Mossberg: iWork vs. Office

Apple's iWork '08 is a good productivity suite, but still inferior to Microsoft Office, says tech columnist Walt Mossberg in a new review. He observes for example that despite upgrades, iWork still lacks an equivalent to Outlook, a program which combines mail and calendar functions and is integrated throughout Office, as opposed to Apple's separate Mail, iCal and Address Book functions.

The major new addition to iWork, the Numbers spreadsheet program, is said to have half the calculation functions of Excel; and the updated Pages is described as missing important features when compared to Word, such as equivalent power in auto-correction, and the ability to instantly see how many words are in a document. Pages asks users to delve into a submenu each time the information is needed.

iWork remains recommended by Mossberg, because at a little over half the price of Office ($80), it satisfies basic needs and in fact displays some superiorities. Numbers allows users to quickly lay out mutliple charts, tables and graphics on a blank page, while each retains its functionality. The interface is likewise said to be easier to use than Excel, with simpler means of manipulating columns and rows, and sliders that allow quick calculation tweaks. Finally, Keynote is championed as unquestionably better than Microsoft's PowerPoint, due to simplicity combined with power. Particularly praised is the new Instant Alpha option that removes backgrounds from photos.

by MacNN Staff