» Apple iWork '08

Apple iWork '08 Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: PAGES IS A VERY WEAK WORD PROCESSING PROGRAM
Comment: The word processing portion of iWork, Pages, is cumbersome, confusing and unusable.

I bought iWork primarily to use as a word processor, and really wanted to like it. The praise that Apple heaps on itself is very persuasive, and I went for it. After you use it for a while, it starts to sink in that this program is half-hearted. At first I thought it was just a matter of the user customizing Pages just like we've all had to do with Word, and when I couldn't fine tune the thing, I thought it was me. If it's Apple, it must be cool and intuitive and cutting edge, right? I went to the Apple site for the tutorial, and watched it until I realized that it was an infomercial. It was like that moment where Dorothy finds the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. Apple is losing it.

I have come to some realizations about Apple since buying a new Mac, and one of these realizations is that Apple really doesn't have any use for low tech, working Joes and Josephines. Apple has it's eye on the horizon, and sees the world at it's feet as something to wipe off it's shoe. My new Mac is great, but the mouse that came with it has a cord about 6 inches long and the computer has very few ports. There are a few other features and inconveniences that say, either you go wireless on everything or we'll throw you a few obligatory non-wireless alternatives. iWork follows this philosophy. The word processing part of the program was obviously not conceived and executed by anybody who ever had to sit in a cubicle and crank out letters. Apple dashed off this program as a crumb to throw to those plebians who don't use email or Blackberries or iPhones to communicate. "OK, you programmers, give us a word processor, so we can get the real groovy stuff out to our target audience."

Microsoft Word is a work horse. Pages is a silly filly. I'm sure that the presentation-producing (Keynote) and the spreadsheet maker (Numbers) are way cool, but having a program that can be easily used to write a derned letter is beneath Apple.

Now I'm looking at Microsoft Office 2004 or some of those free word processing programs. The money I spent on iWork was wasted.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Comment: The old Appleworks 6 had a n easy to use database. The iWorks is akin to Microsoft Works- the database is incorporated into the spreadsheet.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: iWork Works!
Comment: As brand new user to the Mac World, I was in desperate need for a "Office" suite but refuse to overpay for Office Mac when this is all I really need.

I'm working/importing old documents from Word PC, and it takes minutes to retouch them and most of the stuff I've imported looks pretty damn awesome!

I have not used Numbers, I'm off to discover Keynote, but Pages rocks my world!

The price is as low as it's ever gotten and I have PRIME shipping. You can't beat that.

I'm thinking that some of the negative reviews have to do with people that have absolutely no computer skills at all. I'm not a computer master by any means, but iWork '08 is already a fun tool to use. If I can figure it out, so can everybody else.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Alternate to MS Office
Comment: Apple software for word, spreadsheets, and presentation programs. Not as extensive as MS Office but usable for common tasks. Good for younger users to learn basics before using other programs. Economical for word processing, spread sheets in a non commercial setting.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not for users of Office
Comment: We purchased this product after buying a Mac. We have been pc/office users for years and we love our new mac. We needed some basic word processing and spreadsheet software for home use, so we bought this based on its reviews. I have been disappointed with it so far. It's missing some of the basic options that are available in Microsoft Office.

My biggest gripes have been when trying to work with documents that either were created in Office or need to be sent to someone with Office. I tried to help out a niece with her resume, and I found it was missing a lot of the formatting found in Word (ie- the ability to set printing area wider than the pre-set margins, creating bullet characters that weren't dots). When I exported the file into a .doc for her, formatting was lost. I also tried to edit a Word file for someone using pages, and when the program converted the file back to .doc, some of the original formatting was lost (my 2 page document became a 4 page document!).

Numbers works ok, but it's not as easy to use as Excel. I may not be using all of the software functionality, but it seems that simple tasks aren't easy. When I try to sum a series of cells, I have to use the drop-down menu instead of the numerous ways that office allows you to sum things.

I'm sure that I haven't explored the full capacity of these programs, but for someone who needs light duty tools and is used to microsoft, I'd recommend staying with what you know. This is definitely not a program to use if you need to work with microsoft files.

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