'm not terribly impressed with iWork '09. I'd pay for an upgrade from '08 but there's no way I'm paying the original price just to add a few features I'll hardly benefit from.

the funny thing is, Office has been out, and selling, for ages, but most people only use the basic features.

Now that iWork has most of those features (commonly used), most of Office's business is up for grabs. (of course, since iWork doesn't run on Windows, they don't compete)

I just loooove the new Pages, the whole thing is beautiful, great work iWork team. I don't have to use MS stuff anymore.

First it isn't MAC it is Mac. MAC = Media Access Control.
Second iWork doesn't want to be (notice my correct spelling) MS Office. It does things differently and 99% better than MS Office
Third, it's MS that has it's copiers running overtime. Check Windows history you'll see that to be true.
Finally, Windows is a imitation Mac. Do do diligence check you're history, Windows always has been a imitation almost everything.

Do get your facts correct.

Bubba Jones

Fourth, sarcasm is so often missed by the stupid