“The last revision of iWork was a big deal. It introduced the Numbers spreadsheet and really turned Pages into a word processor, as opposed to just a page-layout program. It still wasn’t as powerful as Microsoft Office, which is the most common productivity suite on the Mac as well as on Windows, but it was great to see Apple trying a different approach,” Michael J. Miller reports for PC Magazine.
“This year’s update, iWork ’09, isn’t as big of a change, at least in the desktop version. But with the addition of iWork.com, a beta site for sharing and collaborating on documents, Apple is pointing in a new direction–one that blends online and offline applications. This version just hints at the possibilities,” Miller reports.
“In general, I’ve found a lot to like in iWork. All the individual applications–the Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet, and Keynote presentation package–are easy to use; add a variety of new interesting features; and you can create great-looking documents,” Miller reports.
“iWork 08 users will find a more functional, more compatible Numbers, some cool new effects in Keynote, and a bunch of new templates. Serious business users probably won’t find it a replacement for Microsoft Office, although even for them it might be worthwhile just to get Keynote, which remains incredibly impressive. But most home users don’t need all that power–what they want is something that is easy to use and makes their work look great,” Miller reports.
Miller reports, “That’s what iWork delivers. Just as important, it’s great to see a counterweight to Microsoft Office that’s offering new features and new ways of working.”
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