For Mac users this is one hotly contested issue with both sides of the camp getting very defensive about their chosen solution (myself included). This article is written not with the intention of discovering the superior product - a verdict that in my opinion, rests solely on each individuals users needs and preferences - but rather on what each application can and can't do and which one is best suited to your needs.

Be sure to visit the official debate thread and throw your 2c into the ring.

Meet the Contenders
Microsoft Office for Mac dates back to 1989, when the first version was released, a year ahead of the first version of the product for Windows! The latest release, Office 2008 for Mac succeeds the massively outdated Office for Mac 2004 - a suite that in recent years has run about as well as a dog with no legs on Intel processors.


Apple's entry into the office suite market, iWork, has been around since 2005, when the suite contained the second revision of the Keynote (first created as a program for Steve Jobs' personal use and previously sold separately) and the first version of the hybrid word processing/desktop publishing application, Pages. Apple updated iWork in August 2007, further strengthening the suite and positioning itself to directly rival Office for Mac.


Round 1: Software, Price and Value


The one and only version of iWork '08 retails for $99 or $89 with an education discount.

In typical Microsoft fashion, there are three retail versions of Office available as well as upgrade versions. The cheapest is the Home and Student Edition ($229) followed by the Standard Edition ($649) and topped off by the criminally overpriced Media Edition ($849)!

In the category of value for money it really is a one horse race. If you are looking for the cheapest solution for basic use, stop reading now and go and buy a copy of iWork. Personally I do not know how Microsoft can justify the prices they charge for this suite. If you really need a copy of Office 2008 (and not the niche features of the more expensive versions) and have to pay out of your own pocket, you would be a fool not to pay the cheapest amount possible and walk away with a copy of Home and Student Edition.

Round 2: Installation and Features
A trial version of iWork '08 is included on all new Macs as well as with iLife '08. This 30 day, fully functional trial is also available from Apple's website. You can either purchase the iWork suite as a whole or use the built in feature to purchase a serial number from Apple in order to activate your copy. All in all, purchasing and installation is a relatively painless procedure. A standard installation of iWork consumes 690MB of disk space.

My experiences installing Office 2008 were not quite as painless. Overall it was a tedious procedure and a standard install consumed 1.35GB of disk space. On the plus side, we can be thankful that Office 2008 does not require the dreaded 'Activation' feature present in the Windows world, relying solely upon a serial number. After the suite is finished installing, it automatically placed at least 6 unwanted ugly icons into my dock - you would think it would at least ask. Despite trying to, the installer did not find my old version of Office and remove it, perhaps because it was a custom install and not in the default location? Another gripe is the fact that in my case I had to actually launch the Word application 3 times before actually being able to use it. Firstly I was presented with it wanting all my details and to know if they can harass me about my 'user experience' - I declined of course. The next time it was auto-update wanting to know how I wanted to update it - manually. I then had to 'check for updates' and found nothing. Third time lucky and word launched.... My final gripe I only discovered after testing the suite on another Mac, this one with Firefox as default browser instead of Safari. It appears that during installation Office 2008 is kind enough to add several Windows and Office related links to the bookmark bar in Firefox - not happy.

I think I will just come out and say it. I really don't mean this in a negative way but the fact is that iWork is the less powerful product. That being said, in many ways this is a good feature in the fact that what iWork provides probably caters for 80% of computer users who don't need the bloatware usually associated with Microsoft products. iWork will provide pretty much everything that most users want, but still lacks some critical niche features. Of these missing features, Rev A newcomer Numbers is, as expected, the most lacking. Notable omissions from it's feature set include the ability to do any real scientific graphing (error bars, trend lines etc.) as well as Macro support. Pages is a little more polished with only a few less critical features missing; the lack of Endnote support (at this stage, supposedly it's coming) perhaps being the most important. A good comparison of Word vs. Pages features can be found here. As for Keynote, very little is missing here and overall the program provides an excellent package with little room for improvement (although Apple seems to find a way) - some users going as far as calling it one of the best pieces of Apple software ever created. Office 2008 still remains the more feature packed product and for this reason alone will win quite a few users who like to have that potential there.

