I actually find the Pages interface very friendly. I use spreadsheets very little and use Word for work. I loathe Word and not infrequently use Pages when editing text. BUT, I also need to work with Tables and need to be able to use both portrait and landscape formats in the same document. Pages just doesn't allow me to do some of the things I need to do.
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Why do some continue using Microsoft Office on Mac?
- Thread starter Benz63amg
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I actually find the Pages interface very friendly. I use spreadsheets very little and use Word for work. I loathe Word and not infrequently use Pages when editing text. BUT, I also need to work with Tables and need to be able to use both portrait and landscape formats in the same document. Pages just doesn't allow me to do some of the things I need to do.
Same here - Office 2019 Mac and 365 subscriptions for work.
iWork apps for personal.
Neglected is a little strong as Apple provides regular updates, adding additional functionality several times a year. While cross references may be a key feature to you, in all my years writing corporate documents I have never needed this functionality.
However I agree in business, Microsoft Office is the standard that everyone uses to communicate and exchange documents. Numbers is the weakest link in the iWork suite, and is fine for simple spreadsheets and can create some good looking charts and documents. But if you need a financial modelling workhorse like I do, then Excel has no equal.
iWork’s best Application is Keynote and in my opinion is better than PowerPoint, to the extent even in a corporate environment unless I am collaborating on a presentation, I will tend to use it over Powerpoint.
At home I tend to use Pages, rather than Word, but for office documents I tend to use Word.
Well, for me, a word processor is the single most important software that can be used on a computer (perhaps on par with a web browser). It is not "only" a word processor. It is, in many cases, a sophisticated piece of software. I need a word processor to be full-featured, compatible, reliable and easy to use. Apple Pages does not check all these boxes.
Well, in the last three years, Apple has been updated iWork apps more regularly, and providing new features. Prior to that, there were basically bug fixes and support for new macOS versions. It does not look like a priority, even though "neglected" was perhaps more suitable to what Apple did in the past.
Mac users tend to dislike Microsoft Office. This is understandable because Microsoft Office for Mac is heavy and cumbersome, and iWork is lighter and more elegant. Microsoft Office for Windows is the real deal, though, as it runs like a feather even though it is powerful and full-featured. For office documents, I tend to use Word for Windows, as it is much, much better than anything else, including Pages and Word for Mac.
As for cross-references, it is a feature that not everybody uses. As a lawyer, I use it regularly, it saves me time to update several references in a document. Also, when I write academic articles, cross-references are incredibly useful. Apple Pages is definitely not for me.
As for Keynote, it may even be better than PowerPoint. I find PowerPoint to be perhaps the worst of all Microsoft Office apps. Nothing special about it, and it is a shame that Microsoft has neglected Sway for some time now, as it could have been a good replacement. But it simply does not matter. Whenever I am doing a presentation, I am supposed to hand over a PPT file to open in the computer which is going to project it. It is always a Windows laptop, and it ready to open a PPT file. Unless I am able to attach my own laptop to the projector (which is very rare to happen), I will not be able to present anything with a Keynote presentation, no matter how good it can come out.
So, in my experience, it is always Microsoft Office. And, after working more than a decade in Brazilian corporate environment, I can say for sure that nearly 100% of businesses use Microsoft Office, and if someone tries to use something else, it might turn out being a disaster.
Completely makes sense for you, I know a lot of Lawyers, who live in Word
I am a FD so I live in Excel Add me to group that uses Office. it is disappointing that Numbers/Pages don’t even offer mail merge of any kind which is something we use often at least few times a year. For anything basic I find jumping between word/power point and Apple equivalents fairly painless but trying to do anything in Numbers feels like foreign language compared to Excel.
Yes, it does. When I first started using a Mac, I had the hope that Apple would improve iWork and add more features to allow it compete with Microsoft Office. I was completely wrong. It has been over a decade now, and I am glad I did not wait for Apple.Completely makes sense for you, I know a lot of Lawyers, who live in Word
The fact that Microsoft Office is so much better under Windows is the main reason (although not the only) why I was never able to completely switch to macOS.
