iWork vs Microsoft Office

For me, there's only one reason for still keeping Word: footnotes management. Indeed, I'm using plenty of them, and Pages, unfortunately, doesn't support cross-pages footnotes.

I use them both, but Pages is my every day word processor for all but the most complex documents with extensive footnotes and complex tables of contents.

See these earlier posts of mine. http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8806079#8806079.

If you must use ms word, go with a virtual machine and use word for windows, it is far superior to the mac version (unfortunately).

Personally I use *iText Pro* because it is one mean, clean, typing machine…

Sometimes overly complex is just that.

As I sit here supporting all the people with their problems and issues in Pages, I think isn't it great that I don't have any of these problems doing my own work!

Sometimes I think I should spend more time over in the *iText Express* and *iText Pro* forums helping users out with their problems and constantly finding solutions to how to do things. But then I remember there isn't a forum and there doesn't seem to be a demand for one, as users just happily get on with their work.

So here I am again. 🙂

It really depends on your needs. If you only casually need to use productivity apps, there is no doubt that iWork will do the job. iWork creates better looking documents/spreadsheets/presentations, and while there is, afterall, is slight learning curve, it's pretty easy to get used to.

I see that you're a student like I am. While I own both suites (terrible waste of money!), I now only use iWork (after '09 came out). As I'm a grad student in the humanities, a word processor is what I need the most, and Pages is a much more stable, responsive and straightforward application compared to Word. Styles are handled in a much simpler way and if you have to include graphics or images in your work, Pages gives you better control over the visual elements than Word does. Bibliographic software, such as Bookends (far superior to Endnote) works well with Pages, and iWork just integrates really well with iLife and the native OS X apps.

On the Windows side, it appears to me that no one ever questions if you really need Microsoft Office – it's almost considered a must-have. On the Mac side, however, you find so many great alternatives that it is really worth considering if Microsoft Office is the best for you. If you just need a good academic word processor, Mellel is another option, though I personally chose not to use it as it handles .doc and .docx files really badly. Nisus Writer Pro uses the rtf format, which can be read by almost any word processor out there. Personally I write my drafts in Scrivener and exports the document into Pages for editing and layout.

The only big advantage of using Microsoft Office is its file formats: that it uses today's de facto standard formats. However, I have already tried sending drafts from Pages to my supervisors via iwork.com, and it has worked just fine (they can then make comments straight from the browser or download my Pages document as pdf or Word document)! If you send Pages documents to your profs via iwork.com I'm sure they'll be terribly impressed (especially if they're Windows users)!

Good luck with the choices. We all have different needs and tastes; I went for iWork, others prefer Office. But before you handing your savings over to Microsoft, be sure to check the free 30-day trial of iWork first!

iWork is a great product but it isn't for everyone and that accounts for perhaps up to 50% of the posts and complaints you'll come across in this discussion group. Office was designed by Microsoft to perform nearly any job that nearly anyone might want to do. iWork was designed by Apple to perform jobs that consumer users and SOHO users might want to do. If you are a high school student, iWork fits the bill. Own a retail outlet, a café, do financial planning, sell real estate? iWork is a good fit in most cases. Are you working on your PhD, produce glossy magazines, work in a Microsoft dominated office? iWork may not be such a good fit.

I straddle the two lines. Most of the time I use iWork but a few times a year I need to collaborate with colleagues and Word is a must. Long ago I designed an Excel spreadsheet to track my investments and the idea of redesigning it (without macros, no less) appeals not at all. So for me the answer is both but only you can determine which course is best for you.

produce glossy magazines,

Definitely and decidedly not. This is not supported in Microsoft Office.

When the Save as PDF support is installed for Microsoft Windows 6 (Vista), saving into PDF strips source ICC profiles. This means that what is saved is simply the colourants whereas the colours they are supposed to form are suddenly undefined. This is a disaster for professional prepress.

/hh

Since I was comparing Office to iWork I can see where you might think I was suggesting glossy magazine output wasn't for Pages but was for Word. But I most certainly was not - I was simply pointing out something that Pages isn't good at. I don't know anything about what Microsoft's PDF output does to color but I do know that I can't trust Word's text handling due to font issue.

I also read the Word can iWork can't by implication.

There are many other reasons why MsWord is not suitable for color commercial printing besides those Henrik mentions.

Pages actually does do a better job than MsWord on this but that is only flattery by comparison. The truth is that both, in the end, are useless for the task.

Ditto that. I like +*iText Express*+ too. It's TextEdit with a few extra conveniences. I also have Office:mac 2008 (a real train wreck) and iWork '08 (very nice), but sometimes less really is more.

Joel_M,

Isn't it absolutely magic!!!

I use *iText Pro* for everything.

