MSOffice for Mac V.S. iWork '08

soccerphysio said:

So do you primarily use Powerpoint? Is there any way to use Keynote in a professional setting using PC's without the concern of the file being messed up during the conversion to PPT? It would seem to me the only way to make it your primary program would be to simply bring a Mac computer and hook it up to the LCD (unfortunately I do not own one!).

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You can create a slideshow in Keynote and convert it. In some cases you may lose or have to substitute fonts or things like transparency (on anything less than PP 2007), but usually it's OK. The issue is if you import a PPT for editing in Keynote, then re-export it back to PPT. Many things get messed up, such as the size of the bullets, the font sizes if you use auto-size in the text boxes etc.

I simply use Office for anything professional. My job depends on not screwing up my presentations ;D

Having said that, when my company goes platform neutral, I may very well use Keynote, just to stand out a bit. I think it does a better job of making simple, austere presentations looks clean and clinical, which is what I like. In Powerpoint, you're always fighting that 'Microsoft' look. i.e. overcrowded noise.

I think the only things that were 'lost' when I exported my last keynote presentation to powerpoint were some of the 'finer' things, like the mirroring of images on the slides. Then again, I paid attention to using common fonts and common animations. While I have both installed, I find keynote (especially) just easier to use.

They all have their place, and while both word and excel are indeed more powerful I tend to really only use them if needed. Course, my wife complains about excel not being real accounting software too

I am certified in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access(all Office 2003), and after moving to my Mac, I would take iWork any day over Office '07 or '03. The Office '07 interface is honestly the dumbest, icon dependent interface I have ever used on anything. The bad thing is, I would expect an Office '07 interface from Apple because of how rigid Mac OSX is said to be, but that's beside the point. IMO, I think Microsoft overprices Office, I don't think Word 2007/2008 is worth $200, especially not when I can pay $71 for an entire productivity suite, iWork.

And Excel has never been Accounting software, use Peachtree or Quickbooks and if it's a large customer database, use Oracle...

it's like vi. powerful, but not exactly user friendly

INTELligent said:

I am certified in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access(all Office 2003), and after moving to my Mac, I would take iWork any day over Office '07 or '03. The Office '07 interface is honestly the dumbest, icon dependent interface I have ever used on anything. The bad thing is, I would expect an Office '07 interface from Apple because of how rigid Mac OSX is said to be, but that's beside the point. IMO, I think Microsoft overprices Office, I don't think Word 2007/2008 is worth $200, especially not when I can pay $71 for an entire productivity suite, iWork.

And Excel has never been Accounting software, use Peachtree or Quickbooks and if it's a large customer database, use Oracle...

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Microsoft is hugely overpriced. If iWork is $80 then Office should be at most $80. Keynote makes Powerpoint look like a child's toy. I can't tell you how many times I tried to make a simple animation in PPT like appearing charts or simple emphasis... and it just didn't work. It would work now, then not work later. Playing movies in PPT is another gamble. I discovered that if the movie was in more than 4 subdirectories deep PPT would just not play it, period. It is annoyances like these that makes you realize how low quality Microsoft products are.

Oh but watch out!! Microsoft is on a hiring spree for their Mac division to claim again to be the second largest Mac soft developer... I can see it now. Unless they throw every software they ever written in the trash and start from stratch, which is not going to happen, and use only apple-like intuitiveness and polishness in their UIs, which is also not going to happen, I don't see how they are going to create useful tools.

It is just not going to happen. The level of sophistication, appeal and intuitiveness is just NOT in their DNA.

Office for Mac '08. Buy it. Enjoy it. It will serve you well.

Dysfunction said:

I think the only things that were 'lost' when I exported my last keynote presentation to powerpoint were some of the 'finer' things, like the mirroring of images on the slides. Then again, I paid attention to using common fonts and common animations. While I have both installed, I find keynote (especially) just easier to use.

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I agree with this. My issue specifically is, say I start a Powerpoint at work, the email it home to complete in the evening and work on it in Keynote. Then send it back to work for a final review in the morning. It causes the issues I mention above.

When apps claim to be compatible, this should not be an issue - but of course it is going to be. Quite honestly, if you have to interact with Windows users, who may edit your documents, you have to use Office. There is no way around this currently. Even Word/Pages can do strange things when you keep exporting/importing. RTF id your best bet (in my opinion), but that results in huge files! The easy answer is Office 2008.

I think Powerpoint is especially sensitive, because I have even had these issues between versions on Windows (Say 2003 and 2007 versions), although it's much less obvious. I have given a Keynote presentation directly from my Mac just once, and it was great. But usually presentations in large organisations (I work for Deutsche Bank) are collaborative, so this is not always possible.

get your macbook, then do trials for both office and iWork, and decide which you like more

also when you decide to buy 1, go to macmall.com, they are both cheaper there

Zoolook said:

. But usually presentations in large organisations (I work for Deutsche Bank) are collaborative, so this is not always possible.

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Yea, I know what you're saying. While I work for an extremely large company I'm lucky in that 99.9% of any presentation I would put out is subject to peer review rather than collaboration. So I can do the entire thing in keynote, export it, review it and make any further changes in keynote again. I do still have both installed. I also agree with the previous argument that Office is, for home users especially, overpriced. Thankfully for me work covers that license

You can get iWork 08 on ebay for aprox $30 if you feel the desire to do so in the future. I have both Office 08 and iWork 08, redundant yes, but I have the option of using both whenever I feel it necessary!