LibraOffice

[Randy B. Singer]

...just go for Pages, Numbers and Keynotes. ...

Here is a different viewpoint.

If one is used to using Microsoft Office, the iWork suite is significantly different and will present a frustrating learning curve.

If you are a business user, and need to share documents with others, a humongous problem is that iWork native format documents can't be opened on Windows. You can save documents in MS Office format from iWork, but if your documents are at all complex they won't open perfectly when you send them to MS Office users. MS Office is the defacto standard in business, especially on the most common personal computer platform. This makes the iWork suite unsuitable for use by quite a few business users.

While the iWork suite is great for what it is (a free suite of apps for casual users), it isn't up to handling what many business users and power users need. The MS Office apps are extremely full featured and powerful. The iWork suite was actually dumbed down a number of years ago by Apple.

If someone is a longtime MS Office user, hoping to switch to the iWork suite, they might be very disappointed when they go to use their old templates. For instance, I'm an attorney and my court pleading template (which meets the local Rules of Court requirements), won't render properly in Pages. I'm not even sure that I could get it to work, even if I spent hours troubleshooting it, because it uses features unique to MS Word.

So...yeah, the iWork suite is an alternative to MS Office. But it is far from being a viable alternative for everybody.

 

[MacInWin]

The iWork suite was actually dumbed down a number of years ago by Apple.

True, it was being re-written from scratch. From my observation, most of the stuff that was removed is now back.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

True, it was being re-written from scratch. From my observation, most of the stuff that was removed is now back.

Some stuff was added back. Pages, for instance, is a shadow of its former self. Numbers never was as robust as Excel and likely never will be. But Keynote, while not quite as powerful as Powerpoint, is easier to use and is a nice alternative.

 

[rbpeirce]

I use LibraOffice for the spreadsheet. One thing that frustrates me is I set up my spreadsheets so keying down to the bottom row actually gets me there. It seems like every LibraOffice update shifts this slightly so I have to re-adjust it or keying down to the bottom will shift to the next row or leave a large gap. I don't know why this happens but I've found no way to avoid it.

 

[pm-r]

True, it was being re-written from scratch. From my observation, most of the stuff that was removed is now back.

I'm just curious, but in what year(s) or versions did this start happening and I assume, continue to improve.

I certainly don't have the opportunity to run Apple's most recent iWork versions or latest Pages.app, but I have always been disappointed with it compared to their old AppleWorks.app, even if it was different, but I had a very good handle on it.

I even used its spreadsheet many years ago to do up a drawing of a design we wanted for a wooden cedar lattice so that the local fencing people could create one for us alongside our garage. It all worked out very well by the way. Talk about adaptability I guess... ;-)

As for the OP and his concern about the price for a good Office Suite bundle, I have and occasionally use an older version of MS Office that I have thanks to my eldest son that he has shared with us via the optional "Family Sharing" he had available for the Standalone product version. I don't know if that option is still available, but the price was certainly right, at least for us, for those times when one just needs a good word processor or to open some Ms file one was sent that doesn't seem to open or work properly with other applications.

Just an optional thought, and a possible option...




- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

I'm just curious, but in what year(s) or versions did this start happening and I assume, continue to improve.

Here is the history of Pages:

Pages (word processor) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Version 5 was, as I recall, the first of the rewritten versions. You can see what has been added back, or totally new, iin the table in the article.

 

[pm-r]

You can see what has been added back, or totally new, iin the table in the article.

Thanks, Jake, but unfortunately there are very few details of any features that actually got added back and when in the table provided there.

Anyway you get what you get I guess and you can't use anything that hasn't been added back in the version one has, if it even had that feature in the first place. ;-)

Actually, I don't think I have used it enough to even notice what might have been removed from the older versions I do have. They still do a lot for my usage, but I don't need anything that someone that works in an office would, or even anything specialized that a lawyer might need especially for specialized formats.





- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

For some reason the site has mucked up the post formatting, I'll try again.

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks, Jake, but unfortunately there are very few details of any features that actually got added back and when in the table provided there.

Patrick, I'll highlight it for you. I've bolded the things Apple put back, the rest are new features/functions:

Hope that helped.

