Microsoft word 2008 or PAGES

it is time for me to finally decide what to use, microsoft word 2008 or pages....
What are the pros and cons? and which would be better for everyday word processing?

You should check out OpenOffice and Bean - both are open-source and support M$ Word files.

Good question, and something I have also wanted views on. I have loved every Mac software like Mail, Safari, etc. and want to go for Iwork but before spending money, I want to know the good things that these software have.

Incidentally, I have used MS Office 2008 to some extent and I find that there is consistency between MS Word Windows version and the Mac version. However, keyboard shortcuts are quite different though menu layouts may be similar to some extent.

What i dont like about Pages is that there does not seem to be an automatic compatible save option whereby files are saved as ".doc" files by default. I have heard that you have to export them every time.

Hope there are more views to this post.

My girlfriend bought office 2008 and promptly sold it because it just didn't seem to be very stable - and she was writing her thesis at the time. I do hear that the instability has been improved (is that right - do I mean lessened?) so that may not be a factor anymore.

My needs are a little below office so I use Pages 2009, which I do really enjoy using - more so than Pages 2008. You can save as word - just use "save as" and tick a box, and whilst not perfect at importing word docs, it's not bad at all. My joy in using it comes from creating new documents, it is intuitive to me.

Some people will undoubtedly harp on about incompatibility, missing features and so but if your use is average, Pages should fill it - and it's cheaper than Word.

Depends on your uses. If you're a student, I would definitely recommend Office simply because it results in fewer headaches.

I have both Office 2008 and iWork '09 running on my MacBook, and I would highly recommend Word 2008 over Pages '08 or even '09. Office has amazing graphic features and is just more compatible with other things. It is also faster and has less steps required to save as the correct type of file needed for compatibility. Pages just seems kind of messy, just a tad slower than Word, it takes longer to get quick tasks done, and it doesn't have near the same amount of features. My only complaint about Office 2008 is that it gets really messy if you're using it in Leopard with Spaces because your windows sometimes move if you switch spaces, but it's not near a big enough of a problem as to why not to buy it.

Kash said:

Depends on your uses. If you're a student, I would definitely recommend Office simply because it results in fewer headaches.

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Definitely. It depends on what you're planning on doing with it. In my line of work, Word is not an option, it is a requirement. If you're in school and will have to move files between a computer lab and your home, then Office will be a better option. But those may not be true for you.

I've heard Pages has good page layout features, so if you're planning on doing more than just writing and intend to make newsletters or something, then maybe Pages would be a better option. But for straight-up word processing, I'd go either Office or a free option like OpenOffice (even Text Edit can be turned into a competent word processor).