iWork, is it worth buying?

X-Istence

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When I am going to upgrade to Tiger I am thinking of buying iWork with it. Would you suggest it, or would you suggest I got for the new version of Office:mac? I just need something to present slide shows in, and i need something i can use to type up school stuff with spelling check in a bunch of different languages (French, Dutch, English, German, Spanish).

I really don't like Word and PowerPoint, but does iWork really live up to the hype?
 
I'd recommend it over Office:Mac, however I have no real use for either therefore can't judge from that perspective. I can say that I don't like the way in which Microsoft try and make their Mac apps pretty... you can just tell they're tried too hard. I find Office to be very clunky and it doesn't feel as native as it should, where-as iWork will do.
 
Oh, it might be worth mentioning that Tiger comes with a demo of iWork (time limited I believe) therefore it may be worth buying Tiger, and holding off on iWork until you've tried it.

Microsoft also offer a downloadable demo of Office:Mac.
 
I've used iWork and it will definitely accomplish your basic word processing and slideshow needs. Pages has a ton of potential, but it's not quite there in my opinion to be a replacement for Word. Some of the advanced functions just aren't as intuitive as they should be, amongst other things. Still, for v1.0 it's a pretty solid app. I will likely buy iWork 2.0 ('06?) when it comes out.
 
'06 should be in the works at the moment.

Can you give examples of what Word offers over iWork? As I say, I have no real use for either, therefore don't really know the features each boast (I've probably used word to no more advantage than Wordpad in my time).
 
I can't think of anything that Pages absolutely can't do that I'm able to do in Word. That being said, I don't do much of the really advanced stuff, so I'm no expert.

My main problem with Pages is the "ease of use" factor, especially when working with the templates. The templates, by the way, are AWESOME... they can just be difficult if you really want to customize them. Basically, it's just a matter of things not working the way they should -- meaning that something simple is too complex.

The biggest complaint I have with Pages is that I have never been able to figure out how to have pasted text formatted to match the current document. In Word, you are asked whether to keep the formatting or match the current document formatting. That is very helpful, and Pages needs something like that.

I haven't used Keynote much because I haven't needed to, but it seems pretty nice based on my limited time with it.
 
I know it doesnt answer your question, but oh well. You can always download openoffice or abiword. These two are great programs; I use abiword for simple essays and such, and openoffice for spread sheets and powerpoint
 
SPeedY_B said:
Oh, it might be worth mentioning that Tiger comes with a demo of iWork (time limited I believe) therefore it may be worth buying Tiger, and holding off on iWork until you've tried it.

Microsoft also offer a downloadable demo of Office:Mac.


I have Office X.

Muzikool: I usually paste text, and then reformat it when i am done anyways.
 
X-Istence said:
Muzikool: I usually paste text, and then reformat it when i am done anyways.

Plagiarism saves time. :p
 
I tried iWork out for a while. Pages accomplished what I needed it to just fine, but I was unhappy with the user interface, and the overall feel of the program (awkward placing of certain things/formatting). Word is much better in that respect (plus I'm used to where everything is and how things are done). Personally I wouldn't buy it. Although pages has the speed and features, I prefer Word's ease of use. Keynote, on the otherhand, I think is a really nice program. I would use it over powerpoint any day, but then again I don't do very many presentations. Try it out and see for yourself.


:edit: i just read muzikool's post and realized that i just restated everything he said, but i'll keep this post anyway :edit:
 
Good to see someone else who has used it and agrees on the same issues, though. :)
 
Yeah I've tried iWork (Pages) and it just didn't feel like a word processor like Word does, though I'm not a fan of Word at all. If I had my way I'd pay a monkey in banana's to format whatever it is that I was typing up. :D
 
If all you need is basic word-processing functionality, I'd go with zeke_mo's suggestion and try OpenOffice first. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does the basics nicely, includes spell-check (what word-processor doesn't these days?) and it's interoperable with Microsoft's formats if you need to share files with others.

If it's good enough for your purposes, it'll save you some cash that you can use for something else. :)
 
have you tried OpenOffice for mac? give it a go might be good and have all that you want for free
 
There is no Cacoa interface for OpenOffice, so it would run under X11, which is one of the reasons i don't want to use it, as then you can't use the standard fonts, and it looks fugly.

Abi-Word is outdated, and have never liked the way it works personally (I have that problem with a lot of software)
 
X-Istence said:
There is no Cacoa interface for OpenOffice, so it would run under X11, which is one of the reasons i don't want to use it, as then you can't use the standard fonts, and it looks fugly.

Abi-Word is outdated, and have never liked the way it works personally (I have that problem with a lot of software)

I agree. Open Office looks like CRAP on a mac.
 
Well, I'd say just stick to MS Office then. From what I've seen, and as most people mentioned in this thread, Pages doesn't really feel like a word processor. It looks more like Publisher than Word to me. Keynote does look like it can do fancier stuff than Powerpoint though.
 

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