An important note: This article does not touch on Entourage or any of the other applications included beside the major three in Office 2008. I feel that it is only fair to compare the three key applications bundled with both suites - comparing Mail vs. Entourage and MSN vs. iChat etc. could go on forever...

Round 3: Usability and Compatibility
In this users opinion, iWork wins the usability category hands down - albeit with a small learning curve. It is slightly different than what many from the Windows world are used to and for this reason alone, it scares off many users who simply don't give it a chance - I myself dismissed it at first glance and have now come to love it.

I have to say that going into this I expected the same old crap from Office 2008 but I have been very, very pleasantly surprised. This long overdue update provides us with a far better looking product that is a hell of a lot faster on Intel machines. On a side note, my personal opinion is that despite everything else looking 100x better, the new icons are even uglier than the last set - what is up with that white outline!? So why does iWork win then? Put simply, it is a lot more useable out of the box. The Office 2008 interface can be configured to look and feel a lot better but it isn't - you have to go through the challenge of setting that up yourself - something many users won't bother with or won't know how to do. It is also worth noting that the initial release of Office 2008 has a significant list of known bugs, found here.

Cross platform compatibility is by far one of the most common deciding factors for users. Rather than carrying on about what each will claim to do, I will largely let my results speak for themselves here. I tested a range of documents I have accumulated for School and Uni over the years, each made with different suites and on both operating systems.

It is important to note that iWork '08 can export to all Office formats (excluding new .~x formats) and that tests of iWork created documents have been exported to this format (.doc; .xls and .ppt). iWork can also open .~x formats such as the new and pain in the arse .docx format. Office 2008 can neither open or export to iWork native formats.

Original document - Scientific report created by Pages


Same document in Office 2008 (left) and Office 2007 (Windows XP via VMware) (right)


Original document - Scientific report created by Word 2003 on Windows XP (open in Office 07 on Windows XP via VMware)


Same document in Office 2008 (left) and Pages (right)


In the category of Word processing in most cases compatibility issues were minor formatting or font issues easily fixed. It is important to note here that Pages supports the option of exporting to .pdf which assures your document will look exactly how you left it no matter what system it ends up on. The only downside here is that once exported, the deal is sealed and the .pdf can not be edited. If however you only need to send finished products cross platform for printing etc, I highly recommend (and more often than not use) this method for guaranteeing complete compatibility no matter what. Office 2008 still offers this feature via the Print -> PDF -> Save as PDF feature present in all OS X applications (thanks Bahamut).


Original document - Presentation created in Keynote with default slide template


Same document in Office 2008 (left) and Office 2007 (Windows XP via VMware) (right)


Original document - Presentation created in Powerpoint 2003 on Windows XP (open in Office 2007 on Windows XP via VMware)


Same document in Office 2008 (left) and Keynote (right)


As seen by the tests, the main issues with presentation cross compatibility were font related - an unavoidable heartache really. It is important to note that effects and transitions were not compatible outside the application used to create each presentation - this even included the Windows applications for the most part. In my opinion, the best option for creating a presentation is by far Keynote, however expect issues if forced to present on a Powerpoint only Windows machine. Ideally, use your own Mac to present the show or export to .pdf and use full screen mode to deliver effect free but perfectly formatted slides.

Original document - spreadsheet created in Numbers


Same document in Office 2008 (left) and Office 2007 (Windows XP via VMware) (right) - presented with this Menu


Same document in Office 2008 (left) and Office 2007 (Windows XP via VMware) (right) - same spreadsheet


Original document - spreadsheet created in Excel 2003 on Windows XP (open in Office 2007 on Windows XP via VMware)


Same document in Office 2008 (left) and Numbers (right)


As seen by the tests above, documents created with Numbers contain a table of contents when opened with both versions of Excel. The spreadsheets however looked much the same after navigating to the correct page. Overall I found compatibility between all applications perfect with formatting and formulas remaining intact. It is worth noting though that these were both basic spreadsheets with no graphs.


