iWork '09

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.

Customer Reviews
In`Pages', function trumps flash; office-strength word processor reads MS-Word files, January 20, 2009
By Rudy "pain-doc" (Columbia, SC USA) - See all my reviews
As a Vista-fugue, the main reasons for even bothering with a `Bootcamp' Windows installation were Microsoft "Office" and Intuit's "Quicken/Turbotax", both richer-featured in their PC than in their Mac releases. Disappointingly, iWork '08 'Pages' performed better as an image-based page layout package for the multimedia center crowd, proving woefully underpowered in a professional business office ... crippled by the tediously awkward conversion hassle from *.doc to *.pages documents.

No more! With iWork '09, Apple has virtually erased any remaining barrier to business office `switchers' still on the fence. I have explored and tested Pages '09 since its online release as a downloadable fully functional 30-day trial demo. I was so impressed with the new Pages (as against the flashy eye candy of the '08 version) that I ordered the full boxed version. [The trial software is well worth a test run to see if iWork meets your needs.) The new Pages now easily exports a document in doc, txt or pdf format, and does a remarkably lifelike transformation of even highly complex Word documents, tables, lists, or legal briefs with a mere double-click or drag-and drop.

Rather than spreading myself too thin, I limit this review to `Pages', leaving commentary on `Numbers' to spreadsheet buffs ... `Numbers' capabilities, in the past, were no match for the depth of MS-Excel. If `Numbers` performs as well as `Pages' in this iWork overhaul, then the product will be the best eighty bucks gift for your Mac. `Keynote', an image-with-outline presenter's tool, probably will prove at least the equal of MS-PowerPoint considering the Mac's flair for spectacular graphics.

`Pages' well may be the impressive turnaround software that elevates the Mac from multimedia center toy to serious professional business status. Highly recommended for Vista-weary PC users and Mac loyalists looking for a solid business suite. The detailed crystal-clear manuals and crisp `Help' replies are welcome value-added resources.

Find out more @ iWork '09