Best Office Suite? (MS Office vs iWork)

[Open-Source-Norange]

I like to dabble in both of these two suites for work and school, but ultimately, I am wondering which one I want to stick to in the long run. The MS Office and the iWork suites work pretty similarly for me for casual use, but which would be better in the long run (cost, availability, features, etc.) for more professional work and more demanding usage?

 

[Phil77354]

I am a committed user of Apple equipment and software but for word processing and spreadsheets I use Word and Excel. I have never made the effort or been able to adjust to Apple's own programs and feel that for these particular applications, they are so ubiquitous and work well, so there is no real benefit to choosing the Apple programs.

Years ago there were issues with using Word and Excel on the Mac, file compatibility with Windows users was problematic, and they just didn't work as well. Today that is no longer the case. I use Word and Excel at work and can generate or modify files at home or at work, on my work Windows computer or my home iMac, and I have no difficulties with moving back and forth.

Plus there is more online help available for Word and Excel, more tutorials and templates, things like that.

I hate to promote a MS product, but in this case my own choice is the Office products.

 

[phrehdd]

If the school offers you Office, use it. It will save you the effort of having to "save as" or "export to" some Microsoft software format. This holds true for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. I like Pages and Keynote and find Numbers a bit lacking.

An alternative would be to use the free office suite such as LibreOffice which comes close enough to Microsoft Office.

I am entering my senior years now and just days away from another degree (BSIT) so I am speaking as a student.

 

[Analog Kid]

If it’s only ever for you, then I think iWork wins. As soon as you need to start sharing files though, MS office is the de facto standard, for better or worse (mostly worse).

 

[petvas]

If it’s only ever for you, then I think iWork wins. As soon as you need to start sharing files though, MS office is the de facto standard, for better or worse (mostly worse).

Exactly this. I use Pages and Numbers extensively but when I want to share something with others, I export it to MS Office format, which actually works very well (most of the times). Many times though people will send me Office files to edit, and for that I use MS Office. Also, for demanding sheets Excel is definitely better than Numbers.
I also use Keynote to deliver my presentations, as I like it better than Powerpoint. I would say, if you can use both, but if you have to choose one, go with Microsoft Office. You will be on the safe side.

 

[sracer]

Excellent advice so far... I really can't anything to what has already been said. But...

Whatever software the OP ends up using, I highly recommend using paragraph (and character) styles rather than selecting text and then manually modifying the font, size, and emphasis.

By using styles, you maximize the possibility that exporting the document to other file formats will retain that formatting.

 

[calliex]

Been a Mac guy sine 1986. I have used word/excel since their earliest versions. I have always had access to MS through work. I have tried pages/numbers and find numbers lacking compared to Excel which I used the most.
Since retiring a few years ago I no longer have a need MS Office and use pages/numbers when a need arises.

 

[ignatius345]

I like to dabble in both of these two suites for work and school, but ultimately, I am wondering which one I want to stick to in the long run. The MS Office and the iWork suites work pretty similarly for me for casual use, but which would be better in the long run (cost, availability, features, etc.) for more professional work and more demanding usage?

Well, for iWork, the "cost" is zero (I mean, if you don't factor in the cost of the Apple hardware required to run it).

For my money, I'd start with the iWork suite. If you start to hit limitations on what you need to do (specific Word/Excel/PPT features, or the need to collaborate with others using those specific apps) then you can always go online and get Office.

I think Pages, Numbers and especially Keynote are quite good and underrated. Office has gotten a lot more polished in recent years, but it's still pretty clunky on MacOS compared to iWork.

Sure, there will always be people who need X or Y feature from Office. And the advanced features of Excel in particular are their own crazy platform you can't easily replace. But I would venture that a great deal of people's needs can be nicely met with iWork, especially if you don't have to swap documents back and forth with people who use Office.

 

[Lars B.]

If you don't want to pay for Microsoft Office, but need something that's more compatible with Office than iWork and uses the same file formats as Office without any conversions, you can also use FreeOffice.

FreeOffice: The best free alternative to Microsoft Office

FreeOffice, the best free alternative to Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for Windows, Mac and Linux

www.freeoffice.com

 

[Open-Source-Norange]

I first want to thank you all for the advice and pros and cons of each side. It's been very enlightening and has made me come to the decision of...using both.

