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ppc office vs. univ. iWork, speed>features?

A

applerocks

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 7, 2005
167
83
iWork is Universal so it runs a lot faster on my MacBook. Office has more features.

I would rather go with Office, but it can be slow and iWork just seems faster. On the other hand, Office has more features than iWork and is just more compatible (iWork is compatible, but it is not perfect). Office is better in that regard.

My question is whether I should go with iWork for now and wait for Office 2007 to buy the Universal version. Office is only $30 more than iWork and has a lot more features. I'd hate to spend $100 for a slow app that may be replaced soon anyways.

Any news on Office 2007 for Mac OS X?

Any good alternatives to both of these?

Thanks

applerocks
 
I use Pages extensively for writing reports, term papers, letters and so on. When I want to submit the document to anyone I simply save it as a pdf (which really is the standard for electronic transmission of any document). This has never been a problem for me right through College and out in the big bad Windows orientated world.

So that Pages can open Word documents successfully I made sure all the Microsoft fonts are installed in my fonts folder and that works a treat.
 
If only iWork had a spreadsheet app, I would buy it over MS Office anyday. Until that time comes, I'll stick with Microsoft for this one :(
 
I have tried MS Office 2004 on MBP and MB at the Apple Store. I felt it was sluggish because of Office is not UB. I like the idea of using iWork for documentation and presentation creation; but, I have not yet done the conversion yet. If you have the PB or iBook (PPC Mac), Office 2004 runs like very quickly. I have just upgraded my Macs from Office v.X to 2004 and I like the new Office 2004.
 
Hey! I always had a question about pages. Does it have spell and grammar check? For some reason, I thought I read that pages does not have spell check...
 
Yes, Pages has a spell checker. Go to Edit>Spelling>Spelling or press Command :

Pages works very well if you are just looking for somthing to write out documents. However, I think that if you want to use other features, Word saves time, even though the performance is slow.
 
Office goes soooooo slow on my macbook. In fact, running it feels like my whole OS is crashing. I am only using the stock 512 Ram tho. Will upgrading to 2GB help make office smooth?
 
It might help, but I doubt it.

You might just want to suck it up and wait for the new one...

Or you could buy pages until then. :)
 
i havent yet loaded office onto my new intel mini, but how bad can it be? sure, maybe start up is slow, but surely program speed is not so critical with Word. it is just sitting there waiting for my slow-a$$ self to think of the right word.
 
I prefer iWork. Never used Office since I got my hands on Apple's apps. Office is VERY slow even on PPC Macs. For example you can go have a coffee break if you try to paste text in Word... :mad:

Pages is awesome! I dont use Keynote, but used it a couple of times and it was very simple, intuetive, yet powerful app.

Go for the iWork!
 
eXan said:
I prefer iWork. Never used Office since I got my hands on Apple's apps. Office is VERY slow even on PPC Macs. For example you can go have a coffee break if you try to paste text in Word... :mad:

Pages is awesome! I dont use Keynote, but used it a couple of times and it was very simple, intuetive, yet powerful app.

Go for the iWork!
Click to expand...
o_O

what you talkin' bout?

word's fast on my G3 iMac.. iBook.. and G5..

:confused:
 
lilstewart said:
o_O

what you talkin' bout?

word's fast on my G3 iMac.. iBook.. and G5..

:confused:
Click to expand...

It takes AGES to paste even a small paragraph of text to Word, even on my iMac :eek:
 
ms office is compatible to your friends on windows. if you have to edit a file together you have to go this way.. you would screw a complex ms word file using pages.. :(
sorry..
 
Mammoth said:
...But you're not using Rosetta, are you? ;)
Click to expand...

Probably you should read the previous posts more attentively.

eXan said:
I prefer iWork. Never used Office since I got my hands on Apple's apps. Office is VERY slow even on PPC Macs. For example you can go have a coffee break if you try to paste text in Word...

Pages is awesome! I dont use Keynote, but used it a couple of times and it was very simple, intuetive, yet powerful app.

Go for the iWork!
Click to expand...

eXan said:
It takes AGES to paste even a small paragraph of text to Word, even on my iMac :eek:
Click to expand...

