iWork or Office?

bamhaithliom

I am the proud new owner of a MacBook Pro. It's primary use will be for college use so I need to get either iWork or Office? I don't have any preference over either. This is my first Mac so I haven't actually used iWork too much but is there any advantages over Office or vice versa?

Any help would be much appreciated

Johnmb

bamhaithliom wrote: »

I am the proud new owner of a MacBook Pro. It's primary use will be for college use so I need to get either iWork or Office? I don't have any preference over either. This is my first Mac so I haven't actually used iWork too much but is there any advantages over Office or vice versa?

Any help would be much appreciated

iWork will cover anything a normal person would need. I have it and use it quite happily. However, if spreadsheets and word processor capabilities are what you'll mainly be using it for I'd suggest OpenOffice.org. It's free, can deal with multiple file types (including ones that neither iWork nor Office can), and if more technical usage is needed, it surpasses both iWork and Office. The only thing it is missing is a presentation package, but you can work around that easily enough.

mikemac

Numbers is a good product but if you've been using Excel for years then you might not want to learn a new package. I didn't anyway

I'd go with MS Office or for a free version, Neo office works well too

jester77

I would go with Libreoffice over the others. It's free, MS Office compatible and unless you are doing something very specific then it will cover everything you would need. Libreoffice forked off from Openoffice once Oracle acquired Sun, so it would be a better option. You only have to look at what has been happening with hudson/jenkins to get an idea of Oracles influence.

Johnmb

jester77 wrote: »

I would go with Libreoffice over the others. It's free, MS Office compatible and unless you are doing something very specific then it will cover everything you would need. Libreoffice forked off from Openoffice once Oracle acquired Sun, so it would be a better option. You only have to look at what has been happening with hudson/jenkins to get an idea of Oracles influence.

Having looked into LibreOffice, I would have to agree, it seems to be even more compatible than OpenOffice.org! Also, I noticed that there is a presentation package with both (that must be new to the latest edition v3.0), so now they have everything. No need for anybody to be paying for office suites anymore.

deckstunt

jester77 wrote: »

I would go with Libreoffice over the others.

I vote LibreOffice too. I have iWork09. Don't really use it that much. I don't have MS Office. I find myself using LibreOffice all the time, but I'm a sucker for quality open source software.

One thing iWork is supposed to be renowned for is Keynote, its presentation application. If you make a lot of presentations it may be worth taking a look at.

conor.hogan.2

I vote Libreoffice too.

Also for college only? Definitely Libreoffice.

collier

Having used all three I would recommend LibreOffice based on price and performance