The Moss-man has gotten into a down-and-dirty review of
Apple's latest version of its Office-battling software suite
iWork '08 (which includes Pages, Keynote, and the new spreadsheet program Numbers) and delivers a one-two punch to the new package. Apparently, Cupertino's entry just can't match up to Office's triple power play of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, though Walt says that iWork '08 is an elegant and sophisticated solution for users looking for something with a little less power -- which should come as no surprise to most.
Mossberg's not all doom and gloom though, happily noting that Pages has reined in its desktop publishing aspect and become more of a dedicated word processor, Numbers is a "refreshing innovation," that's more "approachable" than its competitor, and Keynote actually bests PowerPoint in ease of use. In the end, however, Mossy says all the flair and high design doesn't make up for the succulent and unbridled power in Office -- but you knew that already, right?
[Via
Techmeme]
posted August 17th 2007 10:14AM
I agree with everything you said. But I can't help but be PISSED that MS's new "more open and robust file format" CANNOT BE OPENED by their most current software release for my platform (Office 2004). And they release a converter that gives me a .rtf. For Excel '07 and Powerpoint '07, I'm SOL for opening those files.
I understand giving up backward compatibility, every company must cut the cord. But please, only do it when you provide an upgrade path. For me Office '08 is vaporware.
The funny irony.. I upgraded to iWork '08 so that I could readily and dependably open Word '07 files.
If you bothered to look up Office Open XML you'd see that there are serious issues with it. I would bet it won't get the ISO nod. It is less worse, but still bad, from what I read. What we need are truly open formats, not more-, half-way-, or pseudo-open.
Apple's next big announcement = iLife '08 for Windows. This of course comes after the *overwhelming* response to Safari for Windows. I find the use of the word 'elegant' to be kind of funny actually. It sounds almost like a polite way of saying about a girl: "Well she's really beautiful, but as dumb as a rock."
I like elegant solutions just as much as anybody. As a Windows user, I was also quite impressed with my girlfriends new iMac. What I can't stand however, is this over-hype and fawning by media and fanboys every time Steve Jobs opens his mouth, or Apple releases a new anything. I swear, the company could come out with a new Apple branded USB cable, and we'd hear about for weeks on every blog!
Well, I'd be pretty amazed too by a USB cable that only worked with Mac OS ;)
I'm a long time office user and being at a Fortune 500 company that isn't likely to change. I've been using iWork at home since it came out and have read comments on the blogs. My hope was that iWork would be my home solution. I bought iWork 05 when I first switched to a iMac but was dissapointed and ended up getting a copy of Office. I didn't go for the 06 version because it still lacked a spreadsheet and I couldn't see that Pages had become a better word processor.
My thoughts so far on the new version:
Keynote - Probably slightly better than Powerpoint, but I don't do presentations at home and I can't buck the system at work. Slight advantage to iWork.
Pages - Greatly improved word processing capabilties. I can finally ditch Word which I've always found wanting. Advantage iWork
Numbers - Great idea, but not ready for prime time. I agree with many other posters that Excels power is only used by a small portion of users. i consider myself one and Excel will still be there at work. However, Numbers doesn't do it for me at home either. My personal finances spreadsheets didn't translate well to Numbers and I have to spend several hours fixing everything that didn't port. Recalculations are painfully slow. Bugs seem to pop up now and then. Weak in the formating department, especially conditional formating that I use to highlight values. (Isn't presentation supposed to by Apple's strong suit?) Graph options are limited and mostly about making the same graph pretty. Advantage Office.
I'm hoping that the next volume of Numbers is as good an upgrade as Pages. But that is likely to be January of 2009, so Excel remains on my iMac.
i(kinda)Work is meant to address a completely different segment of the market as Skumpy so clearly addresses. As such, it isn’t positioned as a full-fledged competitor to MS Office, and stands on its own. I’m not familiar with MS Works, but I’m prepared to accept iWork’s superiority from those who would know-ie: those having used both CURRENT programs.
I'm amazed at the large number of people who bitch and moan about an MS Office which is probably not even 2003 issue, let alone 2007. Their comments show they either haven't used Office 2007 or haven't figured out how to open it up. Should we start criticizing iWork 2006? Or deal with the latest version? It’s sad that MS can’t release version changes concurrently, but I’m sure they want to avoid the embarrassment of releasing a product like Safari for Windows which clearly is not competitive on the PC platform-yet.
