Many Mac users “can find acceptable substitutes for Office. Or they can purchase superior programs that still offer enough Office compatibility to get by,” David Morgenstern blogs for ZDNet.
“Keynote continues to be the best presentation tool on the market. It’s been that way since its introduction and the update in iWork ‘08 just continues its progress. I was impressed with a demonstration following the iMac introduction earlier this week. And it reads and writes PowerPoint files,” Morgenstern reports.
“Looking at the iWork applications, they appear to start conceptually with the rich, finished document and then work backwards toward the data entry and construction. It seems to me that most productivity applications start with the data and data entry and then suddenly discover that we want to print highly formatted documents,” Morgenstern reports.
“Pages recognizes that customers want to create polished documents with images, 2D graphics and flexible typography; and then it presents the combination of easy templates, tools and content integration that make it easy for the ordinary users to accomplish,” Morgenstern reports.
“This is also well expressed in Apple’s Numbers. The grid and formulas are always present, but the primary goal in this spreadsheet is helping users understand the data they are manipulating and then communicate this data in some kind of output,” Morgenstern reports.
“At the introduction event, I spoke with Alan Eyzaguirre, iWork product manager, [who said], ‘You launch the app and [the average user] should just be able to use it. But we also have all these pros. For them, a click on the Inspector opens up all these controls they need for their documents.’ This has been the Mac paradigm from the beginning, yet the result still seems fresh. Some things haven’t changed in 10 or 20 years,” Morgenstern reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Do you really enjoy Microsoft-induced security problems and bloated, old, overpriced code on your Mac? We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Many Mac users think they need Office, but really don’t. Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and see for yourself.
Of course, one of the most important selling points that Apple has for convincing people to switch is the fact that Macs run MS Office. So I still hope that MS Office for Mac is around for awhile yet.
I haven’t used Office since the first iWorks was released.
Has anyone figured out how to password-protect a Numbers spreadsheet?
I used MicroCrap Works once (back in the day), and thought
it was bloated way back when !
It was then I decided to never use anything made by those goof-offs in Redmond !! … It seems their job-“security” stems from the fact that they always hafta write bug fixes and security patches for their crappy software …
Better to use stuff by people who know how to get it right from the git-go !!
Go Apple !
As far as I love iWorks, Numbers still needs lots of development.
Ok it’s release 1 but it is still pretty basic and misses many standard functions. Some example: there is no freeze pan, no way to select cells with arrows to make up formula, no shortcut to add $ for absolute references, etc etc
Anyway it’s a good news and if Apple listen to his customer it will be improved in 1 year.
There’s still no reference manager that works in real-time with Pages. Until this occurs, MS Word will, unfortunately, rule.
For my needs, using MS Office would be like using an elephant gun to kill a mosquito. And it would have the same painful kick back, too.
iWork applications are excellent and will probably meet the needs of 90% of the people using these kinds of applications. And its cheaper, too.
How about locking cells with formulas so they can’t be typed into? Trying to find that….=( Numbers kicks ass. Very mature product for a initial release.
If Pages had the ability to work nicely with bibliography database and formatting programs (Bookends, EndNote), and if Numbers could print graphs with error bars, I think many Mac users in the Scientific and Academic fields would gladly switch to iWork. Sadly, without those additions, it will not be possible to get rid of MS Office.
@January 24, 1984: To prevent unauthorized access, you could try putting it inside a password-protected disk image, which you can create with Disk Utility.
To discourage unauthorized edited, maybe you could export it as a PDF. (I don’t have Numbers to try that on, but it might work.) PDF is not hacker-proof, but it would discourage casual manipulation.
Numbers lacks too many features to effectively compete with Excel. Is Numbers better a better designed piece with innovative aspects? Definitely! Is it mature enough to take on Excel? Not a chance. Even simple things like toggling absolute addressing, creating a scatter plot with lines, not symbols, or creating/running/editing macros aren’t there yet.
Numbers is the teenage rival to M$’s “middle-aged” Excel. Some day, Numbers will eat Excel’s lunch. Just not yet.
I’ve used OpenOffice on Windows and OS X for 2 years now. I have no complaints.
And because OpenOffice is FREE, it’s better than spending up to $400 for Windows Office and $79 for iWorks.
Although Keynote and Numbers are damn cool to see in action, I can live without them.
My wife and I still have Office X installed on our computers, but I can’t even remember the last time I used it. I’ve been using Open Office with great success, and have contemplated getting Mariner Write, it reminds me just a little bit of WriteNow from pre-OS X days. That was the best real-world word processor ever for the Mac, IMHO.
I don’t think I’ll ever buy MS Office again.
I think the one program I really am still addicted to is Visio. Not a core Office app I know, but there is no equivalent on mac. I have OmniGraffle Pro and like it, but the template situation just is not there yet (for like 4 years now). Apple adding a pro drawing tool to the mix would be great.
iWork is the the best productivity suite I’ve ever used. But if you want something nice and free, try NeoOffice:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/neooffice.html
It’s an OpenOffice clone, but without the need of X11 windowing system.
DistantThunder: Thank you.
Can you save a Numbers file in various formats, such as a Windows Excel file, like you can when using Mac Excel?
Since I switched to the mac, I can only remember two microsoft products I ever used:
WMP-Now use Perian, VLC, etc.
IE-for one really bad site that I had to access that was IE only.
For word processing, I use NeoOffice and Mellel
Funny, the less I use MS products the happier I am.
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Have Camel,
Will travel!!
Half of these comments epitomise the typical Mac user – your needs are limited and the Microsoft product is highly adaptable so you call it bloated. The other half seem to be saying ‘What a shame we have to use Office because it does exactly what we need it to do.’ Arrogance allied to ignorance.
Better living without Microsoft Office?
How? What’s the point of having a computer if you can’t put Microsoft Office on it?
Using Microsoft Office then using some toy MAC software is like winning the Super Bowl one week then cleaning train station toilets the next. Microsoft Office enjoys such a huge fan base because it’s so good. Stable, intuitive and secure are three words that come to mind when anyone thinks about Microsoft Office, not to mention the clip art and fonts that are included.
Just last week I had to make a “If you drink the last of the coffee, MAKE ANOTHER POT” sign for the lunchroom. Thank goodness I had Microsoft Word installed by the fantastic guys in IT on my Dell. I could have done it in PowerPoint too—that’s just how versatile the Microsoft Office tools are. Cool. Try doing that on a MAC. Losers.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Numbers users, please enter enhancement requests at http://www.apple.com/feedback/numbers.html so Apple knows what’s important to you. I’ve already requested pivot tables.
Using Microsoft Office then using some toy MAC software is like winning the Super Bowl one week then cleaning train station toilets the next.
Zune Tang – an endless source of amusement.
Is it me, or is this a slow news day?
party pooper, highly adaptable and bloated do not mean the same thing. Office IS bloated. simple fact, deal with it.
another simple fact, the vast majority of users on any platform have pretty limited needs. iWorks is enough for 90% of the population, if only they would/could run it. office is bloated pricey over kill.
…now my wife, well, she is in fact one of the other 10% and that is why we have office. but she wishes she could use iWork for everything because she has seen both, and she knows bloat when she suffers through it….
zOOn wANg is back!
Great one.
Really, that one was funny.
As for Office vs Apple sfw, well, unless your IT dept will open IMAP on your crappy Exchange servers, you still need Entourage – or Outlook in Parallels or Fusion or Boot Camp.