Quick (hopefully) Question

Hi, I'm new here and also new to the Mac World as a whole, having just purchased my first Mac in the form of a new Macbook Pro. I have a question about what software to pick up with it:

As far as I can see, there are two main options in terms of office software; Office for Mac 2008 or iWork 09. Basically my question is which one is best for me? My situation is thus: I'm just about to embar on a History degree at Uni but most likely won't be using spreadsheets at all and presentations only very rarely. Basically I need a nice word processor that is compatible with Word files from a Windows/Microsoft computer. Which one do I buy?

Thanks for reading.

Before purchasing anything, try downloading Neo Office and OpenOffice. Both are free and nearly identical to MS Office. You can read and edit all MS Word and Excel files and save your work as Word or Excel files (also has a power point equivalent but I've never used it so can't comment).
Especially since you won't be using all the features of iWork or MS Office for Mac.

I have not had any problems with Pages opening any Word documents I have tried. You may also want to look at Open Office and Neo Office as well. Both are Office compatible products and the upside is that they are both free.

MYmacROX said:

Before purchasing anything, try downloading Neo Office and OpenOffice. Both are free and nearly identical to MS Office. You can read and edit all MS Word and Excel files and save your work as Word or Excel files (also has a power point equivalent but I've never used it so can't comment).
Especially since you won't be using all the features of iWork or MS Office for Mac.

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Chef_eam said:

I have not had any problems with Pages opening any Word documents I have tried. You may also want to look at Open Office and Neo Office as well. Both are Office compatible products and the upside is that they are both free.

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Thanks guys, I may try out these free options then. Any word on which, out of OpenOffice and NeoOffice, is the better suite?

P.S "Pages" is from iWork 09 isn't it??

Thanks guys, I may try out these free options then. Any word on which, out of OpenOffice and NeoOffice, is the better suite?

P.S "Pages" is from iWork 09 isn't it??

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My personal preference is for Open Office. It seems to be a more polished version and a bit faster than NeoOffice.

Yes, Pages is the WP application of the iWork09 suite.

Regards.

Neo Office is a macified version of Open Office, previously it was much better for mac users that the original, however the latest version of Open Office looks much better on the Mac than it used to and that is what I would use.

One quick tip for Open Office, change the default save formats to the Microsoft Office formats if you regularly exchange documents with Windows users, it is much easier to just have them in a usable format than having to resave them every time you want to send them to someone.

As a new user i would say you will have less set up and fix up sessions with iWork which in Pages has Word Processor and Page Layout for basic desktop publishing type work. Not only that you can save as in word or export in Pages formats below.


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