Word Processing, Text, simple presentations, simple DTP, tutorials, website snippets, simple multi-media, managing downloads and links, references, To-do lists, catalogues, research etc. etc. The list just goes on and on.

There are only a few features I could possibly ask for. Maybe floating resizable graphics and if the author could bring it more into line with other cocoa apps using Inspector and Media Browser palettes, like Bean.

I really love iWork 09. I've been using the trial version. I really really want to use it as my sole productivity software but unfortunately iWork 09 has some limitations in the stuff I do for work.

I teach English in Japan and so I need good support for Japanese texts. Unfortunately, iWork's Pages has limitations when it comes to this. I cannot use 'furigana' (Japanese phonetic reading that you place on top of any text - Chinese characters or non-Japanese texts) on Pages. I also do word processing in Japanese and unfortunately Pages do not offer vertical writing. Office 2008 offers all of these features. But I just love the gorgeous templates Pages has to offer. At the same time, I also like Word's SmartArt Graphics (stuff that make your tables, texts, bullet lists more eye candy).

I also do quiz/game shows in my classes using a presentation program. For this, I have no choice but to use Powerpoint 2008 because Keynote does not support 'visited links'. I do a lot of Jeopardy-type of shows for my classes. As for the main screen for choosing your questions, I use hyperlinks that when I click, the slide for that question will come up. And so, when I'm done with the question, I have to go back to the main screen. In Powerpoint, that link you've already viewed will show in a different colour, telling you that you've already answered that question. That same link in Keynote still shows the same colour as before and there is no way of telling you that you've already answered that question. It's just too bad I really like Keynote's transitions, animation effects.

Entourage - I have no use for it. I am happy with Apple's Mail, Address Book and iCal. The only problem I have with Mail is that it hangs all the time... I read somewhere on the web that the problem is linked to gMail. I use gMail as my main email account (via Apple Mail). But I still like Mail's simple yet powerful interface.

Excel - I can live without. I only use spreadsheet for my personal budgetting. I like using iWork 09's Numbers for this. Just one small problem, I can't do Set Page Area on Numbers and therefore I end up printing the whole page even though I just need to print small parts of my worksheet. I love Numbers because it makes working with spreadsheets fun and it's really easy to use compared to Excel.

I have always used Office on a Mac (Office 2004). And so I really have no problem getting myself around with the Office 2008 suite. I was a ClarisWorks and AppleWorks (iWorks' predecessors) user as well but I always find myself going back to Office.

I have just recently upgraded my Office 2004 to Office 2008 since I heard many good features 2008 has to offer... So far I'm happy.... Office 2008 hasn't crashed on me yet, despite of complaints all over the internet. Most of my old documents are in Office format and I really didn't want to reformat my docs if I have to use them again... iWork does open Office docs but they will never look the same as the original. That's why I decided to stick with Office.... But now, I've been thinking of getting iWork 09 as well since the price is not that bad for the good stuff you will also get with iWork. It's nice to have it around when you need it -- especially Keynote which I will only use if I'm doing presentations that does not involve hyperlinks.

My verdict -- if you have the money, get both 🙂

Message was edited by: SunBurn

Message was edited by: SunBurn

If your primary use is word processing and you need to generate complex footnotes, work with Endnote, and collaborate with Microsoft colleagues - then Pages is not ideal. If your word processing is considerably simpler than the aforementioned, then Pages has much going for it. If you can afford both, then get both. (Please do be aware there are real problems with office2008 and Endnote.)

And... finally, for people who use a word processor to write personal correspondence, do an occasional flyer, write an undergraduate essay or term paper, or write a Christmas letter with pictures of family members, then Pages is perfect. I would even guess that most people are not "office" workers who collaborate with office colleagues, hence they have no need for the depth of MS Office.

Entourage - I have no use for it. I am happy with Apple's Mail, Address Book and iCal. The only >problem I have with Mail is that it hangs all the time... I read somewhere on the web that the problem >is linked to gMail. I use gMail as my main email account (via Apple Mail). But I still like Mail's simple >yet powerful interface.

OK. This is not so true. Today, I tried using Entourage.

And... it was not too bad. Actually, I kind of like it because it only hung once when i was trying to drag all my emails (as individual emails) from Mail to Entourage... but that was it.... as opposed to Mail's frequent hanging. I like the Notes and My Day feature of Entourage. I'm going to try it for a while and see if I can live using it.... hehe. But mind you, it took me a long time to figure out where my emails went to when I imported Mail using the automated import option. I had to export my mailboxes as mbox from Mail and drag it to Entourage manually! I also had to create a new identity to clean up my database?? AND I have to reinput birthdays from the imported (Apple
AddressBook-synched) Entourage address book to my Entourage calendar. It was a pain. Entourage is definitely not for novices! We'll see how it goes.... Cheers!