iWorks '06 vs Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac

Could somebody tell me (especially if she/he has already tried it) whether iWorks '06 is better than Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, please? My question especially refers to ease of use, text formatting and speed and I am asking because since I have none installed nor do I have experience over the one or the other I am trying to decide which is best.

Thanks in advance!

well. iWork '06 doesnt have a spreadsheet program, so if your doing eprsadsheets you will need minrosoft office. I find that Oages and Keynote are better then the microsoft counterpart. but its also personel prefrence. If you are used to Microsoft office for PC, then you are probably better off with Office.

there is also another alternative. You could download Neooffice.org or openoffice.org. They are free office suits that has everything microsoft office has. i would try that free alternative first. then if it doesnt suit what you need,.

You can go to the Apple store near you such as Comp USA and they can show you a sample of iwork on one of the computers. I liked what I saw and bought iwork instead of Office. It was cheaper and I didn't need a spreadsheet. So far, I'm very pleased with ease of use and very slight learning curve. Again, it's personal preference. Good luck.

New Macs come with a trial for both iWork and Office 2004. I decided to try them both out side by side and personally found myself enjoying Pages far more than Word. One of the big factors was that it loaded much quicker and had a very sleek interface unlike Office, which seemed a bit cluttered (though of course, at this point I had been using the Office 2007 beta for a while, which is also quite refined, so I'm just being biased against the old Office interface).

Like Carol said, I would suggest going to a store and checking them out side by side and see which one you like better. I would also suggest trying out the free alternatives before dropping money on either iWork or Office.