Buy iWork now or wait till 07?
should i buy iWork now or wait till iWork07 comes out in jan? i dont desperately need it as i have powerpoint, which is actually real shit, to put a word to it. i dont use it very often, but pages looks good compared to word. i heard that the 07 release would come with a spreadsheet program. would it work with excel spreadsheets?
if anyone could offer some advise it would be much appreciated. cheers
if anyone could offer some advise it would be much appreciated. cheers
Comments
should i buy iWork now or wait till iWork07 comes out in jan? i dont desperately need it as i have powerpoint, which is actually real shit, to put a word to it. i dont use it very often, but pages looks good compared to word. i heard that the 07 release would come with a spreadsheet program. would it work with excel spreadsheets?
if anyone could offer some advise it would be much appreciated. cheers
iWork. specifically Pages, is probably my favorite Application EVER. I use Pages daily to create amazing looking marketing pieces without the complex, time-consuming tools of Quark or In-Design. Lately, I've started building Aqua-styl buttons within Pages as well.
iWork. specifically Pages, is probably my favorite Application EVER. I use Pages daily to create amazing looking marketing pieces without the complex, time-consuming tools of Quark or In-Design. Lately, I've started building Aqua-styl buttons within Pages as well.
yeh but how does it compare to using word for word processing?
should i buy iWork now or wait till iWork07 comes out in jan? i dont desperately need it as i have powerpoint, which is actually real shit, to put a word to it. i dont use it very often, but pages looks good compared to word. i heard that the 07 release would come with a spreadsheet program. would it work with excel spreadsheets?
if anyone could offer some advise it would be much appreciated. cheers
Wait for iWork '07 since it is only three months away. ThinkSecret.com (July 10, 2006) has an article on Pages 3 and a link to the spreadsheet at the end of it. If there is a spreadsheet app it should be able to import/export Excel files; however, if you are hoping to run VBA code you will most likely be SOL. I do not know how people use spreadsheets, but to me, ODBC support is a "must have" to compete will Excel in the corporate world.
Wait for iWork '07 since it is only three months away. ThinkSecret.com (July 10, 2006) has an article on Pages 3 and a link to the spreadsheet at the end of it. If there is a spreadsheet app it should be able to import/export Excel files; however, if you are hoping to run VBA code you will most likely be SOL. I do not know how people use spreadsheets, but to me, ODBC support is a "must have" to compete will Excel in the corporate world.
ok that article was a great help, looks like i'll be waiting for a few months
Keynote - Much better than PowerPoint. Templates are beautiful, professional, and HD. The export options are also very good. In addition, Keynote has good looking transitions, animations, etc. It is easier to make good looking presentations with Keynote By far.
Pages - Pages is excelent for basic desktop publishing. It will create excelent documents that have to look nice. As far as the standard paper and what not, there is not much of an advantage of Microsoft Word, and I use Microsoft Word for standard papers just because it is more universally used.
I really tried to use Pages but the speed just wasn't there. I mean, I'm just doing some typing! While my "little notebook that could a long time ago" isn't up to par (iBook G4 1.2GHz, 768 ram) we're talking *word processors* here - Pages is maybe a "word processor+" with its additional layout features, though. On the other hand it misses out in some places compared to more focused word processors, which Mellel is. Did I mention Pages is slow?
I try to use pages in stead of word - not that impressed so far. Line spacing isn't great & at times I get 2 rows of text on top of each other - not good - really want it to be good though!
Line Spacing in Pages is weird.
I was thoroughly frustrated with the program until I learned that pressing 'Shift' + 'Return' gets you single spacing, while just hitting 'Return' will double space the line.
AppleWorks was never a problem, so I don't understand why they did it this way. But there it is.
should i buy iWork now or wait till iWork07 comes out in jan? i dont desperately need it as i have powerpoint, which is actually real shit, to put a word to it. i dont use it very often, but pages looks good compared to word. i heard that the 07 release would come with a spreadsheet program. would it work with excel spreadsheets?
if anyone could offer some advise it would be much appreciated. cheers
'Test' now until Jan. Buy iWork07 when it's released.
Line Spacing in Pages is weird.
I was thoroughly frustrated with the program until I learned that pressing 'Shift' + 'Return' gets you single spacing, while just hitting 'Return' will double space the line.
AppleWorks was never a problem, so I don't understand why they did it this way. But there it is.
Thanks - that is a great tip - but a pain to remember on every new line!!
Thanks - that is a great tip - but a pain to remember on every new line!!
That's not what's going on!
Pages makes the distinction between new paragraph and new line. Shift return is new line, just return on its own is new paragraph.
Therefore, your solution is simple. If you want only a single line space between each paragraph in your document, first show the styles drawer. Then open the inspector, click the Text tab, and change "spacing after paragraph" to zero, as opposed to the default 12. This has set there to be no double spacing for the current paragraph. To apply that to all paragraphs, click the red arrow next to the "Body" style, in the styles drawer, and choose "Redefine style from selection".
If you tend to use single spaced paragraphs in all documents, you may want to save it as a template, so you don't have to go through those steps every time.
Amorya
That's not what's going on!
Pages makes the distinction between new paragraph and new line. Shift return is new line, just return on its own is new paragraph.
Therefore, your solution is simple. If you want only a single line space between each paragraph in your document, first show the styles drawer. Then open the inspector, click the Text tab, and change "spacing after paragraph" to zero, as opposed to the default 12. This has set there to be no double spacing for the current paragraph. To apply that to all paragraphs, click the red arrow next to the "Body" style, in the styles drawer, and choose "Redefine style from selection".
If you tend to use single spaced paragraphs in all documents, you may want to save it as a template, so you don't have to go through those steps every time.
Amorya
Fantastic - many thanks!!
Keynote: Simply fantastic! After struggling through Powerpoints boxy and odd way of making a slideshow for years (and I'm a computer person who isn't used to struggling) keynote was a godsend. It is so much simpler and easier, with better, HD, effects. Everthing is more smooth which makes the whole thing just seem more real, rather thana little images on a screen.
Pages: While it doesn't have as many options as Word, it does everything most people need in a cleaner way. Between 98 at school and XP at home I had no clue what all those little squares at the top of the screen meant and what they did. With pages everything is laid out in a way that reminds me of using an iPod: Under "Artists" there are the various artists, like under "Document (Inspector)" there will be things that have to do with your document. Not just one big mess of boxes.
I actually enjoy using these programs, and often make slideshows just for fun because it is so cool what you can make so easily. In the upcoming versions I am expecting a LOT more since this is what? The third variation of iWork? I would wait until then for all the new things that might be coming (Numbers, Graphs, and so on).
Hopefully, iWork '07 will add the spreadsheet component, and I can ditch AppleWorks entirely.
I don't just use a word processor to type and print out documents exclusively on my Mac and with other Mac users. I was quite disappointed to find after emailing some Pages documents to a friend using MS Office that he could not open them! Word documents are openable in iWork, but if Pages documents aren't openable (even disregarding minor formatting issues) in Word, then that makes them useless to 97% of the world.
Secondly I couldn't even email the documents without zipping them in the first place!
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303929
Apparently there is a bug that prevents Pages documents from being attached to Yahoo, Hotmail, and even .Mac accounts... I ended up copying everything to text edit, which did a much better job of handling the files despite the fact that I had to lose most of my format work.
(File Menu: Export: Word Document)