Mac Office Suite Choices-Office08/NeoOffice3/iWork09...what do YOU recommend?

Since this is an often-asked question for switchers, I'll share my experience with Office suites on my Macbook Pro with Intel Duo 4GB Ram running 10.5.7.

I've gone back and forth. I currently have installed MS Office 2008, NeoOffice 3, and iWork 09.
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Office 2008 opens the slowww-est of the 3 and can't open any macros contained in Excel sheets I email from my Windows counterpart at work. I have suspicion as to why the macros were taken out, but it's my conspiracy theory at best. M$ says they'll return the macros with the next Mac version of Office due in 2012-ish. Entourage 2008 is NOT a feature-for-feature match Outlook-clone and doesn't direct sync with iPhone..has to use iCal as a conduit and that is marginal at best. Forget integration with Google.

So far, the M$ Office 2008 software has had more support patches than any other software installed on my Mac. Regrettably, I have to open Word docs sent from my Windows work computer and even then, formatting doesn't stay the same. What's up with that?

Bottom line is, I don't appreciate giving M$ the $150 for this clunky software. I've read other user recommend using MS Office 2004 for Mac since it does include the macro support for Excel.

NeoOffice 3 is a free derivative of the free OpenOffice 3 that was recently released and often has enhancements not found in OO3. NeoOffice has found a home in the Dock as I use it alot for home-base quick document or spreadsheet use. I like being able to create any type of document without having to open another program and can save my work in a default MS file-type(.docx, .xlsx, .doc) in case I need to email it to the office. I haven't tried the Presentation piece of this suite. There isn't an email client included in this Office suite.

Bottomline is, NeoOffice is a great piece of software and the free price tag shouldn't negate it's value. It's cross-compatible with M$ Office and adds a few tweaks that make it more Mac-friendly.

iWork 09 was recently purchased as part of the Mac Box set mainly because I wanted OSX 10.5.6(with all the updates) and iLife09 and it was cheaper to buy it this way. While I haven't tried out the more intense parts of iLife09, it shows great promise as I find myself using it more. You can export your documents into Word and it hits/misses being 100% perfectly imported into Word. I like the media integration and the ease of use of dragging and dropping, which is a core strength in Mac software altogether. I was up and running with Pages alot quicker than I had with Word or even the dreaded Word 2007 with its changed interface....another personal UGH! for me.

Bottomline here is, $79 is a great price for a suite that includes Pages(Word), Numbers(Excel), and KeyNote(PowerPoint) and integrated well with the Mac media suites. Apple seems committed to continue making iWork a viable work suite. I'm hopeful one day that Apple will merge iCal and Mail together so it can be an Outlook killer.

Overall, this one is a toughie. Most worksites use M$ Office and depending on how much work you want to put in so you can keep using an alternative, I'd recommend a combo of NeoOffice 3 and iWork. Heck, sometimes the Mac Office .doc and Windows Office .doc files don't import and display exactly anyway, so I would save the $150 and spend the $79 on iWork and add the free NeoOffice. Use Pages for your word processing and NeoOffice Spreadsheet for excel-type needs.

If you're just getting starting and on a budget(ahem, college students), NeoOffice is the way to go. Just plan to get iWork at some point.

As a "I have to say this".....if you have to work intensively with Word or Excel from the office and at home/on the road, then bite the big bullet and purchase a copy of Windows XP, Office 2007, Parallels 4.0 and install them. Not the most desirable option since it runs between $400-$800 to do this(depending on the version of Office08 you get), but it may be necessary if it's work-required. Or, choose to not do work at home. ;D

MS Office 2008 (30 Day Trial Available) Mactopia - Discover Office 2008 for Mac from Microsoft

NeoOffice 3 NeoOffice Home
OpenOffice 3 OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

iWork09 (30 Day Trial Available) Apple - iWork - Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. The Mac way.

I hope this helps. Sure would appreciate feedback if I've mis-quoted something here.... Let us hear your experiences and recommendations!

Some users would include OpenOffice on that list (*cough* cwa107 *cough*) and it deserves a place on this list.

I use Office 2008 myself and although it is a little slow to open, once open it's pretty fast. It is also only slow when you open the first time and any time thereafter is fairly reasonable. All experiences are different though.

The only reason that I bought MS office at all was that I need something my folks at home could use, and groove made things easy. Got the ultimate through my college for 80 bucks, but for the 90% of the time I find myself using OpenOffice.

Good, cuz it's covered in the post.

vansmith said:

Some users would include OpenOffice on that list (*cough* cwa107 *cough*) and it deserves a place on this list.

I use Office 2008 myself and although it is a little slow to open, once open it's pretty fast. It is also only slow when you open the first time and any time thereafter is fairly reasonable. All experiences are different though.

Click to expand...

I mostly use iWork but occasionally will use NeoOffice. I think it depends upon the individual need.

I have iWork '09 and Office '08. I use Pages and Numbers maybe 90% of the time, and Word '08 when I need it every so often.

Office '08 isn't a bad product and has a LOT of functions/features, but it really is designed for someone who has used Office in the past and knows how to utilize it. If you're an MS Office veteran, you'll have zero problems working in and around Office '08. However, if you're somewhat of a novice with Word, you'll have a lot easier time w/ iWork (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote).

In my humble opinion, I probably wouldn't have bought Office '08 last year if iWork '09 had already been out; the '09 version is that much better than the '08 version (and I've had every version since '05).

Office '08 is a really good office suite, but I think iWork '09 gives you a lot better value than the $129 Home/Student Edition, or $299 Standard Edition.

Neo Office for me.