I think for home users, who primarily need a simple word processor and occasionally a spreadsheet for budgeting, iWork is probably fine. I am not sure why Apple did not develop iWork to compete better with Office. Keynote does, Pages is about 70% of Word, Numbers is miles behind Excel. I suspect Apple either deliberately wants to keep iWork simple for users or does not want to compete too strongly with Microsoft from fear of Microsoft dropping support for the Mac version of office, which would have really hurt Apple for those that can use a Mac in the office.
It used to be the case that I would run Excel in Windows in Parallels on my Mac in the office as the Mac version was so slow. However over the years Microsoft have dramatically improved the performance and functionality of the Mac version of Office, so the difference is almost non existent. I now use the Mac versions of all the office Apps and have no problem with performance or collaboration with other Windows office users. The only App that I notice is still a little behind in functionality is Outlook compared with Windows, but that gap is also closing now.
You are right that home users generally need a simple word processor, and that is usually it. Pages provides that kind of functionality.
Competing with Microsoft Office is not easy at all. Many have tried and failed. WordPerfect used to be great in the past, but now it is only a shadow of what it has been. Microsoft invests too much in its office suite, and offers a compelling package. I am not sure how would Apple compete with that, especially providing iWork for free to its users.
I suppose Apple wants to keep it simple, and does not want any compromise, as always. In the past, Apple was probably more concerned about losing Microsoft's support, but I guess those days are gone now. Microsoft even offers Office for Android, even though Google ostensibly challenges it with its own cloud suite.
Apple would have no reason to compete. It is expensive, and Apple could never win. Microsoft Office's installed base is too large. Unless Apple agrees to either provide a Windows version or lower the price of Macs (and neither of which is going to happen), it will not have the installed base to compete with the economies of scale of Microsoft Office.
I taught Microsoft Office so it's familiar to me. I'm running parallels on my iMac and it's fine. Some things I do in the PC environment and others in the Mac environment.
I also have a proprietary program for tax preparation that is not OS friendly. Being a CPA, I just keep using what I've used in the past.
I also have a proprietary program for tax preparation that is not OS friendly. Being a CPA, I just keep using what I've used in the past.
I used to use MS Office, but I now own a publishing business and we use Pages and Numbers exclusively. When I have to do presentations, I find Keynote better than Powerpoint. I like to stick with the Apple platform. I also have found the Microsoft licensing scheme to be off-putting.
I use Microsoft Office a ton for work (primarily Excel and Powerpoint, and Outlook of course) - on Windows..
Since I spend 15-25 hours a week in those programs, it never became natural for me to use Pages/Numbers, iWork...I've tried, but for the little use I have for that on my Mac (as I rarely use those type of programs at home), I do love the familiarity of Office...and Luckily, I can get Office for like $13 on the HUP program, so that of course helps. and there's never any concerns about format compatibility between files etc. Though I can't activate MS 2016 on my new M1, so not sure what I'm going to do.
Since I spend 15-25 hours a week in those programs, it never became natural for me to use Pages/Numbers, iWork...I've tried, but for the little use I have for that on my Mac (as I rarely use those type of programs at home), I do love the familiarity of Office...and Luckily, I can get Office for like $13 on the HUP program, so that of course helps. and there's never any concerns about format compatibility between files etc. Though I can't activate MS 2016 on my new M1, so not sure what I'm going to do.
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Like many have said, Office is the standard in corporate America and the US Government. I did CAD and systems design for communications system in Military hospitals for 20 years. I had to write the specifications for several systems and they had to be in MS Word for the government. We started with WordPerfect and then would convert for the final submittal. I really liked WordPerfect, but it got to be too much of a hassle to convert all the time, so we we switched to Word, which I really dislike. I love Excel and Outlook, can't believe the same people make Word and Excel!
I found Publisher to be a great low end desktop publisher. Then there was Frontpage, terrible program.
I found Publisher to be a great low end desktop publisher. Then there was Frontpage, terrible program.
Yes, personally I would rather just use Pages, Numbers and Keynote but due to the efficient marketing in the early days, Microsoft Office has become a standard for business and general use. If you collaborate with others or are part of a team or business, then unfortunately Microsoft Office has the advantage currently.