EDIT: I give up. I spent a lot of time workign on the table I had pasted there and then it shows just that NO CODE.... garbage. If you click on it, the stuff shows up, amongst a lot of code that is there but which clearly the board cannot handle.

Patrick, things were added back in update 5.1, 6.2, 7.0, 7.1, 7.3, 8.0, 8.1, 10.1, 11.1, 11.2, 12.0, 12.1, and 13.0. The board won't let me paste in the table and show it in highlights, but you can read those entries for yourself and see what Apple has put back.

Here is the code, maybe a Mod can make it work:

No code has to be inserted here.

 

[pm-r]

Patrick, things were added back in update 5.1, 6.2, 7.0, 7.1, 7.3, 8.0, 8.1, 10.1, 11.1, 11.2, 12.0, 12.1, and 13.0.

Thanks for all your help and information Jake, and for spending all your time trying to format the code.

But don't bother any further on my account as the last Pages version I am currently capable of running on my iMac is v. 5.2.2, so probably not a lot of features got put back, but maybe some of them are still in my Pages '09 v. 4.3 that still runs well on my El Capitan OS 10.11.6.

Anyway, they seem to do everything I seem to need to do with them and I don't seem to miss any Pages features that I don't have.

EDIT:
I just received an email notification that included your post and the included code. It doesn't show up as a table but it's more than adequate to be able to read what was added or removed.

I appreciate all the effort you put into it and just thought I would let you know I was able to receive it which I will keep in my Mail Inbox until I have finished with it.
Strange that the text doesn't come through to a normal mac-forums page.

As I said earlier, all the additions added back up seem to be for later versions of Pages that I cannot currently run.

Thanks again.





- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

Thanks for letting me know, Patrick. Not moving forward with macOS version (and the associated Pages, etc.) updates is something for folks to consider. Unless one is "stuck" with an older Mac that cannot be upgraded, I think users should move forward. If one doesn't want to be a "bleeding edge" upgrader, at least move up before the NEXT major update.

 

[Howard Brazee]

I used to have a subscription to Office for my wife and myself at $99/year. I did that after an older version of Office on my computer stopped working. But I didn't want to keep paying. I have some documents that won't work with Apple's applications, so I downloaded LibreOffice from its site, and Collabora Office for our iPads and iPhones. But I saw some cheap versions of Office (check earlier posts in this thread), and got one for my Mac. I had some trouble until I downloaded the Microsoft license removal tool https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=849815. I didn't buy one for my wife.

While you can get a version of MicroSoft Exchange for the Mac for free, it has some limitations that aren't there with Office's version.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

While you can get a version of MicroSoft Exchange for the Mac for free, it has some limitations that aren't there with Office's version.

I think that you mean Microsoft Outlook. Yes, the free version isn't exactly like the commercial version, but it isn't a bad tradeoff. The free version of Outlook serves up ads that are easy to ignore, and you don't have access to the Classic view of Outlook. Otherwise the free version of Outlook is fully functional, and in my humble opinion, quite worthwhile.

Microsoft Outlook for Mac Now Free, with Strings Attached - TidBITS

Microsoft has released its Outlook for Mac email and calendar app for free, but it displays ads, requires the "New Outlook" user interface, and asks to sync all your data to the Microsoft Cloud.

tidbits.com

 

[Howard Brazee]

I think that you mean Microsoft Outlook. Yes, the free version isn't exactly like the commercial version, but it isn't a bad tradeoff. The free version of Outlook serves up ads that are easy to ignore, and you don't have access to the Classic view of Outlook. Otherwise the free version of Outlook is fully functional, and in my humble opinion, quite worthwhile.

Microsoft Outlook for Mac Now Free, with Strings Attached - TidBITS

Microsoft has released its Outlook for Mac email and calendar app for free, but it displays ads, requires the "New Outlook" user interface, and asks to sync all your data to the Microsoft Cloud.

tidbits.com

What the free version of Outlook doesn't support is, of all things, Microsoft Exchange!!!

 

[Randy B. Singer]

What the free version of Outlook doesn't support is, of all things, Microsoft Exchange!!!

Correct. When you go to set up your accounts, for Exchange the free version of Outlook says "coming soon."

It's ironic that Apple's free e-mail program, Mail, supports Exchange, but that Microsoft's own free e-mail program does not.