MrWhite perfectly illustrates this appalling lack of knowledge in his unsupportable criticism which includes the following gem: "I use Word maybe 3 times a month and adding images and having the texted wrap is cumbersum and lame along with many other features that you have spend a lot of time trying to find just for not to work properly."
While you're at it, MrWhite, use a spellchecker that works in your browser- it'll point out mistakes like “cumbersum.” Safari has that capability, doesn’t it? If not, try Firefox. Sometimes accuracy outweighs brute simplicity.
One thing I know, office cannot created beautiful graph or as easy as iWork.
I know Apple beats Microsoft products in many ways, sometimes, but to me, iWork 08' just doesn't really cut Office 07' any better.
People complain on how hard it is to use MS Office, but I've used their Office 07' suite, and it's really awesome. Their whole new UI thing is really easy and convenient to use. If you can't figure it out, then you really have to be dumb, or just not used to good change. I find Office 07' easy as pie to use. Even my grandma could do it.
And people complaining about price: I guess the price of a high quality Mac doesn't matter, but a office suite is something else.
I snagged a copy of Office 07' at a reduced price of around $90, and includes most of the stuff I'll ever use. It works great, and I've had no problems.
Apple makes great multimedia software, but I think Microsoft does way better at productivity software. Just my .02.
Mossberg is a complete apple shill. He pulled off a coup appearing as an impartial journalist.
As for the iTards and their queefing about another iTurd outta Cupertino...who cares. They're irrelevant outside the vocal and pungent set that permeate the blogosphere. The fanboi's will be the undoing of apple.
@2Kap: It's a matter of power and control and choice. This link will help you understand what power and control and design choice means to a user who wants to move beyond the limitations of template controlled design: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA102004991033.aspx?pid=CH100740791033
The kind of argument you folks employ would disqualify Adobe Photoshop and posit Elements is superior ... simply because it's easier to use. Professionals use the tools that provide them the most power and control and extensibility. iWork is clearly aimed at a different population.
Yes if population you mean, the lobotomized apple masses who believe supporting Apple is akin to supporting a charity.
Funny, I seem to have missed the Engadget review coverage of Office 2007. In fact, using the search feature, I can't seem to find any Engadget articles about Office 2007 (except a picture of the box), much less Engadget covering other people's reviews of the product that is pretty much the default work productivity software for everyone on Earth. But damned if this isn't the forth or fifth article about iWork '08. Funny how office productivity software isn't really fit subject matter for a gadget blog until you put an Apple logo on it.
*sigh* and people wonder why I say there is an Apple bias in the media?
that's ok m8, I'll be more then happy to continue griping at what Charlie Brooker called "glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults" (i.e. Macs)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2006031,00.html
Well Said!! Any iTurd out of Cupertino is like the 2nd coming on engadget. For a market segment that absolutely irrelevant this kind of coverage indicates an agenda. I'm sure it might have something to do with the 10's of 10's of iTards who traffic these posts and are reliable iMinions.
Also has anyone been counting Joshua Topolsky's bash MS and fellate apple posts. I'm surprised that he was the only iTard that returned his jesus phone because he wanted to eat instead of stroke his apple toy.
I'm not a fan of apple (iPod = the worst gadget purchase i've made in years), but to be fair, Office is a product that's been around for a long time and definitely viewed as the best on the block when it comes to, well, office type applications. iWork is trying to play catchup, and presumably people will want to know how well it does that.
You know John, that would be a fine argument if there were new reviews posted on Engadget every time there was a new version of OpenOffice, or StarOffice, but there aren't. The absolute only reason this software is being covered at all (much less in multiple stories) is because it has an Apple logo on it. This site doesn't really cover that sort of software, unless it is for Apple.
I was curious if you can do mail merging yet with iWork? That is the only feature I use on Office that I couldn't do on iWork in the past. Everything else is great. I prefer the pre-fab layouts, the ease of use, and I am even getting used to Pages for regular (from scratch) documents... although it took some time.
iWorks... it's like training wheels for learning how to use a real-world office software. :)
Might just be me, but I think Mac Office is easy to use, looks good (compared to the equivalent MS version and has never missed a beat when I've used it.
iWork would just be another Mac app that gives you an end-product that looks good but doesn't require too much effort or added frippery gayness. Those sorts of Apple programs really appeal to me, because they make the experience light-hearted and 'fun'.
iProcrastinate.