Which do you prefer, ILife '08 or Office for Mac '04? Since Office for Mac isn't in universal binary, it runs slower than the IWork applications (which is). Excel seems to be especially slow unless you jack up your ram from 1GB to at least 2. Numbers on the other hand, is fast and seems pretty functional and easy to use too. So I'm trying to determine if I can totally wean myself from Office so I can work faster. Besides, I'm tired of helping make Bill Gates richer My first take on Page, is that it seems more intuitive, esp the text box and media button features, all within easy reach. And when I open the screen and begin typing, the font shows up larger and easier to read with my aging eyes. I just downloaded the 30-day trial so I have yet to make a full report using Page. I also tried out Keynote, and the templates really look slick. Again, making a presentation on Keynote seems easier and more intuitive. The media function seems to be begging to be used. I like how clicking media opens up a new window to the folder where your pix are stored...cool. Almost begs to be used every time, in both Page and Keynote. Have any of you formed an opinion regarding the two suites? Will the new Office for Mac (2008?) be a universal binary application set? Because if there's one app I like in that suite is Entourage. Thanks ahead for any opinions or comments...
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 well..being a long time pc user who eventually bought an ibook when i first tried Pages, I was pretty confused I had problems doing some stuff which I knew how to do in Office. Both Pages and Numbers look great but if you are need to change a lot of files with other pc users, you will still need Microsoft Office. Especially with Excel files...I belive Numbers lacks about 100 functions that Excel has so that excel file may not import properly. Keynote presentations defintely look better, but exporting them to Powerpoint does not always work properly. Especially if you added animations, they will appear one on top of another in Powerpoint. As for making Bill Gates richer,....it's a chioce of making Bill Gates richer...or Steve Jobs richer....both already too rich I would think hehe. Anyways, I would love to use iWork exclusively but still can't live without Microsoft Office..
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 As the days pass, and as I continue to tinker with IWorks, I think I'll have to agree with you there. In terms of functionality, setting up an outline in Word is easier to do than in Pages (or I may just not have gotten the hang of it yet). Thanks for the heads-up on exporting Keynote presentations too. At this point, I think Bill Gates is still the richest man in the world with 56 billion dollars ('06), or is it someone else for 2007? Wish he could give me even just a billion dollars!
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 Numbers completed the OS Xperience in my opinion. By the way, I've biases on OS X and seeing the Numbers release this year sealed an exciting love affair with iWork. Now I can ditched M$ Office - essentially for the slow version updates and support provided by M$. From the initial iWork suite, I first used Keynote - Before pages - Text Edits works for me. Now on Pages - slowly working on personal documents like CV, Contracts, Invoices etc. Numbers - slowly working on data files, grades etc.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 slightly OT: can one use iWork to open and edit MS Office files?
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 i think Mr. Gates has been 'dethroned' by a mexican telecoms tycoon whose name i forgot in keeping with the thread, i prefer ms office.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 Hybrid: Pages, Excel, Keynote - that's my preference. By necessity - PowerPoint because that's what my son is using in the computer lab at Zobel. Have to tutor him with that too.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 having worked with pages i like how much faster it is (bec of the native intel set up). i use pages now instead of word. if i want to impress during a presentation i'll use keynote. but powerpoint remains the standard
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 yup. you dont even have to export the files you just open them up directly. something i actually had to get used to. i always converted/exported the pages files. but you dont even have to do that to open in word.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 i know we can open MS office files w/o conversion in iWork but i didnt know we can open iWork-formatted files using MS office. hmmm, ill try that out. tnx for the info! BTW, ive already uninstalled MS office for mac 04 from my macbook since getting iWork 08. i dont like redundant apps.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 I still prefer MS Office word/excel as against Pages/Number because I'm quite used on the functions and commands, but they are both good apps. Perhaps what we really need is a new MS OFC suite, a universal binary version. With regards to Presentation app I prefer Keynote than PPT. Hope the New MS OFC Suite would soon be released.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 I think MS Office '08 is on the horizon, and in universal binary...which will be good for fans of MSO. lawrencebosox45, I can open office word docs from Pages, but not vice-versa. Maybe you're referring to opening Pages docs from Office 2007 for Windows? or for Windows 2003? Anyway, I can export all IWork files to PDF or the equivalent Office app so that's pretty good. I also like the templates in all Iwork applications. The online video tutorials make it all seem so easy and enjoyable to use IWorks Now if I can just make Mail and Address Book as functional as Entourage, I can say good bye to Office...well, maybe except for Powerpoint. Now to tinker some more...
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 I've tried Keynote and Pages (first release) and find them quite easy to use and are certainly great in terms of stunning presentations and lay outs. Still sceptical about Numbers, since much of the business world still uses excel a lot and it may be difficult to exchange files that have all the bells and whistles in Windows Excel. My office still has Microsoft Office as the standard.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 I know iWork is capable of opening Office files. I'm interested to know though if there are certain Office features or formatting that don't show up correctly in iWork. And also, when you export files to Office format from iWork, what features get lost?
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 after using iWork for some time now... i've totally ditched using MS Office. Am a heavy user of word docs, excel sheets and presentations too... At the start i was skeptical too about using iWork, but it seems with iWork '08 they worked out all the kinks. Work is so much more fun now. Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations look so much better, easier to use and blazing fast.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 You have a point. But what I think Numbers has done is take something as boring as a spreadsheet and turn it into something stunning and inspiring. That I think is a feat in itself. It made me think outside of the normal Excel-way of doing things which I've grown so accustomed to. I'm still using Office at work, but now, when using Excel, I'm more conscious of my spreadsheet's audience and the point I'm trying to make with all the numbers and formulas.
Re: IWork '08 vs. Office for Mac '04 sorry i made a mistake. you can't open up word files directly in pages. sorry guys. i meant that you can open word files directly in pages. sorry again.
