- Install iWork ’09 on up to five Mac computers in your household with the iWork ’09 Family Pack
- iWork ’09, Apple’s office productivity suite, is the easiest way to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations the Mac way
- Creating the perfect brochure, flyer, report, or resume is faster and easier than ever with Pages ’09
- Create spreadsheets, organize data, and write formulas with simple yet powerful tools using Numbers ’09
- With great new features in Keynote ’09, creating a show-stopping presentation is surprisingly simple
Product Description
iWork ’09, Apple’s office productivity suite, is the easiest way to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations the Mac way. Pages is both a streamlined word processor and an easy-to-use page layout application. It allows you to be a writer one minute and a designer the next, always with a perfect document in the works. Numbers, with its great-looking templates, easy-to-create formulas, and dynamic tables and charts, gives you simple ways to make sense of your data. Use Keynote to create your presentations, and you’ll be a hard act to follow. Its powerful yet easy-to-use tools and dazzling effects put the show in slideshow. Packed with over 250 Apple-designed themes and templates—including 60 new designs overall–iWork lets you create projects that look polished from the first page or slide. And iWork is compatible with Microsoft Office, so it’s easy to share your work. Amazon. com Product Description
iWork ’09, Apple’s office productivity . . . More >>
Did you know that 77% of all mac users still use Microsoft office? I am one of them. I have been trying to find something that will take me away from the grips of using MS products on a MAC. (I am a cross platform type of person. . . so MS on a PC is the BEST! but on a Mac, I beg to differ). iWork is a great package that does what it does for a low cost and for people with all skill levels.
I am sure you all know what is in iWork. . . so I will tell you my thoughts.
Pages – Great beginners/advanced word processor – it is not a MS Word replacement but it is a great word processor for Mac’s
Numbers – Great beginners/advanced spreadsheet program. Very easy to use and comprehensive. Dont expect it to do complex formulas and or equations. . . Again. . . not a replacement for Excel.
Keynote – Here is where iWork shines. It is a great powerpoint type program to create slides for presentations. It works GREAT on a MAC. Presentations made easy, and efficiently. There is now an iPhone application that will actually allow you to control your slideshow from your phone while you are on a stage or in front of people. . . . very impressive stuff. . . I am sure with time it will only get better.
Now for the newest feature of the iWork 2009 suite. iWork. com. When you purchase this software you are instantly given access to a web based sharing platform. To put it simply. . . you create a document that you want your assistant/family member to see and give you advice on. . . . simply tell pages to publish it online in a secure fashion and email the link to the other person. . . and yourself. Both of you can now look at, discuss, and make notes on the document all via a web browser.
Awesome stuff. . . . I can go into a lot of detail. . but I am sure a review is not the best place for it. Apple does plan on charging for this service in the future. . . but I am not sure of the details.
Please note that as of this version, serial numbers are not used when purchased in a retail box. You simply install it on up to 5 machines (with the family pack).
Thanks.
Rating: 5 / 5
Not too long ago I reviewed Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition. I found it to be adequate but on the whole to be slightly inferior to iWork ’08. Now Apple has improved its office suite and the upgrade further separates it from the competition.
iWork consists of three applications-Pages, a word processor, Numbers, a spreadsheet, and Keynote, a presentation program. All of them read and export to their Microsoft equivalents. This means I can open a document in Word, modify it and send it back in the same format. Because Word, Excel and PowerPoint do not convert from Apple’s suite, it is necessary to export it first into a document the programs from Redmond will recognize. This is not Apple’s fault. It is Microsoft’ bullying the competition. It figures if Word can’t read Pages you won’t use Pages. But exporting is a simple process, and sooner or later MS will come around.
Now what’s new in iWork ’09? All of the programs have lots more templates. The ease of making your own templates is retained. Using my own templates and the address book I am able to produce a business letter on letterhead in minutes. I sent personalized flyers to almost a hundred classmates (with envelopes) in a matter of minutes. In Numbers I created a chart to track jury selection in about ten minutes. This task could not be done (by me anyway) in Excel. I tried for years. Keynote and Powerpoint are virtually indistinguishable, but I find Keynote slightly inferior to PowerPoint.
Pages lacks what all lawyers want (besides fame and power anyway) and that is a Table of Authorities tool. Hopefully the next version will correct this omission.
Price and footprint continue to fall decisively in Apple’s corner. Office’s prices have been dropping but it is still way to costly. The disk space iWork takes up less than 600 MBs while Office uses less in equivalent applications but balloons in add-ons and additional and unnecessary programs.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve downloaded my last “absolutely essential, gotta have it now, and then re-boot” update from Microsoft for their bloated virus-ridden overly expensive ribbon-infested poorly written code software. iWork does everything that MS Office does for 20% of the cost and no more Microsoft junk on my Mac. I switched to Mac to escape Microsoft’s OS, and now I have escaped them completely. Fed up baby-sitting Microsoft’s software. Love my Mac and ALL of its software !!!!! Yeah !!!!!
Rating: 5 / 5
iWork ’09 offers a few small improvements on the already brilliant balance between ease of use and powerful features achieved in iWork ’08. iWork, in general, is a masterful suite of productivity programs. I am an engineer and work with Excel, Word, and Powerpoint on a daily basis. While the office is officially “PC”, I use my Mac to produce the best looking spreadsheets and presentations around, in a fraction of the time it would take in a stingy Excel spreadsheet or Powerpoint presentation. Of course, I must develop some things in Office for 100% compatibility, which is unfortunate. Many of the creative features in iWork do not make the transition very well to MS Office.
One of the coolest new features in iWork ’09 is iWork. com. I have already started using this to send out draft iWork documents for peer review. Marketing materials, spreadsheets, and Keynote presentations can be uploaded. People you choose can comment on the document, and download it in any number of formats (I prefer limiting downloads to PDF so that the original formatting is left in tact).
To get a feel for iWork ’09, watch the tutorials on the APple web site. This will give you a flavor of how easy it is to use this great suite.
Rating: 5 / 5
I enjoy using the iWork applications, especially Keynote, but find they lack some of the little creature-comforts I’ve learned over the years of using MSOffice products. A little missing format button here, a missing keyboard shortcut there, and occasionally a missing capability altogether, add up to me continuing to use both iWork and MSOffice rather than just standardizing on one.
Rating: 4 / 5