Office vs iWorks vs Open Office

[Kurt Ullman]

Since I am getting to the point where I feel I may have to update
both my OS and my Word, I am wondering if there is any place the
denizens of this group could send me (or give me personal experience) as
to the REAL compatibility with Office (and especially Word) of the
other two. I am a freelance writer by profession and send pretty much
100% of my work stuff in Word. But if I could just update the OS and
iWorks, it would be cheaper.
I Googled but found way too much information, so any help would be
appreciated.

 

[MC]

Since I am getting to the point where I feel I may have to update
both my OS and my Word, I am wondering if there is any place the
denizens of this group could send me (or give me personal experience) as
to the REAL compatibility with Office (and especially Word) of the
other two. I am a freelance writer by profession and send pretty much
100% of my work stuff in Word. But if I could just update the OS and
iWorks, it would be cheaper.
I Googled but found way too much information, so any help would be
appreciated.

Apple has released a bundled set of OSX + iLIfe + iWork called "Mac Box
Set" for $169 - a 40% saving over buying them separately. A cheap way to
test run Pages.

However, assuming you're using Office 04 I think your best bet is to
stick with it. Upgrade your OS by all means, but unless you need all the
(good) bells and whistles that come with 08 (and I'm guessing you don't)
then you can simply continue with what you have. And if you use macros,
that goes double, since 08 eliminated them.

I avoided Pages because it didn't let you Save As .doc - you had to
export a copy or something like that. A bit of a pain in theass. I
believe the latest version *does* let you do that.

I'm not sure how any non-Word apps handle Track Changes and Comments -
they are crucial to me - and a couple of the best features of Word as
far as I'm concerned.

 

[herojig]

interesting question...been wishing for a better word for awhile now, but clients are all using MS office 2003 or 2007. everytime i use word i wish it was more like pages or indesign, but i can't switch cause i don't trust any of the non-word's conversion routines back to .docx. Theoretically, if there were a better non-word then word that spit out perfect .doc or dotx files i would switch in a heartbeat. hmmmm.....

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Kurt:

Sorry, your question is too broad.

None of the other applications have ALL of the features of Microsoft Word,
and none of them have the ability to display ALL of the things that Word can
create.

That won't matter at all, if you don't use those things. If you do use
them, well in the other applications, you can't

As Matthew said, if you have Office 2004 installed, keep it: it's more
powerful for professional writing than 2008. Wait for the next release, due
sometime next year. That will be considerably more powerful and more
compatible with PC Office. It will be a very substantial upgrade...

Cheers

Since I am getting to the point where I feel I may have to update
both my OS and my Word, I am wondering if there is any place the
denizens of this group could send me (or give me personal experience) as
to the REAL compatibility with Office (and especially Word) of the
other two. I am a freelance writer by profession and send pretty much
100% of my work stuff in Word. But if I could just update the OS and
iWorks, it would be cheaper.
I Googled but found way too much information, so any help would be
appreciated.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

Yes, we have all been waiting for a version of Mac Word that can match Word
2003 or Word 2007.

Next year, hopefully, we'll get it. That release should be well worth
waiting for...

Cheers

interesting question...been wishing for a better word for awhile now, but
clients are all using MS office 2003 or 2007. everytime i use word i wish it
was more like pages or indesign, but i can't switch cause i don't trust any of
the non-word's conversion routines back to .docx. Theoretically, if there were
a better non-word then word that spit out perfect .doc or dotx files i would
switch in a heartbeat. hmmmm.....

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]