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.
Word and Excel were quite useful and intuitive when they were first released for the Mac.
WTF happened?
You port them to Windows and all hell breaks loose.
They have never been the same since.
Ya know the best thing about glossy screens?
CAMEL’S MILK WIPES RIGHT OFF
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Well, I’ve got one data point involving the new iWork. I’ve mentioned in the past a PowerPoint based slideshow intended for Windows called “A Place Called Earth”. When I’d load it into Office 2004 for Mac and start the slideshow, I’d get a frozen black screen. I had to “Force Quit”. I could only view the slides one by one, with no music background.
On the trial version of iWork, the slideshow *does* work, however the images are not full screen (maybe there’s a setting I missed), and there’s no music background. But at least it didn’t freeze. Another point (or at least half-point) for iWork.
With the exception of Keynote, iWork is not quite there as an Office replacement for everyone, but it is closing in on that goal fast. Office is moving in the opposite direction, gradaully becoming an enterprise-only tool. Office 2007 is really a SharePoint client. Another factor is that Microsoft builds products for buyers, while Apple builds products for users. Think about that.
Pretty soon, iWork will be better for every scenario that does not tie into SharePoint, and Office will be worse for every scenario that doesn’t.
Patience, patience; iWork will prevail. Inevitably. Soon. But it isn’t quite there yet for everyone.
Is there anyway to block “Zune Tang”? What a faggot!!!
It is there. I know it… I did get a boner when I used the Numbers for the very first time.
Seriously. What I managed to do today (a spreadsheet) with Numbers was amazingly fast and easy. Functional, elegant and easy to everyone. It is like the Keynote is.
I agree……that is one selling point the Mac has still over Linux is Office is available on the Mac!
Apple needs Office to stay in and help it become more popular, it makes life alot easier having Office on the Mac when working with Office on the PC. Most places use Office and I think its very important for OS X to have a native version of it. Even though its old code and outdated and starting to become slow on new releases I hope Microsoft never abandons Office on the Mac but it starting to look that way because of how longs its taking Microsoft to get the 2008 version out.
You say to try iWork…..its not going to import and export 100% correctly with Mac Office and PC office versions. Its best to have Office native on OS X in the end! Easier on end users!
-Dan
Love ya work, Zune Tang. You ever submitted to News Biscuit?
The funniest thing of all tho’ is when people are so blinded by their fanboyness they totally miss the satire.
DC gets it. Great post, DC! Clever and insightful. Keep ’em rolling in. Are you sure you didn’t come up with those comments on a Dell Latitude 610? That’s what I use.
Some people (like most MAC lemmings) would find your post homophobic or offensive. If that’s the way they feel they deserve to be stuck with those miniscule market share Vista wannabe toy computers. Fags.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Zune Tang— the ‘mini me’ of FSJ
i always, well almost always, appreciate the chuckles..
“There’s still no reference manager that works in real-time with Pages. Until this occurs, MS Word will, unfortunately, rule.”
This would be my problem. I like Word. I don’t feel it is bloated. It runs well on my mac. Doesn’t ever crash. It just allows me to do what I need. Granted, I don’t use most of the functions, BUT until EndNote integrates with Pages as it does with Word I won’t even think about switching.
I have only used Office for writing letters – now there is an original thought!… a word process package that you write letters on!.
But since getting iWork 08 – I am doing stuff that I never thought possible in word processing software.
Apple are the leaders is easy to use software.
I love the way Zune Wang prefers using the bloated malware that is Microsoft Office compared to the innovative, easy to use and powerful iWork suite.
LOL – you wallow in your denial ZT, while the rest of the world adopts iWork as the standard.
Next up – a windows version of iWork for our windows loving future Apple switchers out there…
Microsoft. Your problem. our malware.
I would need a massive lobotomy right now to even think about Office, a suite I’ve never really used in the first place, except to sometimes read files that were sent to me, but, I’ve been using Pages, Keynote, and NeoOffice for the last several years in order to simply transmute things, and have never used any of Office apps to actually create anything- I was a great fan of Appleworks, and am now a great fan of Pages and Keynote. Numbers will come in handy for reading Excel files, something I need to do like three times a year….
>> “What’s the point of having a computer if you can’t put Microsoft Office on it?” Z.T.
Yeah, it’s like – what’s the point of having a toilet if you can’t take a big dump in it. I think.
I’m just saying.
What is it with people that call it “iWorks”? It is iWork people. Pay attention.
@ Zune Tang
“Yea, you’re a GIRL Dragon!
Pages has a way to go.
No universal widow/orphan control – you have to select each error and then click a checkbox – try it on a large document.
Also, Pages does not notice two (or more) spaces in a row as a typing error. Do you really want to check for that throughout an important document?
Pages’ User Manual (I believe) reads that there isn’t a 100% sync up in terms of the number of pages and placement when transferring the document between Word and Pages. This makes collaboration difficult.
Once they fix those problems I’m on board.
“Mac users: better living without Microsoft Office”
It’s true. My sores are finally healing.
I still smell gunpowder though.
I downloaded the iWork08 trial. After installation, I fed it my Master’s thesis, a Mac Word document. Pages coughed on it it some. The document was written earlier this year, in Office04
I won’t be making the change soon. Maybe Pages 2.0?
Apple needs to create a professional email program. Apple could probably create the best email app in the industry. I’m waiting. Mail is a toy. Entourage does what is needed for business uses. An email app should tie together calendar, address book, notes in one screen. Entourage does this. But I’d like Apple to do this better.
I’m a Mac user since 1988 and love Apple. But give me a break with the MS bashing — MDN. What company has by far the largest Mac Business Unit outside of Apple? You are correct….MS.
OpenOffice is crap. Everytime I open it I get 3 apps opening then I have to recover things…I just don’t get it.
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.
hahhahhhhhhhahahahaha
Thanks Zune, that was truly hilarious. Indeed, apart cubicle Windows workers drones the above pretty much is right on the money: a $400 suite to print a “make another coffeepot” sign, representing the majority of the tasks done by clerks on Office in Windozeland.
Trying doing that on the Mac: better results and for free with builtin software. ZT has it right: ignorance is what keeps custormers on Windows. But it is changing big times: Apple is already selling in one single quarter as much Macs as it was used to sell in one full fiscal year. Soon it will do the same in half-a-quarter time.
No M$ apps in all my Macs for a couple of years now. Can do everything with iWorks and NeoOffice which are top products.
It was a health decision: M$ Office was getting me angry and stressed all the time. We’re not force to make our work on a Mac be a bad experience.
I’m Polish and there is no Polish Language Tool in Office 2004. I am waiting for iWork 08 now (it’s in the mail). For me lack of Polish is a killer. When I go to Tools/Languages I can select Polish as my language, but right after that Office tells me that I need to install the Language Pack. Than I am being directed to the help file on how to install one. I insert CD, go through the process, enter key and … nothing, nada, there is no Polish dictionary on the disc. So Office tells me that I should install Polish from the disc, but someone forgot to put it there. I checked, Polish is not officially supported by office for Mac.