A cop out, I know, but really, the only reason I really stick with MS Office is because of Word and being able to edit and access documents on a phone. Since I only use Android, iCloud is unfortunately out of the question in this situation. I honestly wish Apple would just make an iCloud app for Android. I already pay for extra money for iCloud for my documents, at least make it easy for me to access it anywhere...

 

[phrehdd]

I first want to thank you all for the advice and pros and cons of each side. It's been very enlightening and has made me come to the decision of...using both.

A cop out, I know, but really, the only reason I really stick with MS Office is because of Word and being able to edit and access documents on a phone. Since I only use Android, iCloud is unfortunately out of the question in this situation. I honestly wish Apple would just make an iCloud app for Android. I already pay for extra money for iCloud for my documents, at least make it easy for me to access it anywhere...

Get an iPad Mini and use your android for its internet. I have a Samsung and tested out having my iPad engage it for internet. Worked reasonably well for my purposes.

 

[Hunter5117]

Since you mention school, I assume you are a student. When you enter the workforce, Office is going to be what you need to use and be familiar with. As much as I like the Apple iWork apps, and that is what I use now that I am retired, you will need to use Office for most of your foreseeable future. Unless you become a private contractor, your employers will likely provide you with an Office subscription.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

LibreOffice. Open source, free, runs on any platform, read/write MS file formats. It just works!

Home | LibreOffice - Free Office Suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft

Free office suite – the evolution of OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx. Updated regularly, community powered.

www.libreoffice.org

 

[Open-Source-Norange]

Since you mention school, I assume you are a student. When you enter the workforce, Office is going to be what you need to use and be familiar with. As much as I like the Apple iWork apps, and that is what I use now that I am retired, you will need to use Office for most of your foreseeable future. Unless you become a private contractor, your employers will likely provide you with an Office subscription.

Ahh, thank you for this insight. While I am in a job now that fortunately doesn't really need too much use of office suite software, I want to keep this in mind when I eventually go into a stable career.
Though I will have to ask, why would I need to specifically focus on using Office? I ask mainly because the tech world (which is what I'm studying and wanting to work in) focuses on cloud storage and cloud based things. If I remember correctly, it is possible to export and import and edit the MS Office formats in the iWork applications (I've done it before myself). Would people really notice or not want me to use iWork then?

 

[calliex]

the differences will be in formatting, fonts available,etc.
Excel formulas,macros, etc.

Going from Apple suite to Windows will not be as hard. It may just look diff. to Windows users
Going from Windows to Apple will more diff. Especially complicated spreadsheets.

 

[Hunter5117]

Would people really notice or not want me to use iWork then?

There are really lots of reasons. As mentioned, formatting may not translate very well. Most big companies have standardized templates for PPT, spreadsheets and word documents, these may not translate or work well in iWork. Always saying "hold on while I export my work" may not come off too well with co-workers and especially bosses. Collaboration doesn't work at least not that I am aware. Probably lots of other reasons, just a few that I am aware of.

 

[grandM]

Fair to say that 90 percent of MS Office users probably never use anything that isn't available in iWork. For personal use iWork will most likely suit your needs. If you are looking at what companies are using it probably be MS Office, even if they use it as a plain typewriter. If however you want to improve your skills you really need to learn Office which most don't. If you don't regularly use those skills they'll vanish. If you want the cheap way out you could look into LibreOffice. I get the impression they copy paste Office including Excel formulas.

By the way iWork is a charm on the iPad...

 

[phrehdd]

Fair to say that 90 percent of MS Office users probably never use anything that isn't available in iWork. For personal use iWork will most likely suit your needs. If you are looking at what companies are using it probably be MS Office, even if they use it as a plain typewriter. If however you want to improve your skills you really need to learn Office which most don't. If you don't regularly use those skills they'll vanish. If you want the cheap way out you could look into LibreOffice. I get the impression they copy paste Office including Excel formulas.

By the way iWork is a charm on the iPad...

