Apple iWork for Mac User Reviews
Very good
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"Finally, I can dump Excel!"
Version: Apple iWork 08
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
'08 is a very nice package, and I'm thrilled with Numbers. So far I find it has just the right balance of power and simplicity. I'm certainly not an advanced spreadsheet user, but all my old Excel files opened perfectly.
Some very nice changes in Pages as well. I am particularly glad to have change tracking.
Well worth the $79. -
"The right tool & it`s getting better"
Version: Apple iWork '06
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
The % of Mac in Japan is still low. At school (I'm a teacher) I have a lot of documents & presentations to make. The school's computers are PCs. I have a iMac at home & transfer my documents back & forth with a memory stick.
With Pages (iWork) you save your work as .pages or you go to the menu "File" and select "Export". You're then given the choice between PDF, Word, HTML, RTF and Plain Text.
With Keynote you have the choice between .key and via "Export" to Quicktime, PowerPoint, PDF, Images, Flash, iDVD & HTML
Making a presentation with all the bells & whistles will quite honestly put PowerPoint to shame.
I don't want to spend hours making documents & fight with Word, so if your time is precious iWork is a good solution. I'm looking forward to iWork 07 for replacing Excel as well :) -
"sucxs"
Version: Apple iWork '06
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
it is just no good.
you got bells and whistles yet you can not email people a document straight from pages.
you cant save it as a .doc document.
fellas you droped the ball in the 80's by not sharing code now we live in a MS hell and you just have to get with the progam and make it easy for us to use Apple apps and still share with the dark side of the force
i dont want to and will not stop you MSWord unless you can come up with a compatable business app
we are not all ipod uni drop outs. some of have us real jobs and need real business and educational needs -
"Makes Terrific Professional Content"
Version: Apple iWork '06
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
The whole point of iWork is to make nice looking documents, something Word, PowerPoint and friends cannot do because of MS's hideous concept of typography.
So, what's new in '06?
- 3D charts.
- Reviewer's comments that go back and forth with Word.
- Inline tables with calculations--for the most part, who needs Excel if your tables calculate?
- Address Book integration for mail merges--for the most part who needs Access if you can use your address book for content customization. Very well done!!
- Free-form shapes and curves.
- Image masking.
- Image relection.
- Cinematic transitions.
- Very nice new themes--something Word and PowerPoint cannot do because of MS's concepts of graphics and typography.
Using the font palette is difficult, but if you set up styles, which you should, this is not a serious problem.
Integration with iLife is very cool. Dang, Apple is good.
iWork seems to run slightly slower than '05, but it still waits for me more than I wait for it and, as is typical, it will be likely be speeded up with the first maintenance update.
Some professional reviewers say iWork is not professional. That is a matter of opinion. If they mean by professional no spread sheet, no database, then okay. But, really? Consider this, what do most of us do with a spread sheet? Data storage. Pathetic data storage, but data storage, none-the-less. And what do we store? Contact info such as names, addresses, phone numbers, comments and such. Use Apple's address book and you get it all. And what do we do with a database? Web stuff! Can you say My SQL? It runs fine on OS X and is a real database. But do you really need a database. For most of us, probably not.
So, overall, 4-stars. Points off for font palette, rough help docs, and slighly slower speed. The features are the best.
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"Excellent..."
Version: Apple iWork '05
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Honestly, I don't know what the other reviewers were expecting, and I certainly don't know why iWork has got such poor reviews. Pages is very familiar to anyone who has used the excellent Keynote before, and benefits from all the extra development that Keynote has undergone since its initial launch. They are both great applications taking a fresh approach to writing and presenting your work. Pages is clean, uncluttered and fast, and, yes, it is organised differently from any other word processor, but when you see the Inspector as a more centrally organised and better deployed palettes system, then you are away. Keynote is what PowerPoint could and should be, after all these years in development. And, together, they really do make sense as a combined set of presentation programs. Anyone who says they prefer AppleWorks, especially in its OSX incarnation, must be mad. Oh, and £49 for the two in the UK is an excellent price, especially as the lumbering and poorly designed MS Word is a staggering £199 on its own! -
"iWork '05"
Version: Apple iWork '05
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Sure, Pages is still in its early stages, and it will likely improve with future releases, but it is still a quick and nifty program to put a simple page layout together for non-professionals.
