Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 26-30 of 114
 I really wanted to work for me, but if you are an experienced Ms Word user, you will find missing functionality in iWork. August 8, 2008
Emre Aydinceren (Copley, OH USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I use both Mac and PC. I am not biased at all. I really wanted IWork to "work" for me for word processing. I was persistent, I beat the learning curve, I used the word processor for about 3 days. I have to say that Ms Word is winner. Microsoft has tons of experience under its belt in this category and it shows clearly.
If you are not an experienced Word user, and only need to type simple stuff you may not see the difference, but I am familiar with most features of Word and they help me with my productivity. Apple's word processor is not World class yet. It does what it supposed to do, but it lacks features that Word gives you for customization and productivity.
 PAGES IS A VERY WEAK WORD PROCESSING PROGRAM August 28, 2008
Chanfrancisco (San Francisco, CA United States)
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
The word processing portion of iWork, Pages, is cumbersome, confusing and unusable.
I bought iWork primarily to use as a word processor, and really wanted to like it. The praise that Apple heaps on itself is very persuasive, and I went for it. After you use it for a while, it starts to sink in that this program is half-hearted. At first I thought it was just a matter of the user customizing Pages just like we've all had to do with Word, and when I couldn't fine tune the thing, I thought it was me. If it's Apple, it must be cool and intuitive and cutting edge, right? I went to the Apple site for the tutorial, and watched it until I realized that it was an infomercial. It was like that moment where Dorothy finds the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. Apple is losing it.
I have come to some realizations about Apple since buying a new Mac, and one of these realizations is that Apple really doesn't have any use for low tech, working Joes and Josephines. Apple has it's eye on the horizon, and sees the world at it's feet as something to wipe off it's shoe. My new Mac is great, but the mouse that came with it has a cord about 6 inches long and the computer has very few ports. There are a few other features and inconveniences that say, either you go wireless on everything or we'll throw you a few obligatory non-wireless alternatives. iWork follows this philosophy. The word processing part of the program was obviously not conceived and executed by anybody who ever had to sit in a cubicle and crank out letters. Apple dashed off this program as a crumb to throw to those plebians who don't use email or Blackberries or iPhones to communicate. "OK, you programmers, give us a word processor, so we can get the real groovy stuff out to our target audience."
Microsoft Word is a work horse. Pages is a silly filly. I'm sure that the presentation-producing (Keynote) and the spreadsheet maker (Numbers) are way cool, but having a program that can be easily used to write a derned letter is beneath Apple.
Now I'm looking at Microsoft Office 2004 or some of those free word processing programs. The money I spent on iWork was wasted.
 iWork September 14, 2007
Gizmo (San Diego, CA)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Unbelievable altenative to Word, Power Point & Excel. Easily produce professional documents in a flash! Open Word, Excel, and Power Point docs, make them look fabulous with iWork and then save back to Word, Excel & Power Point to impress your Windows loving friends. They'll wonder how you produced such beautiful looking stuff and want to know how you did it! Mac products ROCK!
Most all of what you need October 28, 2007
JoeyC (LA, CA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a great software product, and between this and neoffice, you probably will have all your needs covered. The highlight of this package continues to be Keynote. This is simply the finest presentation software available for the Mac. It is fast and elegant. For large presentations, Powerpoint on the mac is nearly useless with sloooowww screen redraws and poor slide sorting. Keynote on the other hand is lighting fast. Numbers is the spreadsheet reimagined, and again offers a superior user interface in comparison to Excel. Pages is superb as a fast layout program. It admittedly does not offer the heavyweight editing features as Word does, but for most users, it is more than adequate.
 Beware iWork '08 December 15, 2007
Greyhound Owner
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
The Numbers program contained in iWork '08 represents that it works well with Excel files. Wrong. And it's not just a problem with Excel files created on a PC, but those created on other Macs. While Numbers will import an Excel file, every imported Excel file I have attempted to print has completely frozen Numbers and failed to print. The Apple Store where the iMac was purchased was baffled by this complaint, and claims never to have heard of the issue, however user based input at Apple's web site includes numerous Numbers-Excel compatability issues (and if only I'd read them before buying Numbers). Trying to get "help" from Apple was a disaster; after a 15-minute phone wait, the tech who answered spent 15 minutes insisting that I try to cut the Excel content and paste it into Apple's tech editor and print it from that program; the tech finally admitted that he didn't know anything about iWork '08 and transferred me to someone he claimed would be able to help. After waiting another 15 minutes on the phone, the next tech advised that I'd been transferred to the wrong department, whereupon he transferred me to another department, and after another unanswered 15 minute wait on the phone, I gave up.
Like other iMac features, I feel that iWork '08 and Numbers offer a lot of glossy promises and a real lack of substance.
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