Which word processing app would you recommend

Mac everything newb here. My trial for Office '04 will expire in a couple of weeks and I'm still in the dark as to which word processor would seamlessly work with both mac and pc documents. Pages is working fine but had a hard time opening a pages .doc file sent through email (it was zipped but couldn't really open it). Most people I work with still use MS Office. What do you guys think of Bean, AbiWord or NeoOffice?? TIA.

There are a few choices such as openoffice, neooffice which will allow you to save documents in .doc/ .xls format. These are freewares. On the paid front, i have so far tried on iWork'08 pages & numbers and find them pretty good.

Hope this helps.

I been using Pages lately for my writing. Pages does a great job of importing and exporting to M$ format, either for Mac or Windows. Pages also has a feature that will alert you to any issues about compatibility.

Of course for ultimate compatibility Word is the way to go. Secondly, be aware a new office version is coming soon. If you decide to purchase Word, check microsoft's web site. They are or will be offering a free upgrade to Office 2008 with a purchase of Office 2004.

Thanks for your replies! I think I'm gonna continue using Pages for the meantime and just wait for the Office '04 trial to end then delete it and just wait for the reviews of Office '08. One last thing, did you ever have any problems opening Pages docs in MS Word,or nobody does that anymore??? Thanks again!

I love Bean! It's small, simple, smart and does the job.

I use iWork exclusively. Whenever I need to send a document to someone, I just export it to word and better still, if it doesn't need to be edited, then PDF...

rgentozala said:

....... One last thing, did you ever have any problems opening Pages docs in MS Word,or nobody does that anymore??? Thanks again!

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Have had no problem at all with Pages (doc) or Numbers. I recommend iWork first, NeoOffice second.

I would just use the iwork free trial and then if you find some compatibility issues or you just don't like it then buy MS Office 2008 when it comes out.

The only problem i've had with opening pages .doc files in MS Word is sometimes the text is a bit to much up or down(i.e. the position of the text is a bit off sometimes) or the with text boxes might be slightly in the wrong place....

You might also want to consider the Abiword program, available for Mac at www.abisource.com. Abiword is a long time stalwart in the Linux world, so much so that it has now made the transition to both Windows and Mac. It will read and write .doc format. I use Abiword a lot. It is an excellent package.

dyinginavan said:

I love Bean! It's small, simple, smart and does the job.

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Could you post a URL for Bean? "bean" is such a generic term that I suspect a Google of the term would be an exercise in frustration!

I'm a big fan of NeoOffice. Opens and saves MS formats and is free!

I personally like Microsoft office, but I grew up on it so that may be why

I love Microsoft Office, but, like mac0s9user, I grew up on it. I decided to start using iWork'08 a few weeks ago, and I decided to purchase it this past week. I really like it a lot. Since Apple decided to be original with their office suite (not just clone MS office), things are not always where I expect to find them. It has been a period of adjustment, but I think I've made the right choice. I still have MS Office 2004 in case there is ever a compatibility issue.

I agree Thundermoon, Pages does have a small learning curve, I have been using it exclusively lately, for my reports. As many of us of do, I can survive in the Word world with out problems so far..

I also use Mac Office-Word. I really wanted to transition fully to Pages (iWork 08) but find it frustrating that, 1. There is no auto-save every x minutes and 2. Every time I save in a .doc format I have to use export. Number 1 especially hit hard when I had an unexpected shut down and was not able to recover the last saved temp document like I could in Word. The end result is I continue to use Word even though I bought iWork 08.

mac57 said:

Could you post a URL for Bean? "bean" is such a generic term that I suspect a Google of the term would be an exercise in frustration!

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Just fyi: you can add more than one word in a google search.

e.g.: bean word processor mac

first link was : http://www.ogasawalrus.com/blog/node/254

which gives the official link: http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html

I use xPad for most things.
Bean for some.
Pages for import/export from/to MS Word.

Yep. Searching for any mac software just requires The name + mac. Almost always the site will have top spot in google.

Hmm... I see Bean is all about being a replacement for textedit. I'd say Pages is more suited to be a competitor to MS Word..and a good one at that.

I understand what you are saying Dillinger, I had to revert to Word yesterday at work. I should try using NeoOffice more.

goobimama said:

Yep. Searching for any mac software just requires The name + mac. Almost always the site will have top spot in google.

Hmm... I see Bean is all about being a replacement for textedit. I'd say Pages is more suited to be a competitor to MS Word..and a good one at that.

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Truthfully, it's more like a nicer looking and better functioning take on Abiword.