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09-11-2007, 08:52 AM
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Member
Group: Regulars
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New mac user - Office or iWork?
Hi,
I am going to be purchasing my first mac shortly and am wondering if I should purchase Office or iWork? How easy is the switch from Windows Office to iWork? I mean the difference in price is not that huge so I could stick with Office but is iWork a better product?
What are other peoples thoughts?
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09-11-2007, 08:59 AM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Adelaide, SA
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Office 2004 is a PPC application, made for older macs, however does work on the new intel macs. albeit rather slowly...
iWork at least is an Apple product, hence should run much quicker. I personally rather stick with iWork (as it opens/saves office files anyway, but can't save docx).
I wouldn't mind checking out office 2008 whence it comes out, but till then, yeah, iWork is great, after seeing Keynote in comparison to Powerpoint.. yeah.. I know what I'll use for keynotes/lectures...
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09-11-2007, 08:59 AM
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Beware the Robot Mafia
Group: Administrators
Location: St. Albans, Melbourne
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You can download a trial of iWork: http://www.apple.com/iwork/trial - so you can check it out yourself before you buy 
Macs come with a trial of Office also, so you can compare the two also.
Failing that, you can always run Office 2003/2007 within Parallels/VMWare Fusion if the Mac version of Office doesn't do it for ya. |
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09-11-2007, 09:01 AM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
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i like to look at it this way
if you use office you will pick up iwork easily
after you use iwork you will not want to touch office again
__________________
iMac 20"| Macbook Air | Apple TV | iPhone | iPod Touch
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09-11-2007, 09:04 AM
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That TAM guy
Group: Regulars
Location: Melbourne
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Get both. I am currently running office 2004 on my Macbook and it is slow, but not annoyingly so. If you get Office 2004, you get an upgrade to 2008 when it is released.
iWork is nice, but nowhere near as complete as Office is. If you need simple things such as Error bars in excel, then numbers (part of iWork) can't do it.
__________________
WANTED: VIDEO INPUT CARD FOR 5500/225 TO MAKE TV TUNER WORK
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09-11-2007, 11:47 AM
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Resident Hippie
Group: Forum Leaders
Location: Brisbane
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I honestly wouldnt pay for Office....
iWork is just that much better. If you need advanced spreadsheet features, maybe get Office for Exce alone...but Pages and Keynote just shit over everything Office (on Windows as well, imo) has to offer.
Who cares if it doesnt save docx....that format is more trouble than it is worth!
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09-11-2007, 11:49 AM
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Widgeteer
Group: Forum Leaders
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gameon
if you use office you will pick up iwork easily
after you use iwork you will not want to touch office again
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Well said
Keynote is quite possibly one of the best applications Apple has ever made.
If you need maximum compatibility with other Office using folk, then Office is worth looking at. If you don't, then iWork is a great way to go. |
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09-11-2007, 12:00 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Sunshine Coast - QLD
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Why not try the FREE NeoOffice, while waiting for the Intel-native Office 2008 ?
http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php
__________________
A consience is what hurts when everything else feels so good...
MacBookPro 17" & Dual G4
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09-11-2007, 12:04 PM
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MacTalk Podcaster
Group: Regulars
Location: seaford.vic.au
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cien
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Seconded.
It imitates Office better than Office does.
Office 2004 was bundled free with Applecare when I bought my imac - I haven't broken the shrinkwrap yet becasue NeoOffice is so much better (and more importantly so much less shit)
Yay. Feel the free love. |
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09-11-2007, 07:32 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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iWork, but it won't serve your every purpose so use NeoOffice as a back up.
Also with iWork you will need to print everything to PDF for sending to others unless you are wanting them to edit document. If that is the case then you might be better off with Neo.
__________________
Morgs
www.ted.com Get all of your inspiration in one place. |
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09-11-2007, 08:21 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Adelaide
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i'm not sure if this has already been said, I' haven't read the posts, but I would say use Office simply for maximum compatiblity seeing as macs are in the minority it makes sense.
That said, MS Office for Mac isn't really that painful.  |
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09-11-2007, 08:49 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: Townsville, Queensland
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iWork
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09-11-2007, 09:03 PM
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Veni, vidi, vici
Group: Regulars
Location: Hobart
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I use a combination of iWork and NeoOffice. If you don't need to deal with lots of documents that are heavily formatted in Office these work great.
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09-11-2007, 09:14 PM
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Banned
Group: Banned Users
Location: Surfers Paradise
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cien
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Why bother with that.
iWorks '08 is a supurb application, before that I was useing, (and still am for certain tasks), Appleworks6.
I see no need for MS Office, its a waste of space on your Mac in my opinion.
I have a part time job that requires me to swap Excel spreadsheets nightly with the Phillipines.
They open flawlessly in iworks, and save as excel as required. Applworks 6 is also up to this task, albeit a little slower and with a lot less flair!
Just a point.
I am am much impressed with the way quicklook can instantly peek at excel spreadsheets! even though it has to convert them first.
Stay away from MS applications on your Mac in my opinion!  |
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10-11-2007, 06:26 PM
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Regular
Group: Regulars
Location: melbourne
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Even on PPC MS Office '04 could be slow. Just too bloated. In fact the lag time between keystrokes and text appearing in Word prompted me to give it the boot and buy iWork. Despite being a heavy Office user in the past I'm glad to be rid of it.
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