Apple’s iWork 09 vs Microsoft Office and the Mac problem
Filed under: Computers, Software | By: Daniel
Posted on: January 7, 2009 | 14 Comments
The Macworld Expo 2009 saw Apple release details of a few new products and one of these included it’s new productivity suite, iWork ‘09. Now how will Apple’s latest office software stack up against Microsoft Office?
PC World ask the question “Is iWork ‘09 an Office Competitor?”, and it seems the very first point that hits us and them is support for Windows. While Microsoft Office has both Windows and Mac OS versions, iWork 09 is not supported by Windows and only works with Mac. This alone is a major problem with their software.
Apple’s iWork 09 will have to rely on its compatibility with Office files; the presentation software, spreadsheet program and word processor can save in Microsoft’s formats but if some of Apple’s features will not pass on to Redmond’s formats. Have a read of what PC World make of this latest competitor to MS Office and feel free to share your views.
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That’s nuts. Apple uses iWork and iLife and lures for switchers. There’s no logic is producing versions that run on Windows. Apple is, fundamentally, a hardware company, and it uses its great software to sell hardware.
Matt is completely right.
The point is to create preference for their hardware. And it is working.
I run an *all Mac company (web consultancy) and we use keynote exclusively vs powerpoint. I am encouraging the managers and the staff to start using Pages instead of Word and Numbers instead of Excel.
I don’t care if they don’t have all the features that Word and Excel have they are 100 times easier to use.
Keynote is the best presentation software ever. I would marry keynote if I wasn’t already married.
Wow- I’m going to start using keynote seriously right now, just because you say you would marry it.
That’s quite an endorsement.
Now if only I could be sure it would run on those windows-environments I have to give presentations in….
Actually, Keynote presentations can be saved as Powerpoints, there is a lot of cross-compatibility there. I haven’t had a chance to test it out myself yet however.
I’m getting a macbook for university and don’t know whether I should get iwork or msoffice. Iwork is $110 cheaper than msoffice for macs and after spending so much on a laptop I feel more inclined to go with the cheaper software. On the other hand I will be more familiar with the programs in ms office as I currently use microsoft office on my home computer. Msoffice has onenote which is a program that I feel would be usefull for organising notes etc. I also beleive that msoffice comes with windows messenger, which i’m not sure how hard that is to download on a mac without a disk. Any insight/advice would be helpful and greatly appreciated
Just a heads-up: MS Office for Mac does not include OneNote. It only includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. Check out Notebook 3.0 by Circus Ponies. It has a more intuitive layout, but the problem is that it does not feature whiteboarding. Hope that helps.
There is no need for one note because ilife already comes with textedit and stickey
Hi
I too am a student I submit assignments online. I have got iwork 09 (which is really cheap for students) and I also got office for mac 08, which I got from a company called software for students, which was itself really cheap. iwork is head and shoulders above office but if you send pictures and text boxes from it as a word document, sometimes things do move or there are export differences. So all i do workwise with office for mac is make sure it exports right before i send it. So my advice is get both but do search for the office to get the best student prices. If i had to go for just 1, i work every time.
By the way, just google messenger for mac and its free to download.
I have just updated and saved all of my Word files with a downloaded trial Office ‘08 for Macs; I have a Mac iBook G4. I would like the most reasonably priced software that will be compatible so I can open all the files I have saved, some of which are Powerpoint presentations. Would I be able to use iWork to open what I have saved? Or would I be better off sticking with Microsoft Office for Macs ‘08?
Do you all think that OpenOffice 3.0 is good enough for simple word processing? It has the advantage of being free, And my PC friends have no problem opening the OpenOffice documents on their PCs as if I were using MS Office.
OpenOffice 3.1 FTW!!!
i made a huge mistake earlier this year, i got the chance to buy my first laptop and i was choosing between the £700 (ish) dell 1735 and the macbook (£750) boy what a mistake did i make. i look at the Apple keynotes and can only dream…i wish i could turn back time and make that decision again. the problem was i thought that mac wasn’t compatable AT ALL with windows. now i know that you can actually run windows on a mac let alone interchange software. dont buy dell laptops by the way. they heat up to quickly and vista really does suck EVERY LAST DROP FROM IT. i think i may start saving up for a mac; but by god was that an expensive mistake. i just wish apple did iwork ‘09 for microsoft. and yes i am a self confessed apple freak wannabe.
iWork has a save to pdf feature which i think solves all the problems related to others needing to read my files. I dont really care is they are unable to edit them as I prefer to not allow them to do so. This solves all the problems for cross compatibility and I think would be excellent for students who need to submit stuff online.