iWork works wonders
Microsoft Office is the most popular office suite of applications around the world, especially in the corporate and business world, which cannot function without it. Right? Not quite, especially if you are an Apple Mac user. If you are one of the many...
Microsoft Office is the most popular office suite of applications around the world, especially in the corporate and business world, which cannot function without it. Right? Not quite, especially if you are an Apple Mac user.
If you are one of the many PC users who have recently switched to Mac after the latter started using Intel processors, then there is a cheaper alternative to MS Office. Apple's iWork 08 has a word processor, a spreadsheet programme and a presentation programme that can import and export compatibility with MS Office. Furthermore, they are very intuitive and user friendly, in typical Apple style.
Over the past few weeks i-Tech has been producing articles for this weekly supplement using both MS Office for Mac and iWork 08 on an iMac.
Let's start with Pages, the word-processing application. Some 140 templates help you start quickly on the right footing but if you want to edit an MS Word document, then it's no problem either. Pages comes with two modes, one for word processing and the other for layout and in each mode you can get on very easily. The Format bar is context-sensitive and put all the tools just a click away. The flow of text from one page to another is kept easily under control when the article is split between a page and another one that is not the next one.
Access to photos is very easy and it's just a question of dragging and dropping. Creating tables with simple calculations and 2D and 3Dcharts is easier done than explained. Documents can be easily polished with proofing and editing. Page thumbnails give a good overview of the whole document.
Importing from MS Word leaves all the important elements and not just the text in place. Furthermore, users can import a range of audio types including MP3, image and video formats. Exporting to PDF is also supported.
Keynote, the presentation software, is a strong competitor to MS PowerPoint. Apple insists that with Keynote one can make amazing cinema quality presentations, and that's the truth.
The professionally-designed templates are, as usual, an excellent start. Controls are handy to keep an eye on the various sections of the presentations. There is no need to use an external spreadsheet programme to create a table with numbers and calculations and it's very easy to create 2D and 3D graphs. Access to photos is immediate and you can adjust them there and then. Creating shapes and figures is fun. The programme has an in-built recording function to record voice clips on the fly.
Animations, the heart of a good presentation, are really impressive, both when transiting from one slide to another or when objects and text come to life on each slide.
Delivery options are quite flexible and you can save the presentation in different modes to be delivered even on an iPod or uploaded to YouTube. The presenter's mode gives total control and the necessary information on the current and other slides, timings etc. Exporting to MS PowerPoint as well as other media types is fully supported.
Besides the usual templates, the strongest point of Numbers, the spreadsheet programme, is its intelligent tables that can be created separately for different needs and they are fully functional.
Sheets, tables, and charts are shown as an outline in the Sheets pane for quick navigation.
There are 150 functions or formulas and it is easy to create new ones in a cell. Moreover, there is the 'what if' scenario function where variables can be changed to check different results.
Numbers imports common file formats such as CSV and tab-delimited files. Importing from and exporting to MS Excel is straight-forward and accurate. Exporting to PDF is also possible.
iWork requires a computer with these minimum specifications: An Intel, PowerPC G5 or PowerPC G4 (500MHz or faster) processor, 512MB RAM, 32MB video memory, Mac OS X Version 10.4.10 or later, QuickTime 7.2 or later, 1GB free space and a DVD player.
To sum up, Apple iWork provides a powerful and yet simple to grasp suite of applications that is a real competitor to the more expensive MS Office 2007 which provides deeper features. Numbers is fun to use but does not provide pivot tables. iWork does not come with a database programme and an e-mail client. The latter is sorely missed in today's dependence on internet. Nevertheless, iWork remains excellent value for money and will help you do what needs to be done, and in an enjoyable way too.
If you are one of the many PC users who have recently switched to Mac after the latter started using Intel processors, then there is a cheaper alternative to MS Office. Apple's iWork 08 has a word processor, a spreadsheet programme and a presentation programme that can import and export compatibility with MS Office. Furthermore, they are very intuitive and user friendly, in typical Apple style.
Over the past few weeks i-Tech has been producing articles for this weekly supplement using both MS Office for Mac and iWork 08 on an iMac.
Let's start with Pages, the word-processing application. Some 140 templates help you start quickly on the right footing but if you want to edit an MS Word document, then it's no problem either. Pages comes with two modes, one for word processing and the other for layout and in each mode you can get on very easily. The Format bar is context-sensitive and put all the tools just a click away. The flow of text from one page to another is kept easily under control when the article is split between a page and another one that is not the next one.
Access to photos is very easy and it's just a question of dragging and dropping. Creating tables with simple calculations and 2D and 3Dcharts is easier done than explained. Documents can be easily polished with proofing and editing. Page thumbnails give a good overview of the whole document.
Importing from MS Word leaves all the important elements and not just the text in place. Furthermore, users can import a range of audio types including MP3, image and video formats. Exporting to PDF is also supported.
Keynote, the presentation software, is a strong competitor to MS PowerPoint. Apple insists that with Keynote one can make amazing cinema quality presentations, and that's the truth.
The professionally-designed templates are, as usual, an excellent start. Controls are handy to keep an eye on the various sections of the presentations. There is no need to use an external spreadsheet programme to create a table with numbers and calculations and it's very easy to create 2D and 3D graphs. Access to photos is immediate and you can adjust them there and then. Creating shapes and figures is fun. The programme has an in-built recording function to record voice clips on the fly.
Animations, the heart of a good presentation, are really impressive, both when transiting from one slide to another or when objects and text come to life on each slide.
Delivery options are quite flexible and you can save the presentation in different modes to be delivered even on an iPod or uploaded to YouTube. The presenter's mode gives total control and the necessary information on the current and other slides, timings etc. Exporting to MS PowerPoint as well as other media types is fully supported.
Besides the usual templates, the strongest point of Numbers, the spreadsheet programme, is its intelligent tables that can be created separately for different needs and they are fully functional.
Sheets, tables, and charts are shown as an outline in the Sheets pane for quick navigation.
There are 150 functions or formulas and it is easy to create new ones in a cell. Moreover, there is the 'what if' scenario function where variables can be changed to check different results.
Numbers imports common file formats such as CSV and tab-delimited files. Importing from and exporting to MS Excel is straight-forward and accurate. Exporting to PDF is also possible.
iWork requires a computer with these minimum specifications: An Intel, PowerPC G5 or PowerPC G4 (500MHz or faster) processor, 512MB RAM, 32MB video memory, Mac OS X Version 10.4.10 or later, QuickTime 7.2 or later, 1GB free space and a DVD player.
To sum up, Apple iWork provides a powerful and yet simple to grasp suite of applications that is a real competitor to the more expensive MS Office 2007 which provides deeper features. Numbers is fun to use but does not provide pivot tables. iWork does not come with a database programme and an e-mail client. The latter is sorely missed in today's dependence on internet. Nevertheless, iWork remains excellent value for money and will help you do what needs to be done, and in an enjoyable way too.