Product Description

Apple's amazing productivity suite for the Mac iWork '08 includesthree applications: Pages '08 for word processing with anincredible sense of style; Numbers '08 for powerful compellingspreadsheets made easy; and Keynote '08 for cinema-qualitypresent

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #585 in Software
• Brand: Apple
• Model: MA791Z/A
• Released on: 2007-08-31
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Platforms: Mac OS X, Mac OS X Intel
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .35 pounds

Features

• iWork '08 EN CD, Family Pack
• iWork 08 EN CD, Family Pack

Customer Reviews

Work became cool
I bought this just before Christmas, a) it looked good and b) I didn't want to pay a fortune for MS office for Mac. I have not been disappointed!

Pages- A fantastic word processor with pro looking templates. I use this all the time for school stuff now, it exports easily to MS office without images, can be a bit tricky with but on the whole is fine. For those who enjoy creating newsletters & posters but are sick of slow & boring MS Publisher, Pages will serve up a treat.

Keynote- 'Suddenly everyone looked up'. This is where iWork beats the rival. Keynote gives stunning presentations with a ton of cool extras to give presentations that 'cool' look.

Numbers- I'm still getting used to this one but so far I'm finding it easier to use than Excel and the graphs are far more mature and better looking!

Overall I'm scoring this great piece of software for Mac with a five because even though exports may not be perfect between this and Office, this has much more of a creative and simple edge to it. Gone are the days of feeling bored and intimidated by the crowded interfaces of the Office apps. My recommendation is to properly learn how to use each program before being critical because like anything it takes a while before you do get used to it, but don't sit on the Office bench, get to Work!

Great product suite - but not Office
As a new Mac convert, I have spent over 20 years with PC's, working with the usual Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). This package came pre-installed with a 30 day demo. I tried it out and it is rather good.

Pages (Word) can be used like a standard word processor or like a DTP package, linking boxes of text to flow from one part to the other. Inserting graphics is easy and changing the layout is even easier.

Numbers (Excel) is like a simpler version. A neat thing is if you highlight a group of numbers, it lists the total, average, mean etc at a glance.

Keynote (Powerpoint) is easier to work with than Microsoft's version, and the transitions are far more polished and better animated.

It is not Office, as in the features are far less. However, for the home user you would only ever use 5% of the Office suite's capability, so iWork is a good cheaper alternative where you would not need to use the complex hidden features of Office.

I have also tried the free OpenOffice suite, and although quite good (especially since its free), it does not have the polish and integration of iWork. Also, being made by Apple, iWork ties in better with the Apple OS, and seems to be part of the OS rather than a separate suite. It is recommended for all Mac and Macbook owners.

Amazing value and nice to use
This seems to be an amazing package for the money based on my short acquaintance with it . A nice spreadsheet with particularly good chart and graphic display properties and an easy to use word processor with good layout tools - and a (arguably) better than PowerPoint presentation tool in Keynote. All 3 apps have that certain "Mac feel" to them and are pleasant and intuitive to use.

I would baulk at saying this is a replacement for Microsoft Office though. What you get with iWork is good, but the range of features in Excel and Word are far more extensive. E.g. I cant find pivot tables in Numbers? or have I missed them? and mail merge support in Pages seems limited to address book fields. Also the export to Word & Excel tools in both Apple apps seem a little crude, generating an "Warnings Report" almost every time they are used.

Anyway, if you don't need all the bells and whistles and 100% Office compatibility this isnt a problem. At £55 for full commercial use iWork is a snip - thats about a sixth of the price of the Microsoft product!