Pages and Keynote are the winners of iWork as Numbers is well, a bit of a pain to use. I do admit that I was surprised to see that some relatively simple Pages documents didn't export well to Word docx format. Just the slightest styling does not translate well. I like Pages and like others, use it for personal use and for later creating PDF files. I believe that LibreOffice's spreadsheet is better than Numbers. As odd as it seems, has been around for Lotus 123 and Quatro Pro, earlier versions of Excel were perhaps the most intuitive for easy to intermediate-advanced users. Naturally, this is all subjective.

 

[grandM]

Pages and Keynote are the winners of iWork as Numbers is well, a bit of a pain to use. I do admit that I was surprised to see that some relatively simple Pages documents didn't export well to Word docx format. Just the slightest styling does not translate well. I like Pages and like others, use it for personal use and for later creating PDF files. I believe that LibreOffice's spreadsheet is better than Numbers. As odd as it seems, has been around for Lotus 123 and Quatro Pro, earlier versions of Excel were perhaps the most intuitive for easy to intermediate-advanced users. Naturally, this is all subjective.

What I never got working on Numbers were my arrow keys?

 

[Open-Source-Norange]

Pages and Keynote are the winners of iWork as Numbers is well, a bit of a pain to use. I do admit that I was surprised to see that some relatively simple Pages documents didn't export well to Word docx format. Just the slightest styling does not translate well. I like Pages and like others, use it for personal use and for later creating PDF files. I believe that LibreOffice's spreadsheet is better than Numbers. As odd as it seems, has been around for Lotus 123 and Quatro Pro, earlier versions of Excel were perhaps the most intuitive for easy to intermediate-advanced users. Naturally, this is all subjective.

It's probably a good thing now that I don't have to use Numbers as much (for now...), but then again, aren't those spreadsheet applications always kinda buggy? Or at least have more issues compared to word processors or slideshow makers?

 

[Phil77354]

It's probably a good thing now that I don't have to use Numbers as much (for now...), but then again, aren't those spreadsheet applications always kinda buggy? Or at least have more issues compared to word processors or slideshow makers?

I don't know why you would think that? I've used Microsoft Excel for many years. The biggest difficulty with software such as Excel is usually that it has so many features and capabilities that users have trouble figuring it all out. But you can still do simple and basic spreadsheets from the first time you use Excel.

I've used quite a few tutorials and online classes over the years to help me use Excel effectively, but even with that training if you don't use the more complex features often enough, you forget exactly how they work.

Pivot tables is a great example. Very powerful, but if you don't use them very often then it's a new learning experience next time you try.

Back to your question - buggy? No, I have not have those kinds of problems. (Perhaps what some users refer to as buggy is really 'operator error').

 

[Madhatter32]

Numbers and Pages are great. Every time I use them, I think of the money I save versus paying a fee/subscription to Microsoft. For most people, both these programs are entirely sufficient for their needs -- business or home. The biggest problem comes with compatibility (which is burdensome especially with Numbers) and the slight learning curve.

 

[sracer]

I don't know why you would think that? I've used Microsoft Excel for many years. The biggest difficulty with software such as Excel is usually that it has so many features and capabilities that users have trouble figuring it all out. But you can still do simple and basic spreadsheets from the first time you use Excel.

I've used quite a few tutorials and online classes over the years to help me use Excel effectively, but even with that training if you don't use the more complex features often enough, you forget exactly how they work.

Pivot tables is a great example. Very powerful, but if you don't use them very often then it's a new learning experience next time you try.

Back to your question - buggy? No, I have not have those kinds of problems. (Perhaps what some users refer to as buggy is really 'operator error').

I too was puzzled about the claim that Excel is buggy. I would not be surprised to learn that Excel is the most battle-tested app out in the wild. So many companies rely so heavily on it that it has to be at the top of Microsoft's priorities for quality assurance.

You are SO correct about quickly forgetting how to use some of the more esoteric features in Excel. I use Pivot Tables on the regular so that is burned in my memory, but other things like connecting to a SQL database is something I use so infrequently that the next time I need to use it is like the first time.

 

[grandM]

Does anyone know why arrow keys do not work in numbers?

 

[sracer]

Does anyone know why arrow keys do not work in numbers?

They do. Under what conditions aren't they working for you?