will AppleWorks EVER be upgraded???
seems like it's been stalled at version 6 forever. sure, it probably does everything someone who would use AppleWorks would ever need, but i am thinking .Mac integration, maybe some StarOffice-inspired code to open and use those Word documents (remember how someone at Sun waxed poetic about putting StarOffice on every Mac out there and scare the sh!t outta Bill?).
I think Apple should work with some third parties for good academic and office management add-ons. for instance, my wife is a ph.d. student, and hates word, but end note is the only software out there that prevents her from going insane citing all of her sources... and it only works with word now....
I think Apple should work with some third parties for good academic and office management add-ons. for instance, my wife is a ph.d. student, and hates word, but end note is the only software out there that prevents her from going insane citing all of her sources... and it only works with word now....
Comments
Apple whole concept thingy is digital hub right????
Well what are people gonna do without a ****ing word processor!
yarr
edit= anger mess up my spelling
[ 12-23-2002: Message edited by: xionja ]</p>
<strong>It seems Apple is content to let Microsoft settle Mac users's office needs.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well I too am Stunned <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> by this
What they could do is produce two versions, at reasonable cost: AppleWorks and Appleworks Pro. AppleWorks ships with every mac and is as close to 100% Office compatible as they can make it while retaining a measure of simplicity that the cluttered Office lacks. Perhaps it is based on StarOffice or ThinkFree Office or something like that, but it's free and it's as compatible as can be.
The difference? AppleWorks accepts pluggins! This formula has been very successful for Photoshop and could be put to work for "Office" apps too. Perhaps you only need the full features of a spreadsheet or Word processor, so you buy those, or mebbe for 100 bucks you buy 5 licenses of "Pro" which basically turns your AppleWorks into an Office killer. But it doesn't stop there, if the base is good, 3rd party pluggins might turn your AppleWorks into everything from a powerful HTML editor to an automated mailing manager, or type setting tool, etc etc... whatever you need.
iDunno, just an idea.
as SJ says, from Jan on, everything is X - so, we do need a optimized, M$ compatible iOffice App; MSB dev is also in trouble? AW/iWorks could be a solution.-
13 (?) days and counting?
After 6 months of use, I still struggle with it. Some of the basic items like label or envelope printing, M$ Office ver 5.0 could handle better than the current appleworks.
I don't want to purchase Office for Mac, as I think it is overpriced. Just wish that Apple would put more efforts into Appleworks to make it more intuitive and easier to use.
<strong>If something is in the works it would make sense to keep it as quiet as possible.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Another reason why I think Apple will provide frameworks for much of Appleworks' functionality is that they can sneak it under the radar. A bunch of smaller, apparently less significant apps that are just front ends to accessible frameworks won't (overtly) ruffle feathers like a full-fledged suite will. MS will know what's going on, but it won't be a direct affront, so politically they can't do much about it.
That's how they created a potential Outlook killer based on standards and open frameworks. the combination of Mail, Address Book, iCal, iSync and iChat amounts to this.
Come on Apple! Get your act together!!
<strong>That's how they created a potential Outlook killer based on standards and open frameworks. the combination of Mail, Address Book, iCal, iSync and iChat amounts to this.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I admire and appreciate the mix of the UNIX philosophy of small tools that do one task very well and interconnect in interesting ways, and Apple's philosophy of ease-of-use and simplicity.
The one drawback, however, is a proliferation of tools, which can run counter to simplicity.
If Apple introduces 3-5 applications to compete with every bundled Microsoft suite, that's 3-5 times more apps to open, keep track of, etc.
I'm not sure if I have an answer to this one, other than any philosophy has to be tempered with its effects in usage.
I see Apple saying "instead of making a spreadsheet program, we'll make table objects that can include math formula computations." These objects can be brought into any OS X application through an API for whatever purpose the developer could use them for. We'll release some fairly bare-bones front end chart/table application without all the bells and whistles. But you can bring any table or chart into any other app. Then we'll just enable the user to print documents from any app as a PDF slideshow, including some basic transitions through the display/printing architecture. That way, any app (TextEdit, Freehand, Photoshop, Nisus Writer, Create, etc.) can be a Powerpoint type of app, and Preview (or Acrobat) can be the player/viewer for any such document. They can expand on the formatting abilities of TextEdit and any other application that uses standard Cocoa classes and objects to include headers and footers, add some thesaurus and grammar services, develop summary service, and you basically have the whole package, just created out of smaller pieces, and that any developer can incorporate into their apps too. Apple can just show simple front-end types of applications along the lines of TextEdit or Image Capture while providing access to all these functions to users and developers alike.
In short: Its all about the Database for me
It's not directly compatible with Access, but then I'm not sure it's possible to reverse engineer any aspect of Access without going completely insane.
AppleWorks is no longer a Claris product, it is owned and supported directly by Apple (hence the name change from ClarisWorks to AppleWorks).
And you don't give FileMaker Pro (FMP) enough credit, and give Access too much. It's a serious Peece o Crap and there is no way MS would ever make a Mac port of Access with FMP around to compete with it.
Anyone needs an Access database redone in FMP, send me a PM, I am a FMP developer with lots of experience in cross-platform files.
Back to topic: AppleWorks was a great program, about 3 years ago! And, it was the first Carbon app port if I am not mistaken, and has not really been updated (except for a few OS X "compatibility tweaks") since then (about 2 years ago??)
My feeling is, Apple's programmers have been concentrating on iApps as well as OS X updates. Now that both of the above are more mature, it may in fact be time to kick AppleWorks up a notch (or, put it out of its misery, you never know what Cupertino is up to...)
[ 12-25-2002: Message edited by: FormerLurker ]</p>
<strong>I think that eventually Apple will have to make some serious upgrdes to AppleWorks.
What they could do is produce two versions, at reasonable cost: AppleWorks and Appleworks Pro. AppleWorks ships with every mac and is as close to 100% Office compatible as they can make it while retaining a measure of simplicity that the cluttered Office lacks. Perhaps it is based on StarOffice or ThinkFree Office or something like that, but it's free and it's as compatible as can be.
The difference? AppleWorks accepts pluggins! This formula has been very successful for Photoshop and could be put to work for "Office" apps too. Perhaps you only need the full features of a spreadsheet or Word processor, so you buy those, or mebbe for 100 bucks you buy 5 licenses of "Pro" which basically turns your AppleWorks into an Office killer. But it doesn't stop there, if the base is good, 3rd party pluggins might turn your AppleWorks into everything from a powerful HTML editor to an automated mailing manager, or type setting tool, etc etc... whatever you need.
iDunno, just an idea.</strong><hr></blockquote>
And a damn good one, at that....
damnit...
yeah, everything to build a new version of AppleWorks is already built-into Cocoa such as Spelling, Colors, and line drawing with bezier lines and such
should not take too long if they were not so damn lazy!!!!!
<strong>If M$ would make Access for OSX, I really wouldn't care what AW offered, as I would be completely content in just using that Office suite. However, if Apple can make a good DB program and spruce uo their line-up so that it would be M$ compatible and offered what M$ does I would take AW....
In short: Its all about the Database for me
Check out the latest PC Mag. They selected Filemaker over Access as the best db around.
Notch up another win for Apple.