It does not mean it is the best product, but they have developed it over the years to be a solid. Keynote (my opinion) in concept and function is far superior, but not as developed now as Power point. Apple users generally (by history) come to Apple products because they either like the overall design and interface (its cool) or want just simple and easier ways of doing things instead of all the busy-ness and complexities now of programs like Office. Even the ribbon is "busy" in look and get annoying after awhile (though you can now close it out).
If Apple marketed iWorks more in the early days (Office was first written for the Mac), we may have seen more of an impact in the market. But maybe part of the "deal" that Jobs made with Gates to get the bailout loan when Apple was almost gone was to kill iWorks and allow Office to dominate since that was all that Microsoft had at the time (as Windows was having its challenges).
the m1 chips may be a game changer if Apple is now over with any "deals" they made with Microsoft. Get back to iWorks since many Windows users may come over to the Mac and see the advantage. iWorks THEN becomes important, including getting back to building again their ecosystem and providing everything (including airports and time capsules and EVEN networking solutions...XServer etc. Yes, iCloud is their preference, but business still will not give up their information to the cloud and want to contain everything for proprietary reasons. m1 chips as servers (and especially for the internet and web stuff...would be fast and efficiency as we are just in the dawning of a new day...
See the light Apple...get back to creating your technological ecosystem world..
Yes those were interesting days. Novell was strong in Gov at the time to counter balance Microsoft's goal to have it all (which is never a good idea in gov), but times have changed and Microsoft is the master...
True...with every update to Office..it may purposely break connectivity and seamless conversions to iWork's so you are forced to use Microsoft Office. I noticed this when trying to collaborate with Pages and Word (regardless of the exporting to .docx function in Pages).
Eventually we haves to give into the beast and get Office 365. They have won that battle.
I use iWork apps all the time, but the trouble with these apps (and all Apples bundled apps, including Photos, Reminders, Notes, etc) is that the upgrades are often tied to MacOS upgrades. This, I assume, is so Apple can tout new features when you upgrade your OS, which in some cases requires buying a new Mac.
Third party apps are less tied to the system in this way, so in that respect they might be a more flexible option.
Third party apps are less tied to the system in this way, so in that respect they might be a more flexible option.
Office 365 is good value for money. The small business edition lets you use your own custom e-mail domain. Exchange e-mail hosting. 1 TB online Sharepoint storage. and all the office apps for 5 users
Office 365 is definitely good value for money, even the personal/home family editions.
Just compare:
- for $100 a year, up to 6 users in a family get Microsoft 365 Family, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access to be installed in up to 5 devices for each user, plus each user gets 1 TB on OneDrive and 60 minutes on Skype every month;
- for $120 a year, one user gets 2 GB on Dropbox, plus the right to use Dropbox Paper;
- for $100 a year, you get Google One, in which up to 6 users get to share 2 TB storage to use on Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos;
- (d) for $120 a year, you get iCloud, in which up to 6 users can share 2 TB storage for Apple devices and services.
Very interesting thread. I myself am pleased with LibreOffice, although I only use 2 of its modules: Writer Document, and Calc Spreadsheet. My personal needs, for now, are rather simple, so don't require too much sophistication. But seems like compatibility with Word and Excel (that's all I can speak to, for now) in those 2 modules is excellent. If anyone could comment on that, I would appreciate it.
Also, are there any sites I can visit where there are a good sample of Word and Excel documents that I can download and import into LibreOffice? That cold be a useful exercise.
Also, are there any sites I can visit where there are a good sample of Word and Excel documents that I can download and import into LibreOffice? That cold be a useful exercise.
Compatibility is OK, and LibreOffice Writer will open the content of a Microsoft Word file. However, if the document is too large and complex, or if the formatting is too sophisticated, I found LibreOffice to have some compatibility issues. In my experience, Pages has kept better formatting of documents than LibreOffice Writer.
I regularly use LibreOffice and want to be a fan, but as you mentioned, it is woefully inadequate in handling MS Office documents... and they don't have to be all that complex to trip up LibreOffice.
Relatively speaking, it handles Word documents better than Excel and PowerPoint files. PowerPoint handling is horrid.