iWork/MS Office/LibreOffice...my current conclusions

Joined
Feb 18, 2009
Messages
32
Reaction score
4
Points
8
iWork/MS Office/LibreOffice...my current conclusions
Ok, I've been all around on what is best in my scenario regarding document, spreadsheets, publications, mail, calendaring, and presentation.

iWork and MS Office both have their strengths with unique features. Problem for me is, they really don't play well together when it comes to opening each other's formats. Formatting is lost, fonts change, or backgrounds go bye-bye on presentations. Too much work on the end-user IMO.

.DOC
Exporting an iWork document into a .doc format looks great in iWork but not so much in MS Office 2011/2007/2008. Same thing for documents created in Office and opened up in iWork. They say they are compatible, but only to a point-basic text. IMO, there's too much work in re-formatting, finding fonts, and other issues.

.XLS
Again, there are unique strengths in iWork NUMBERS and Office Excel that the importing exporting really messes up.

.PPT
Wow, I've never gotten a good import from one to another. Baisc info in a presentation is a nightmare because essentially I have to do it all over again for the backgrounds, etc.

Doc Sharing
I need to work on my docs at home, mobile, and at work. So not only is the import/exporting produce a challenge, but I need to access it from multipple spots. iWork doesn't office this natively...it has to export to a MS Office format first. A shame given all the platforms that Apple makes that are iWork Friendly. So, Google Docs comes into play.

So, what DO I DO?

I've landed with LibreOffice for my basic document and spreadsheet needs. I can save files to a tagged folder that Syncplicity(free!) will use to sync with GoogleDocs. Creating or editing a document on my Macbook Pro will automagically save it as well to my online Google Docs. If my computer or the "cloud" crashes, I don't lose my stuff. Any changes made online sync back to my Macbook Pro. I can use the GoogleApp on my iPhone to access and edit documents as well.

For presentations, I use KeyNote if I'm able to take my Mac with me. If not, then I use Office Powerpoint since most venues have a poor laptop handy that's usually Windows-based.

For publishing, PAGES is the best way. I was looking at PAGES wrong as just a document app, but changing my mind to using it as a publisher keeps it in my tool chest of apps to use for specific things. I can always produce on it and print/save as PDF.

On the email/calendar front...Apple's Mail and iCal work best for me. Outlook 2011 was SO promising but it's slow and still doesn't direct sync with Google calendar. Thunderbird with Lightning was a good try, but you have to be online for the calendar to show up, so offline access was a no-go. I hope a 3rd party will once day put an all-in-one together but until then, Mail and iCal it is.

I hope this helps as it's what I've finally landed on regarding Productivity on the Mac.
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Messages
1,291
Reaction score
43
Points
48
Location
Louisville, KY - USA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 17" 2011, 2.3GHz Intel Quad-Core i7, 8GB RAM, MacMini 2011, 2.7GHz Intel Dual-Core i7, 8GB RAM
I came from the Windows 7 world with Microsoft Office 2007 with Outlook as my office suite. 99% of the people I deal with on a daily bases with regards to office documents use some flavor of MS Office 2003 or above. I have all my email coming through a Microsoft Exchange server, so that covers all the PIM data storage and access (Contacts, Email, Todo, Calendar, Notes).

When I got my MBP, I had very little trouble in making the decision to get Office:mac 2011 Business (with Outlook). Especially considering how easy it is to hide that small upcharge between iWorks and Office:mac at the time of purchase. Only Microsoft Office will be fully compatible and supported with/by Microsoft Office. Now, I realize there were issues with the Office:mac in the past, however this latest rendition seems to have pretty much hit the mark.

Everyone will have different requirements and different budgets. It is just that I see a lot of "I did this in iWorks but Office wont read it" or "I did this extremely complicated spreadsheet in Excel using custom functions but Numbers wont process it."

If you know you will be dealing with people on the business side, keep in mind what they will likely be running on their business machines. I am all for cheaper and even free/open source, but at some point, when you have to get that deliverable to a customer, it had better be compatible with their systems. Same thing with school projects and such.

If it is all just personal use, then take the cheapest route you are comfortable with, but realize there will be compatibility issues when friends start sending files about to share.
 
Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
9,383
Reaction score
417
Points
83
Location
Irvine, CA
Your Mac's Specs
Black Macbook C2D 2GHz 3GB RAM 250GB HD iPhone 4 iPad 3G
I think it ultimately depends on what your personal needs are. I use Office primarily for creating documents. However, I use Keynote for presentations and Pages for my publishing needs.

Use the tool that's most appropriate for the job.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Office here for documents and presentations. For publishing - having been an avid MS Publisher user for years, Pages seems to be a very good choice on the Mac side.
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
967
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Location
Indiana
Your Mac's Specs
Main-11" Air, iPhone 6+, iPad Mini 3, Hi-Fi Extras- Too many to count
I use iwork on my Macbook. My mom got an imac that her office put office 2011 on it so if i have something that does not work the i can just go to my computer in finder and pull up the document.
 
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
15
Reaction score
1
Points
3
Location
Oak Harbor, WA
Your Mac's Specs
15" Macbook Pro 2.53 Ghz Intel Core i5, 8GB 1067 MHz DDR3,
For email, I use Sparrow. Sparrow-The new mail for Mac. It works just like Google Mail and is fast! I like this much better than Mail.app It handles conversations the same way as Gmail.

I highly recommend it!
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top