(from my signature) said:
iMac G5 2 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, 160 GB HD, Radeon 9600 128 MB, 17 inch
Click to expand...

See? Rosetta has nothing to do with it.
 
thumb said:
i havent yet loaded office onto my new intel mini, but how bad can it be? sure, maybe start up is slow, but surely program speed is not so critical with Word. it is just sitting there waiting for my slow-a$$ self to think of the right word.
Click to expand...
My PPC Macs run Office 2004 very nicely without lags. However, when I tried the MBP and MB at the Apple Store, Office 2004 was very sluggish. It took about 30 seconds or so just to launch (My PPC Macs launch it in a second) and I see the slight lag on the typing. Even I used the delete key, I noticed the lag between my key input and on-screen action. For some people, this type of lag may not be an issue. But, I know I will get annoyed mightily with this type of lag. By going through that experience at the Apple Store, I just felt the Intel switch is still at the early stage and reinforces my inclination to wait till next year before I jump into the Intel Mac.

It seems Page is a good app, even though I have not yet fully utilized it, as I have been working in MS Office-centric work flow.

I know I won't hesitate to getting MBP or MB if Office is UB.
 
i have 2 gz ram on my mb.. office runs ok... (as in not deathly slow) but you can defo tell its not native. Somehow this doesn't affect excel as much as word (i haven't had to make a presentation yet). The one thing about word is sometimes when you press return multiple times (i was filling in an app that wasn't tabulated properly, this was SO ANNOYING) it sort of trips over itself. Then it does sort of a return tab thing but starts writing on the next line. you get used to the feeling of the app about to crash though- may be its because my old pc was continueously crashing so these trips are small potatoes compared with that.

things that i think are really important that I can't answer (and hopefully others can tell you)

1. people find it annoying if they have to especially save something for you in a different format- in my university, i got word attachments like every other day. can pages read the .doc file?

2. what is pages' spreadsheet ability like? as my studies progressed, even though i was studying history, quantitative data became very important, and trust me. you don't want database created out of... well i dont know, a non numbers program. and excel was certainly enough for my needs.

3. how do you make presentations (if needed) compatible with pc? if your school provide tech for presentations (pc+ a projector thing) how are you going to present? would you take your computer in? is it going to be plug and play with the projector? can keynotes be a pdf file? what if you are making a joint presentation with a pc user?- you can't work on seperate parts on your computer without may be troubling him/ her?

it does gripe me that now i have an apple i still have to depend on ms office. but it is 'universal' in the sense that most people use it, so i think i have to have it too in order to communicate with others easily and its simply too annoying (read me, lazy) and expensive to use i works daily and have ms office just incase someone sends you stuff that doens't like your computer.
 
fatties said:
1. people find it annoying if they have to especially save something for you in a different format- in my university, i got word attachments like every other day. can pages read the .doc file?
Click to expand...
I was able to open .doc file with Page. Page opened it okay as I have not noticed formatting issues. I tried with my another standard propsal/quote .doc file and I am surprised to find out Page opened it without any problem. This is a good discovery. I have to thank you for your post as I would have not even tried it without it.

***Edit***I take it back my glowing comment on Page's .doc compatability. I just noticed the .doc file I opened was with Office 2004 (doh!) (I thought I was opening it with Page); after opening the same quote file (my standard quotation document) with Page, I noticed the tables and length of paragraph were re-formatted. So, I need to stick with Office 2004.
 
wingsky said:
If only iWork had a spreadsheet app, I would buy it over MS Office anyday. Until that time comes, I'll stick with Microsoft for this one :(
Click to expand...

I have been using the beta Google Spreadsheets for basic spreadsheet goodness. It seems to be very solid. You do all your work through a web browser and save the results as an .xls or .csv to your desktop. I even has a pretty good selection of formulas, just don't expect charting or advanced features like pivot tables...

Pages is a very nice app, it just takes some getting used to. I would recommend that users customize their toolbars in Pages if they want a more Word-like experience. If Apple would allow the system-wide thesaurus to automatically replace words in Pages it would be perfect for me. Currently, you can only cut and paste from the dictionary/thesaurus.

