Which Office suite is worth it?

I have a trial of iWork '06 and an MS Office 2004 Test Drive bundles with my MacBook. I've tried both but I don't know what to choose. I've also been thinking of OpenOffice for Mac, or AppleWorks. I don't really have the need for spreadsheets, but I've been thinking because we might study it in school. What do you guys think?

Appleworks is old and not supported. I personally like iWork but need a Spreadsheet, but if you don't it's a good program. If you need 100% Compatibility with Office, Office is the way to go although OpenOffice and NeoOffice is very close and free. I would go with NeoOffice as it does not require X11 to run and it's very OSX like where OO is very Linux like. I voted Office as it's the best if you are going to be sharing files with people who use Office themselves.

For my own usage I use iWork for my documents and NeoOffice for my Spreadsheets.

In your opinion, how Linux-like is OO? In spite of that, do you think it's good?

rixx03 said:

In your opinion, how Linux-like is OO? In spite of that, do you think it's good?

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Like I said it's a great application, but Neo is the same thing but with a more Mac like interface and not as much overhead due to no X11. Otherwise NeoOffice and OO are the basic same thing.

Like dtravis said, NeoOffice and OpenOffice are essentially the one and the same, the only difference is that NeoOffice is prettier and is less of a hassle to install. To be honest, there's really no reason to go with OpenOffice if it's prettier version is more worth it.

I personally have found myself using Pages over Word on my Mac. I find it to have a slicker interface and while both do what I need them to, Pages loads faster (I know, Office isn't a Universal binary). However, since I absolutely love Office 2007's Ribbon interface, I will definitely be upgrading to Office 2008, or whatever it's going to be called for the Mac, when it comes out later this year.

So...to answer your current question, my vote goes for iWork. If I ever need to share, I either export to Word format or just make a neat little pdf file, which apparently wows quite a few people :black: I also have Office 2004 on my computer for those occasions where I need to make a spreadsheet or share/open a heavily formatted Word document.

Thanks for the info!

Anyway, I still go on undecided. I would like to get used to iWork, but it's pretty hard. I know I can get the knack of it, but it might take time. I can purchase both iWork and MS Office, but sometimes I think.. what would I do with both?

I have been using Mellel lately for my word processing. I have Office on my Mac for compatible reasons. Man, do I miss the Apple Work & Claris work days.
For straight word processing only give Mellel a try. The learning curve is a bit large, but it is a non bloated, great text rendering piece of software.

Okay I'll check it out.

Pages (iWork) is not a word processor in the sense that Word is. While it makes beautiful documents (my CV blows away everyone who sees it , I find it non-intuitive and lacking several very simple formatting features.

I've also found that except for the simplest of documents, Pages' export-to-Word functionality isn't all it should be. Documents simply do not come out formatted as you expect when they're exported.

My recommendation: if you (or people you regularly share documents with) plan on using Microsoft Office at all, you're better off going with MS Office or one of the Open Source suites. If you want to make pretty brochures, reports, and resumes, iWork is better.

NeoOffice should be added to the poll. It really is a great suite. OpenOffice is so ugly and a pain to get installed/working if you didn't install X11. And X11 leads to a lot of usability problems that are avoided by just going with NeoOffice.

I use a combination of both iWork and Office. iWork is for making better looking docs. and office is for school papers.

neooffice.

personally i would use neo office until office 2008 comes.

no sense in spending the money on o4 now.

Well, what do you mean by "better"? If "better" means "most compatible with other people", the vote has to go to MS Office, much as that pains me.

mac57 said:

Well, what do you mean by "better"? If "better" means "most compatible with other people", the vote has to go to MS Office, much as that pains me.

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:spook:

Yeah agreed. Office is the most compatible for sure! But...

neo office for me.. but I'll be trialing MS office 08 when it comes out

I downloaded NeoOffice and I've given it a try. It's pretty good, but of course I have to get used to it. I also found out that it's in our Computer subject curriculum next school year. Well actually OpenOffice, but since they're the same and NO is prettier, then I'll take that. :girl:

Anyway deciding on the compatibility issues, I'm also definitely getting MS Office 2004. I just asked my cousin to pick me up a copy on her way home.

But then, I've been also thinking about iWork. I find the "Page flip" transition in Keynote very useful and well.. pretty! And Pages, I might find it useful when I make brochures or newsletters for my extra school credit. But I'll wait for the trial to expire. I better study it first before I get a copy.

mac57 said:

Well, what do you mean by "better"? If "better" means "most compatible with other people", the vote has to go to MS Office, much as that pains me.

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I think I mean better by deciding on how intuitive the interface is, how easy to use it is, how feature-rich.. I guess a lot contributes on "being better.":bone:

I voted for MSOM:2004.

But, as others have pointed out, a lot of it comes down to what features you want/need. For me, revision marking and password compatibility with my co-workers (who all use MS Office on their Windows machines) is a bright line requirement. None of the other suites have that capability.

MS Office is a standard in the business world. You can't get around that. MSOM:2004 has by far the best and easiest compatibility.

Right now I use NeoOffice and I like it a lot. It has no trouble opening files that I have created in Windows environment. However as has been stated a couple of times elsewhere - I also think I'll be going for Office 2008 for the Mac when it's released.