I’m stuck with MS Office, though not enamored with Word. Amazing can still charge so much despite very capable cheaper alternatives. Legacy rules, I guess, until suddenly it doesn’t.
Is a like-minded AI piece possible on Music Memos, GarageBand, Logic, etc.? While doing Computer Music research, I’m surprised (anecdotally skimming profiles) how many big name professionals are using Logic Pro in last few years. For $200, I’m thinking of finally making the jump, though I'm a mere hobbyist.
All right--going to say it: Google Docs. It's very likely what the vast majority of your kids already use at school. No it doesn't have all the features of Word but it does all the basics well enough, and the collaboration features are slick.
I’m stuck with MS Office, though not enamored with Word. Amazing can still charge so much despite very capable cheaper alternatives. Legacy rules, I guess, until suddenly it doesn’t.
Is a like-minded AI piece possible on Music Memos, GarageBand, Logic, etc.? While doing Computer Music research, I’m surprised (anecdotally skimming profiles) how many big name professionals are using Logic Pro in last few years. For $200, I’m thinking of finally making the jump, though I'm a mere hobbyist.
Have you givenLibreOffice a try? I use it for accounting and for word documents sometimes at work and it works amazingly well. It's free, open source, and well maintained. I'm happy to be free of Microsoft Office. I still save the files in Office format just in case someone needs to open then for compatibility reasons.
I've had good luck with LibreOffice Writer and Calc. I haven't used the other apps in the bundle enough to assess their usability or compatibility. LibreOffice is not as slick as Microsoft Office but still very usable and pleasant to use. File format compatibility with Microsoft Office is less of a concern since Microsoft changed to standard open package convention formats (docx, xlsx, etc.) but it could still suffer temporarily if Microsoft introduces new elements/structures within their (still standards-based) packages that expect corresponding code in the Microsoft application to process the new elements/structures. So far, no big issues on my end and certainly nothing worse than what I've seen with Apple's iWork applications and Microsoft Office interoperability. YMMV.
One advantage of LibreOffice is its availability on macOS, Windows, and Linux. I use LibreOffice Calc (or at least test with it) when I need to distribute spreadsheets that may be used by people who don't have Microsoft Office. LibreOffice even works reasonably well on a Raspberry Pi Model 3 (and 3+) which allows you to turn your big screen TV into a couch computer if you have a spare HDMI port to plug it into and a wireless keyboard/mouse like the Logitech K400 Plus. There is no version of LibreOffice for iOS, it's rumored, but you can still save/load files in Microsoft Office formats and access them using Apple's iWork apps on iOS devices, which is quite easy if your LibreOffice is setup to work with your iCloud Drive on your Mac.
Definitely worth the price and it may surprise you.
I agree, i like that it's well maintained and supported on all platforms. I hope they release an IOS version soon. I use it for at the office for accounting and it works great. I'm happy to support open source software rather than closed source like Microsoft Office. Also, I'm not an fan of subscriptions to software, I feel that software should be owned, not rented. Adobe Creative Suite comes to mind.
And a quick ode to Framemaker, which bests all of these. But alas, it ceased to be a Mac program years ago, yet its name shall be whispered with reverence by those who used it regularly and...
I still keep two ancient Macs for Frame 7. One major project I run needs dictionary style headers and a few other features nothing else provides for loooong documents.
I've used Nisus (Writer Pro) fairly solidly since 1988. There was a bit of a re-development speed bump (more like a pit in actual fact) with the shift to BSD/OS X, but is firing on all six again, including the Graphics Layer and Macros . I started using it when Word kept crashing in the late 80s - and never looked back. It had stuff that Word took a very long time to catch up on and even now possibly hasn't (I still have to use Word for some things).
The developer really cares about its product(s).
It's easy to start using, too. Highly Recommended.
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LibreOffice a try? I use it for accounting and for word documents sometimes at work and it works amazingly well. It's free, open source, and well maintained. I'm happy to be free of Microsoft Office. I still save the files in Office format just in case someone needs to open then for compatibility reasons.Learn Terminal and command line and never look back.
The developer really cares about its product(s).
It's easy to start using, too. Highly Recommended.