I really don't have to say anything about Keynote...Everyone agrees it is great...
 
I have both of these suites and I love them both. I have always been a Word junkie (when I was a PC user) and the student and teacher edition was on a deal for around $79 (I think) when I bought my iBook. I really love everything Word offers so it was definately worth it. I also have learned to love Entourage, its quite useful!
However, when it comes to ggod looking presentations or a very nifty report I have to say I would use iWork. Page and Keynote are very easy to use and have beautiful templates.
So, I admit this post was totally useless to your predicament but it had to be said. My input would be to buy iWork because it is very good at everything it does and it will do everything you need (except Spreadsheets) and get Office later IF you want. I just feel right using the Office apps and it just does't seem right for me to type out an essay for English class in Pages when I could use Word.
 
WillMak said:
Office goes soooooo slow on my macbook. In fact, running it feels like my whole OS is crashing. I am only using the stock 512 Ram tho. Will upgrading to 2GB help make office smooth?
Click to expand...

I have tried MS office on three MBs and one MBP. The memory definitely makes a difference - on a 512mb machine office is painfully slow, with a gig, or more, it seems fine (about the same as running office on my G4 1.5ghz PB).
 
Can't believe someone hasn't mentioned this before, but what about Open Office or NeoOffice? I don't know about presentation files--never had an occasion to use such a thing--but for text/spreadsheet, they truly are seamless. I use them all the time for stuff that *has* to be submitted in MSExcel or MSWord format, and no one has ever been able to tell the difference. Only difference i can think of is that you won't have access to Visual Basic Macros--but that seems like a feature, not a bug, to me.

In addition to having, as far as i can tell, all the same capabilities, they often do them in a friendlier way.

And if either the beta-ness of NeoOffice or the X Windows-ness of Open Office put you off, there's no need to use them all the time--just when you need the format transparency. I haven't used iWork yet, but from everything i've heard it's just as good as ClarisWorks/AppleWorks, and that app always blew MSOffice away in terms of everything but power-user features (most of which i never wished i had). I still use AppleWorks, despite some minor incompatibliity issues, on a regular basis. And will continue to do so until i either buy FileMaker or figure out the database component of Open Office. As an added bonus, Open Office also does stuff that MSOffice doesn't (like drawing). So buy iWork, download Open Office and/or NeoOffice (i use both, at various times), and save your money. Plus, MSOffice, while leaps and bounds ahead of previous iterations, is still a clunky dog in my book, not worth the trouble to use.

And, unless it's your professor, when they say you "must" do something in MSOffice format, because it's 'universal', you should tell them to go find a non-proprietary format, and quit demanding that you spend hundreds of dollars for crappy software to match their particular preferences. Or, like i said, quietly do it in Open Office. [the 'universality' of MSWord format is one of my pet peeves--someone sends me something in MSWord format, i ignore it if i don't care, or request that they provide it in a useable format, if i do.]
 
woodelf said:
And, unless it's your professor, when they say you "must" do something in MSOffice format, because it's 'universal', you should tell them to go find a non-proprietary format, and quit demanding that you spend hundreds of dollars for crappy software to match their particular preferences. Or, like i said, quietly do it in Open Office. [the 'universality' of MSWord format is one of my pet peeves--someone sends me something in MSWord format, i ignore it if i don't care, or request that they provide it in a useable format, if i do.]
Click to expand...

isn't it just easier to suck it and see instead of picking up fights with people. its equally 'demanding' of you to ask that of people even though its a simple click away. and you also have to realise that in the real world not everyone will be so nice and compliant w/ your requests- especially if it is a mailout or something like that.

i used to use openoffice as a subversive gesture until one day i had to print an essay out at uni. oo-> ms completely messed up the formating and i was marked down for bad presentation (didn't have time to correct it- all tables, footnotes, pages, tabs, everything was gone/ went completely wierd, there were extra section breaks everywhere god what a mess)

i hope they have fixed it now. using an opensource app is amazing ideally, but i think unless you have your own setup that is not dependent on other people (eg. the university network) then approach them carefully (ie test them out before the crunch)

btw. i think ms office for students doesn't cost hundreds of dollars, more like 100 (or much less).
 
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