[dots]

I certainly agree with that!!!

[getstuff]

In my opinion iWork is faster and more visually appealing than MS Office. Mainly I bought for the price but Pages andd Numbers have turned out to be great and Keynote beats the heck out of Powerpoint. My only con with iWork is the inability to convert Numbers presentations to Excel spreadsheets. But, then again the list of Office errors streaches around the block. To finish, iWork is the superior suite that contains more visual and powerful features than Microsoft Office

[peanut748]

I think we need to look at the big picture. The reason that most of use word or at least why i use it, is that everyone else has it, so files are easily exchanged. I have kids in school and whether they use a pc or mac, which we are mac, they are easily able to complete assignments at home and at school. Since flash drives have been introduced, this is even easier, for students to work on assignments, using the word program. Is iwork going to be compatible with word? I thought they were seperate, so if all school and universities are using word, why switch to iwork??? Just some tidbits. Thanks

[Busia]

After using PCs for so many years, it was too difficult to change EVERYTHING when I got my first Mac. I was lucky to have bought mine when they had the "office romance" promotion and got Office for Mac for only $150. I've upgraded twice since then. So many of the emails I get have attachments from Word and Excel, and I often have to send email with attachments to people with PCs. I love my Macs, and I'm sure iWork is a fine suite of programs. It's just easier to stick with what I know and what everybody else is using.

[n781lc]

Mail vs Outlook. Agree, agree, agree!!!! Mail is a marginal application way down the list of those available. I personally use MS Entourage because I installed Office 2004 when iWork wasn't at it's present level, in my opinion, and I needed to be able to communicate effectively with PCs. With iWork 08 I don't feel I need Office other than for Entourage.

Apple is a great OS with some screws loose at the controls. I wonder how old some of the programmers and decision makers are: mentally, regardless of age.

[kellybean]

Well, I bought iWork and I LOVE IT!!!! I've created a stunning flyer in Pages, and it just occurred to me that I'm using it in many of the same ways I used to use QuarkXPress. It comes extremely natural for me and I'm sooo happy to be back in the company of a program that lets me be so creative. I never got the same feeling from Word. I always felt so limited with it.

While I don't need a spreadsheet application for anything at the moment, I did have some fun making a to-do list and adding comments. It helped me sort out my tasks and the comments reminded me of the parts & pieces. Really helped me get a mental handle on the tasks I had this weekend. I love that I can use the program for something so creatively visual.

Both programs come with a ton of useful templates, too. I spent about an hour just playing with them, then used one of them as a starting point to build my stunning flyer.

I am absolutely loving this suite!! (ps. I saved a school document in Word and apparently there were no compatibility issues with it when I uploaded it to my class.)

[TexasCats]

I've used Office since 1997 and am trying to switch to the iMac with OS X Leopard. I still have an XP PC. Why? Because I'm wedded to Outlook, particularly Email and Contacts. EMAIL: it is so easy to create folders within folders. Example, I can easily create folders for things like Reference, Pending, Real Estate, or whatever -- and within each, more sub folders. Kind of like outlines. I tried for several hours to set up something similar in the iMac's email, but absolutely couldn't, despite following all the directions in HELP and on the Apple/Support website.

As to CONTACTS: perhaps too many fields, mostly I don't use. But, ease of use and flexibility. I have still be unable to convert my Contacts to the Apple's Addressbook, despite trying at least 10 ways suggested through boards, help, telephone support, etc.

If there are ways to do these two things, then on to full use of the new, 24-iMAC.

Almost forgot Excel vs. Numbers and Word vs. Pages: the Apple programs are more basic and less flexible, but I am using those instead of the Office suite. I like the Dock and how it stores documents/files; very cool. However, if I have any type of sophisticated application, I will probably revert back to Office for ease in formatting.

[semicolons]

To create subfolders:
? Press the "+" button, type a name and press OK.
? Click on the new folder.
? Press the plus button again. The new folder should be selected in the drop-down list. If not, select it manually. Then type a name and press OK.

I don't know what you mean by importing contacts. Just click the plus button and type in the text fields.

[TexasCats]

Hi, semicolons for your reply. I have done this and did indeed creat folders, though am still unable to create SUB-FOLDERS within say INBOX. What I was able to create were folders with limited (by the system) rules for what gets placed there. Maybe I just need to dig deeper; maybe I've missed something. Will keep trying, but this is extremely frustrating when you're so familiar with how easy this is in Outlook.

[semicolons]

Hmm, sorry.
I think you can only create subfolders of folders you've created, or of IMAP folders (eg Google Mail]/All Mail/Subfolder).

On the topic of Office vs iWork, they're different things. Office is for doing powerful things slowly, iWork is for doing normal things fast with nice graphics. The graphics side of Office has improved, but it just isn't up to iWork's standard yet. PowerPoint simply needs to be scrapped.
One of the things I like most about iWork is the idea that if you can do something in one app, you can do it in another. Tables in Keynote work much as if they were in Numbers. The same graphic effects are available in all the applications (excl. Keynote's animations).
And then there's the fact that iWork actually looks like a Mac application. Office got a bit better at that, but they really need to start using standard controls. And realise that no-one wants a panel to [close after one second.
There are some companies who I really wish would read the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Microsoft? Mozilla? Are you listening?

[TexasCats]

Hi, semicolons. I'll stop trying to create sub folders under inbox; just hoping.

I agree completely with iWork being more user friendly. And, Power Point should be scrapped. Compared to Keynote, it's lost its appeal. I've begun to use Pages and Numbers exclusively; no more Word and Excel. I really like how the iWork programs easily convert my old Microsoft files.

Now, my only wish is that Apple would devise a program somewhat comparable to Outlook. (Even MS's Entourage isn't as good as Outlook!) Little by little business people will demand of their companies more Mac supported applications so they can use their Macs and other Apple hardware, such as iPhone.

Thanks for all your help. I REALLY want to switch to iMAC completely. Saying that, there are some design programs that only work with Windows, so am exploring Parallels, etc. etc.

[kellybean]

I had the hardest time today trying to find where Word Count was hidden in Pages. The help menu was no help at all. I almost gave up, but finally found it buried in the Inspector. In hindsight that makes sense, but it's such an essential tool for writers and students that you'd think it would be easier to find.

Also, I've been having a devil of a time managing inserted images. Sometimes it's easy as pie, other times the image just will not insert where I need it to, or it won't resize.