The Verdict
Taking into account all of the above factors, it really is next to impossible to decide the superior product. When trying to figure out what solution is best for you, consider everything in the article and think about what your needs are. Home users who will only be using the suite for basic word processing, spreadsheets and slideshows and do not need to often send editable, Windows compatible documents between operating systems should seriously consider iWork for the cheap price and ease of use. Heavy office application users however will no doubt be drawn towards Office 2008 for the extra degree of compatibility and more advanced feature set.

The ideal solution is of course to run both - something I will be doing. Pages for all my word processing needs (exporting to .pdf for submission and printing) with Word as a back up. Keynote for every presentation I can use my own laptop or don't need effects with Powerpoint there when I am forced to present off a Windows laptop. I will probably end up using Numbers and Excel 50:50. Numbers provides far better looking spreadsheets and a lot more ease of use while at the same time I need advanced Excel features such as scatter plots and trend lines.

Overall both products are excellent and we should feel blessed that on the Mac we have a choice between two such products. The release of Office 2008 also marks an exciting time for iWork. I for one can't wait to see what Apple comes up with to challenge it...

Excellent article Andrew.

EDIT: looks like I posted this in the wrong thread ... moving it now

Great article ... this is my only issue with moving to a Mac for home use a few years ago. Every office I work in uses windows / MSOffice ... I hate the risk of formatting / font issues when I do some work at home....

Good article.
I have switched back to office from iwork simply because I find it better when accessing fonts and clipart editing.
the other major reasoning being that our school have switched to office 2007 and so use the docx format which is really a great format when incorporating pictures in your word file. File sizes are mch smaller than .doc format

So is Office 2008 available 31 Jan 08 in Aust or were Apple going to commence shipping it 31 Jan 2008? Does anyone know?

Would I pick up local copies tomorrow? the weekend? next week?

Great article,
Perhaps I'll install my iWork trial now after reading this review.
Even just for the fact that I'm curious now about the nice looking (and seemingly simple to use) keynotes and Pages alone..

Thanks.

handy to point out with the versions that using entourage to connect to a exchange mail server only works on standard and media edition.


Not a biggie for some but possibly there is a few people out there using a feature like this

Oh forgot to mention as well... you might want to check your rights and lefts?
Or even rights and rights?
(in your text above our images)

Guh I am shocking sometimes

Thanks - fixed.

great article. Im trying to decide whether my dads business should stay with Office 04, move to iwork or Office 08. We run only macs but deal with clients on PCs.

I'd say it depends on what sort of documents you present to your clients. If you are only presenting finished documents, PDF is the best option anyway, in which case there is no case for MSOffice. If you need collaboration, MSOffice is pretty necessary. Personally, I find Pages to be so much easier that I have both.... I only open up Word for compatibility/collaboration reasons, and do all my word processing in Pages.

Good article Andrew.

This is what Mactalk needs more of.

Keep the good work up.

Thanks for the kind words guys

Taking into account what forgie said,if you do need to send heavily formatted word documents to PC users, there is no doubt in my mind that you should upgrade to Office 2008. It looks, feels and runs 100x better than 2004

Excellent article. My 2c for iWork though. My workplace uses MS Office throughout, probably like many others. As the only Mac user I use iWork and edit and print the MS Office document all the time. No one has any idea that I didn't use Office. Never had any problems. The the tracking feature now in Pages really brings Pages into the Word arena and then into a class of its own.
Chris

As a scientist, the lack of Error bars in Numbers was a pain. Something which I feel needs to be added to the review is that Excel 2008 no longer allows you to add custom error bars which Excel 2004 allowed you to do. Therefore Office:Mac 2008 is completely useless for the academic community due to a lack of Endnote support (Word) and custom Error bars (Excel:2008). Looks like the academic community is stuck using Office:Mac 2004.