I hear you on the concern of an Apple monopoly and what Apple may be doing to push other software developers out of the Mac market. It is a tough issue and I'm sure there has been much discussion going on inside Apple on it. Maybe the reason we haven't sen a new/updated/ office suite from Apple is because of fear that MS would dumb their efforts.
However, I really love what Apple has done with all their software. I really beleive a melding of Keynote with a word processor would quickly become my word processor of choice. It's is really stupid that MS Office can't handle the PDF graphics I can "print" out from any OSX app. They look like complete crap when imported into word or powerpoint.
I'm just hoping that the reason Apple hasn't come out with a new version yet is that it really is a grand undertaking to come up with an Office bundle that not only catches up with MS Office, but leaves it in the dust.
hmm. i'd guess that apple is probably working on an office suite just as a contingency plan. i doubt they'd try to take on microsoft office for x directly. it simply has too much brand recognition and it would take a lot of effort to convince people that they could use the apple office suite and still interoperate with microsoft office. the compatability between pc and mac office suites is of paramount importance. but i'd be very surprised if they weren't working on appleworks to some degree just as a hedge.
it really wouldn't be smart of them to try to displace office, incur the wrath of microsoft and put any enterprise plans they MAY have at jeopardy just to spite microsoft.
Well, for anyone who wants to know, I'm currently working on a Cocoa word processor that basically is Keynote for word processing. So, if Apple isn't working on one, don't despair, because one is coming .
hmm. i'd guess that apple is probably working on an office suite just as a contingency plan. i doubt they'd try to take on microsoft office for x directly. it simply has too much brand recognition and it would take a lot of effort to convince people that they could use the apple office suite and still interoperate with microsoft office. the compatability between pc and mac office suites is of paramount importance. but i'd be very surprised if they weren't working on appleworks to some degree just as a hedge.
it really wouldn't be smart of them to try to displace office, incur the wrath of microsoft and put any enterprise plans they MAY have at jeopardy just to spite microsoft.
The Apple Office / iOffice / AppleWorks successor situation is something that, every once in a while, I just sit and puzzle over. Clearly, Apple was considering going down the Apple Office route at some point, when they hired the team that originally made BeProductive suite (for the BeOS). That was over two years ago (IIRC)...
Since then, AppleWorks has remained on bare-bones life support, and nothing has happened. Did Apple abandon the whole project, reading MS's folding of the new IE6 for Mac engine into MSN as a warning sign? Did the work begun on an Apple WP get instead folded into Panther's text engine, with it's basic .doc support? Is Apple still working on consumer-level "Works" suite, or staying far out of MS's way? It's all wild speculation.
Seems to me that the most strategic decision would be to work on a very consumer-friendly, basic "Works" suite, with lots of interesting features, Apple-style ease-of-use and polish, and as-good-as-possible Office compatibility... as a replacement to the aging and clunky AppleWorks. (Perhaps it could even make use of some the Office-compatability parts from KOffice or OpenOffice.) Should MS ever slash its Mac development for Office, this suite could then be expanded into a full Office version.
Where Keynote fits into the whole thing I'm not sure. Clearly Keynote was an experiment to see how many people would bite at an Apple-style Office application. I'm not sure exactly what the results were, and what Apple learned from it.
Perhaps we'll find out more next MWSF, but who knows.
Well, for anyone who wants to know, I'm currently working on a Cocoa word processor that basically is Keynote for word processing. So, if Apple isn't working on one, don't despair, because one is coming .
It came up in a previous thread that since Adobe killed Framemaker, that an Apple version of word may be more targeted at the page layout crowd than at the pure text document crowd. Something in between MS Word and InDesign/Quark. It would be a delicate act to sell it as neither a competitor to either of these but rather as a new product to fill a niche. Maybe aimed at the SOHO crowd.
As a scientist, I mainly write papers and grants, and for this placing figures into the text (grants) is important. This is old hat, did it back in MS Word 5, but I have to say if anything MS has made it less simple over the years. Certainly no improvements.
Then again, Apple is slowly pouncing on the Entiprise ball and offering their version of Office for the cost of the computer would be good for switchers. I think if you add in the cost of MS Office to going Mac, it really prevents many from switching.
