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iWork 08 vs MS Office 2004


onizuka
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Hi people

 

I'm working on a very important report for school right now, using Microsoft Word 2004. I haven't used it a lot in the past, and I have to say that I am very surprised. On the PC, Word is just fine, the 2003 version was okay, and I think Work 2007 is very cool to work with.

But on the Mac, it's such a piece of :D !!!

How dare Bill Gates say he never shipped a better version of Office than Office:Mac ??

 

Word:Mac is definitely the most counterproductive word processor I've ever used.

First, it is SLOW. On my machine, stuff like Adobe CS3 run smoothly, but Word is just like it was running on an old Pentium III... It takes forever to scroll, correct typos, open documents and fomat text... Maybe Rosetta has something to do with that issue? I dunno, but it :censored2: .

Second, SCROLLING. What is that? It doesn't show the contents of the document you are scrolling through!! So while you are typing, you want to refer to something you wrote a few pages before, it takes you half an hour to find it using the :censored2: scrolling... And as I said, it's even more annoying since it's terribly slow...

Third, the formatting palette... Okay, nice transparency effect in there, definitely eye-catching... But what about those retractable menus? Each time you select something they will close, forcing you to reopen them. That's terribly annoying, especially when the menu categories are different of those you're used to see on the PC.

 

Well, I don't want to annoy you guys with other complaints about Word:Mac, you get the idea, I don't like it.

 

Has anyone tried iWork '08? Is it like other Apple software : inspirating and easy to use? Or is it just a cheap thing like MS Works, lacking a bunch of features you would expect in a word processor?

Does it support the .doc format?

 

Thank you for your attention :)

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Yes. I use iwork (mainly pages) for my schoolwork. Very easy to use, new iwork '08 interface is much better than 06 version. You are able to open .doc formats, but saving you can only use .pages, but you can export to .doc. It CANNOT open .docx format. That is the format of the work 07. Any documents there have to be saved in 03 version. I hope this helps.

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well, u're on a hack.. dun expect rosetta apps to run at amazing speeds like that of the real mac counterparts... but still, office 2004 is indeed quite a piece of trash, considering the fact that its 2004 technology that is long long due to a update (but m$ is pouring resources into trying to delay vista as long as they can)

 

i personally went with iwork ever since the iwork 07 ( or was it 06?) route.... My reports were so much more fantastic and more creative than my peers.. (considering i'm in architecture line)... things arent so dead flat and static than M$ office 2004... even my resume was more exciting than my peers who used boring M$ to write theirs....

 

anyway, my personal advice, if u wanna hand in a good piece of work and not jus some other trash, and u want ur tutor to go wow! then iwork 08 is the way to go... get the trial package... its full featured....

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I just got iWork 08. I love it. I had been using M$ for my mac for close to a year and it's... eh... it gets the job done, barely I suppose for me. I had never used iWork prior to the 08 release.. I love it. Sooo much better than anything M$ for mac. Unless you HAVE to.. go to iWork 08

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NeoOffice is the way to go if you dont want to spend money or if you want to be on the legal size, regarding piracy.

 

iWork if you dont mind buying.But believe me it realy is probably the best tool. Realy amazing and simple.

 

Microsoft office i only recomend if your name is Marty McFly :)

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iWork '08 vs MS Office 2004?

iWork for sure. However, if you can wait get Office: Mac 2008. I have Office 2007 for the PC and it is amazing!

well, u're on a hack.. dun expect rosetta apps to run at amazing speeds like that of the real mac counterparts

Very true, another reason Office: Mac 2008 will be better.

(but m$ is pouring resources into trying to delay vista as long as they can)

[sarcasm] Oh yea, since the Windows team, Office team, and Office: Mac team are the same people. Surely Vista was the delay. [/sarcasm]

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... if you want to be on the legal side, regarding piracy.

 

Not to be a ;) , but I didn't think hackintosh owners paid for software. Isn't the challenge of hacking software basically its allure? At any rate, doesn't iWork offer a trial for the recently repentant pirate?

 

I'm a pretty straight forward user. Like so many others, I purchased Microsoft Office even though I never used more than a small fraction of the available features. Office 2004 performance on my iMac torqued me so I tried iWork. It's responsive, easy to use, and unlike mac:word, it looks decent. It falls closer to the Microsoft Works end of the complexity spectrum but with a few niceties thrown in. Seriously though, do you really need more? Having also used NeoOffice, I doubt you'll be disappointed if you need a more full featured Microsoft Office replacement.

 

I'd check out both of them before deciding.

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Not to be a :D , but I didn't think hackintosh owners paid for software. Isn't the challenge of hacking software basically its allure? At any rate, doesn't iWork offer a trial for the recently repentant pirate?

 

Well to be perfecly honest i do use original and pirated software, i have a macbook pro and a hackintosh.

I have the hackintosh for the sole purpose of being fed up with windows poor usability, in my opinion, and because of the fact that i cant aford the purchase of another mac, just beacuase not everyone lives in america or england, i build up the hackintosh with no more than 160 or 170 euros and spare parts from the old machine.

 

But i do belive people who have a hackintosh should buy and suport osx if they can.

And i think many people use hackintosh because they like the Operating System, not only for the challenge of hacking. I am not a hacker, and i use it.

 

And regarding iWork i realy believe it is a good tool for many people for the ease of use and the templates. You can make presentable documents with little effort.

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comparing iwork08 to office 2007, i'd say iwork08 ROCKS a million times more... personally, i laid my hands on vista ultimate and office 2007 months ago.. and i did play with it.. it was total boring {censored}... and they basically overhauled the whole ui {censored} to such an extent that you have to relearn everything... and the placement of their stuff is so wierd.. totally not intuitive...

 

i used iwork since the 06 version... it was fun and intuitive and it ran really well on my thinkpad back then.. i think the way it defines presentations and documents are more creative and fun, with some form of professionalism in it.. it really brings freshness to your world of static dead documents generated by office software.. the way iwork 06 and iwork 08 structures their menu and features and so intuitive that it minimizes the number of buttons to press and the time to find features... everything is laid out clearly... learning curve is great too for first time users... i can testify, cos i took 30min to learn pages and keynote in iwork 06, and 10min to figure out the whole numbers in iwork 08..

 

my opinion, as a mac user, we should go for iwork... leave the {censored} office to the likes the windows people who havent seen the light of the new creative world... let microsoft dictate how their lives will become... lol..

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leave the {censored} office to the likes the windows people who havent seen the light of the new creative world... let microsoft dictate how their lives will become... lol..

 

yeaaah man we definitely think the same way!

 

i got iWork 08 (not for free...) and I am soooo disappointed, it requires Mac OS 10.4.10, which I don't have.... I guess I'll have to try some patch now, but I really don't want to f :unsure: up my install....

 

thank you all for your feedback, cheers

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