For those wondering about iWorks'06

There were a few questions about iWorks'06 that I have been recieving.

First off, Keynote is Apples version of Powerpoint and Pages is Apples Version of Word.

In Keynote you can save your files as .key which Keynote has its main file format as, now for those who want to be able to open this in Powerpoint you can, instead of doing Save as you choose Export, and pick Powerpoint, this will export your presentation in Powerpoint format making it ready to be viewed and edited in Powerpoint.

Keynote can export to these formats.

Quicktime format, Powerpoint format, PDF format, Images Format, Flash Format, iDVD format and html format, these are expected to be expanded even further in iWorks'07

You can also use keynote to open a Powerpoint format to edit, when your done editing, just export it again to that format and overwrite the original file, I haven't tested to see if 'save' works as saving in that format anyways.

Pages, has pretty much ALL the templates that microsoft word has, and a few.

Pages can export these formats.

PDF, Word, HTML, RTF and Plaintext as well as its own format.

iWorks'07 is expected to Add a Excel-like version called 'Charts'.

iWorks'06 is great, and a perfect replacement for Microsoft Office 2004, which many are saying that lags on their new Intel macs because its not universal binary, since iWorks can export into microsoft office formats, iWorks should fit the bill, this is great for those who might want to save to that format to use on another computer such as a PC.

I believe all new Macs come with a 30 day trial of iWorks'06, give it a try, students will especially love this program, if you decide you want it for keeps, just hit Buy now button and it will take you to Apples site and you can purchase it, now I believe Apple will give you a serial key as well after you buy it so you can enter the code in right away to unlock the trial.

So yeah, up to you, either wait for iWorks'07 to come out, or get iWorks'06 either way its a GREAT DEAL! Especially how much you save compared to purchasing microsoft office 2004. I know I will be getting iWorks'07 when it comes out.

 

Can you tell me why on earth iWorks uses so much space? It's almost 5GB! Are the templates taking all that? Office2004 takes less than 1GB and has Excel and Entourage to boot (not that I use the latter).

 

LOL good question I would also like to know the answer

 

I just checked and iWork is actually 1.95GB, granted its still larger than microsoft office, but nonetheless appears to be normal size for on OS X. Applications on OS X have always had larger files sizes, typically 3x time the size of what windows would have, I would believe the reason why is because how Windows has much of all it's files centralized, meaning much of its software can use files within the WINDOWS directory to run, thus one of the reasons why Windows OS is unsecure, So if one software gets infected, it can damage the entire system for everything. OS X everything comes with its own stuff, and if anything is going to refer to a system file for information as such where things are or the configuration of the system, it's not going to have the kind of access that Windows gives it's applications.

 

Hi,

I would like to point out that iWorks '06 STILL does not either import or export Office file formats correctly. I tried both repeatedly, and constantly had to go in and manually fix page elements.

If iWorks '07 expects to be the default app for Mac users, it MUST get this part right. Especially since the Universal Binary version of Office.mac is in the works as we type.

 

No one here heard of a UB version of Office being done, its been assumed that MS dropped it and thats why Apple started iWorks, MS might still drop it remember when Apple came out with Safari and MS got all upset and stopped working on IE for mac.

I haven't had any trouble with import or exporting.

 

I was sceptic on using iWorks but a friend showed me the cool things it can do and let me say its TOTALLY worth it!!

 

Glad I found this thread. I have been looking into getting a macbook and couldn't decide what word processor I wanted to go with, but now that I know that Pages can import/export word files I'm all happy with that. One question though (and it's probably going to sound dumb, but please remember I have almost NEVER used a mac before), if I were to save a word file on say a usb thumb drive on a mac, could I open that same file on a Windows based machine?

 

If the thumb drive is formatted in a filesystem that Windows recognizes, yes. I guess all pendrives come pre-formatted with FAT32 anyways, so unless you or someone else reformatted it is a safe bet.

 

For those interested in iWorks should definitely use the trial before buying. Make sure you are satisified with the way it works, especially for importing from Word. Be sure you can live with the way it handles it. Office is the standard, unfortunately, an realize that YOU will be expected to fil lthe gap between the two. Also keep in mind that the student version of Office is only around $150, and Office for Mac 2007 will be out next summer. I know iWorks is cheaper, but aside from Keynote, it does lag behind Office.

**EDIT** Thanks to xbandaidx by the way for the info. This will help a lot of people.

 

Lately I bought a iWorks Apple Training series for this suite, and I learned even more, I have to say some of the features are impressive, and many seem to sadly hidden, you gotta find em.

My favorite is the REAL 3D effects that keynote can do, none of that fake 3D look that Office tries their hand at. I would recommend getting a book for this suite however, because Apple has to use a different approach to this stuff.