Basics4Mac - Comparing Office Suites (Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation)

iWork, Microsoft Office and Google Docs

All Macs come with iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, iTunes and Garage Band) which covers much of the activity that Mac users do. Not included with the Mac is any sort of word processor, spreadsheet or presentation software. If you find that you need to write letters, create flyers, graph data, or create presentations, you need to purchase or install one of the many third-party options.

In this article I am going to look at three of the most popular options for "Office Suites" Each has their strengths and weaknesses. By matching your specific needs with the strengths and weaknesses of each suite, you can choose the one that is best for you.

iWork '09 This is Apple's Office Suite. It consists of Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheet), and Keynote (presentation)

Strengths: iWork is very Mac-like and works much like the iLife apps. Features are easy to figure out and easy to use. iWork applications come with templates to get you started with common document types. Some limited document sharing and collaboration is available at iwork.com. iWork applications will be available on the iPad. Apps are available for the iPhone and iPod touch to view (but not edit) iWork documents.
Weaknesses: iWork applications write their documents in their own unique format making it harder to share documents with users who don't have iWorks. You can export documents to Microsoft Office format but that requires extra steps when saving. iWork's simplicity is offset by a limited set of features.
iWork costs $79US and is available at a discount from Amazon.com. A 30 day free trial is available here.

Microsoft Office 2008. Office is used on almost every PC. The Mac Home and Student version consists of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint.

Strengths: Office has the most powerful feature set of these three. (Although most people who use Office only use a small subset of available features). Office for Mac uses the same file format as Office for PC making file sharing easy. There are many apps for the iPhone and iPod touch that will read Office format files and a few that allow limited editing.
Weaknesses: Different interface than most Mac applications and Office PC means learning new behaviors. Not all features of Office PC are available on Office Mac. Can cause slowdowns on older Macs. No online sharing or collaboration. (This will be included in Office 2010.)
Microsoft office costs $149US and is available at a discount from Amazon.comt. A 30 day free trial is available here.

Google Docs: Google Docs consists of Document, Spreadsheet and Presentation applications that run entirely in your browser.

Strengths: Free to use. Documents are stored online on Google's servers which means they are available from any computer and are always backed up. Imports and exports Microsoft Office file formats. Very strong sharing, collaboration and publishing tools. A mobile version of docs.google.com lets you view and edit documents on smart phones.
Weaknesses: Documents are not available if you do not have internet access. (This can be worked around.) Slightly confusing interface makes some tools hard to find. Limited feature set. Potential privacy issues with letting Google store your documents.
Google Docs is free. A free Google login is required.

Each office suite has many features not mentioned here. Check out their websites and look for reviews on Google.

Related Items: iWork | Office | Google

Comparing Office Suites (Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation) | 1 comments |

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Comparing Office Suites (Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation)

Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, March 01 2010

I am sorry to say that you left out a FREE suite of applications with much more than to offer than do Office, iWork or Google and whatever. This is OpenOffice Suite, (www.OpenOffice.org) which inludes a word processeor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program, a graphics editing program (sort of toward the Photoshop), a database program and a formula writing program as well! 6 total application. FREE is just that. This is an intertnational collaborative effort that has been going on for well over a decade now and is also available in many languages as well! I have mine in Russian! It may be a bit of a learning curve; however, you only use a small set of any of the commercial programs and you can learn to use any of them from using each program or reading the documentation (all work the same way with commands that are generally the same from application to application wherever possible.).

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