Dictionary: Do you mean spell checking? If so, Check
.Doc Compatibility: Initially it will use basically the same compatibility conversion that TextEdit uses, but .doc compatibility will be improved for a 1.0.x release
Well, for anyone who wants to know, I'm currently working on a Cocoa word processor that basically is Keynote for word processing. So, if Apple isn't working on one, don't despair, because one is coming .
Comments
However, I really love what Apple has done with all their software. I really beleive a melding of Keynote with a word processor would quickly become my word processor of choice. It's is really stupid that MS Office can't handle the PDF graphics I can "print" out from any OSX app. They look like complete crap when imported into word or powerpoint.
I'm just hoping that the reason Apple hasn't come out with a new version yet is that it really is a grand undertaking to come up with an Office bundle that not only catches up with MS Office, but leaves it in the dust.
it really wouldn't be smart of them to try to displace office, incur the wrath of microsoft and put any enterprise plans they MAY have at jeopardy just to spite microsoft.
Macaddict16
Originally posted by admactanium
hmm. i'd guess that apple is probably working on an office suite just as a contingency plan. i doubt they'd try to take on microsoft office for x directly. it simply has too much brand recognition and it would take a lot of effort to convince people that they could use the apple office suite and still interoperate with microsoft office. the compatability between pc and mac office suites is of paramount importance. but i'd be very surprised if they weren't working on appleworks to some degree just as a hedge.
it really wouldn't be smart of them to try to displace office, incur the wrath of microsoft and put any enterprise plans they MAY have at jeopardy just to spite microsoft.
The Apple Office / iOffice / AppleWorks successor situation is something that, every once in a while, I just sit and puzzle over. Clearly, Apple was considering going down the Apple Office route at some point, when they hired the team that originally made BeProductive suite (for the BeOS). That was over two years ago (IIRC)...
Since then, AppleWorks has remained on bare-bones life support, and nothing has happened. Did Apple abandon the whole project, reading MS's folding of the new IE6 for Mac engine into MSN as a warning sign? Did the work begun on an Apple WP get instead folded into Panther's text engine, with it's basic .doc support? Is Apple still working on consumer-level "Works" suite, or staying far out of MS's way? It's all wild speculation.
Seems to me that the most strategic decision would be to work on a very consumer-friendly, basic "Works" suite, with lots of interesting features, Apple-style ease-of-use and polish, and as-good-as-possible Office compatibility... as a replacement to the aging and clunky AppleWorks. (Perhaps it could even make use of some the Office-compatability parts from KOffice or OpenOffice.) Should MS ever slash its Mac development for Office, this suite could then be expanded into a full Office version.
Where Keynote fits into the whole thing I'm not sure. Clearly Keynote was an experiment to see how many people would bite at an Apple-style Office application. I'm not sure exactly what the results were, and what Apple learned from it.
Perhaps we'll find out more next MWSF, but who knows.
Originally posted by hyperb0le
Well, for anyone who wants to know, I'm currently working on a Cocoa word processor that basically is Keynote for word processing. So, if Apple isn't working on one, don't despair, because one is coming
Sounds good.
Footnotes, margins, dictionary, .doc compatibility...?
As a scientist, I mainly write papers and grants, and for this placing figures into the text (grants) is important. This is old hat, did it back in MS Word 5, but I have to say if anything MS has made it less simple over the years. Certainly no improvements.
Then again, Apple is slowly pouncing on the Entiprise ball and offering their version of Office for the cost of the computer would be good for switchers. I think if you add in the cost of MS Office to going Mac, it really prevents many from switching.
Originally posted by Hobbes
Sounds good.
Footnotes, margins, dictionary, .doc compatibility...?
Footnotes: Check
Margins: Check
Dictionary: Do you mean spell checking? If so, Check
.Doc Compatibility: Initially it will use basically the same compatibility conversion that TextEdit uses, but .doc compatibility will be improved for a 1.0.x release
Originally posted by hyperb0le
Well, for anyone who wants to know, I'm currently working on a Cocoa word processor that basically is Keynote for word processing. So, if Apple isn't working on one, don't despair, because one is coming
tables?
stylesheets?
Also, anyone have success connecting to LDAP.
My company runs 5.5, but there is an OWA server that I can log into. How do I set it up to use OWA?
Originally posted by othello
tables?
stylesheets?
Tables - Yes
Stylesheets - Not for the first release, but it will be implemented soon after