Furthermore, Keynote 2 is what truly makes iWork '05 a fantastic value. Keynote 2 makes presentations which are professional, and top quality. If you're a mac owner who must make presentations no matter how frequently, you need to have Keynote 2. -
"Keynote is good :)"
Version: Apple iWork '05
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
On a positive note, Keynote is a very nice program. It does NOT open all of PowerPoint files, and when it does open them it's not 100% accurate. My use for Keynote is to actually create my presentations with it, so importing from other programs is not a big problem. I have not checked the export options yet.
Pages is mediocre at best. For people who need VERY BASIC features this is a good program. I found it very annoying and kept going back to Word. I did finish a 3-page document with Pages, which included a table, columns, headers & footers, and some minor formatting.
Apple is right, and Pages has a "sense of style" but unfortunately after the initial WOW effect, I do prefer substance over style. This program may have better acceptability as freeware, which brings us to the price issue.
While iWork is not that expensive, I never saw an upgrade price for those of us who were AppleWork users, or who also have the original Keynote.
As a student, Office is certainly more appealing both in terms of price and features. While many dismiss Microsoft's products as "bloatware" I do recognize that they are packed with features and are extremely powerful. In addition to Word and PowerPoint, Office includes Excel (which was a Mac program originally ;) ) and Entourage, which I prefer to Mail and iCal. For very simple word-processing Pages may suffice, but for those who need something much more powerful, Word certainly delivers. In real life perhaps most users don't need the power of Word and use a minimum of its features. For me, it is sometimes essential to go back to Word and use pages only for VERY SIMPLE things.
While I have not used Flow as merely a word-processor, that may also be a good alternative for students, or Current (also by Near-Time) may be also a good alternative. I certainly prefer them to Pages.
In summary, I'm happy with Keynote 2, and very disappointed with Pages and with the lack of upgrade pricing. Hopefully Apple will release some improvements soon (and without calling it iWork 2). -
"Disappointed"
Version: Apple iWork '05
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I am trully shocked at how bad the default text looks in the simple letter stationary. Very blurry. enlarging text helps a little, but it still stinks. -
"Very buggy - wait for next version to see"
Version: Apple iWork '05
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Go to Discussions on Apple's site to read about the many problems in Pages. For example, if exporting your pages as HTML is important (as it is for me...and the reason I purchased Pages), forget about buying this program. HTML export is completely worthless.
This program has too many bugs for an $80 price tag. -
"This does not knock my socks off"
Version: Apple iWork '05
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Rating iWork is not easy either because there are two different products and my opinion of each is very different. Overall I was surprised that iWork 05 came on a DVD instead of a CD. I suppose Apple assumes that everyone who will use iWork has at least a combo drive. I think some purchasers are not going to be happy when they discover this fact and can't install it. Keynote 2 (Overall 5 stars) is a reasonable upgrade of Keynote 1. So far it has imported all my PowerPoints flawlessly, which is a trick. The integration with iPhoto, iTunes, and Movies is useful. Hotlinks to the internet, to sildes within a Keynote presentation, and to other Keynote presentations is very powerful and I will make good use of that. There are new templates and new slides that are nice and the overall usability seems improved. There is enough here to make the cost of iWork worthwhile to me. Pages 1.0 (Overall a weak 3 stars) strikes me as a product that doesn't quite know whether it is a word processor or lightweight desktop publishing app. One thing it isn't, according to sources at Apple, is a replacement for Appleworks. At least not yet, and AppleWorks will continue for the foreseeable future. Personally I wouldn't want to trust a dissertation or thesis to Pages, there are just too many missing features. Nor would I attempt any major desktop publishing project to it. But I would use it for a small group newsletter, creating party invitations, and maybe the traditional family Christmas letter. There is nothing here that would make me rush out to buy iWork but since I have it I will probably use it.
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