<p>I'm looking to buy a MacBook soon, but I'm curious about the best software for college. Should I get iWork ($49), Office 2008 for Mac ($100 on Amazon), or wait until Office 2011 comes out later this year and use OpenOffice in the meantime?</p>
<p>Also, in general, is Office for Mac or iWork better?</p>
<p>there’s little reason to wait for the new version of microsoft office. all versions are pretty much the same.</p>
<p>i don’t know about iWork vs. office though. someone else will have to comment on that.</p>
<p>Can’t say which one is better…but you’ll definitely want Office…it’s what almost everyone will use. Even if Office files are compatible with iWork, you’ll find that it will inevitably screw up formatting or something sometime. Same goes with Open Office - it usually is sufficient, but there’s cases where it isn’t.</p>
<p>I use Iwork 09 for writing essays and other work in college and i’ve had almost no problems with it. yes, you may have to spend an extra couple minutes proofreading for formatting errors if you tranfer it into microsoft word , but the features and ease of use in iwork is well worth it. I find it to be one of the major perks of owning a mac :)</p>
<p>I like iWork too, but have had too many formatting problems with people who send me complex documents in MS-Word format, particularly those who want enable the ‘track changes’ function. My daughter has had a couple of professors who edit student papers by using the ‘track changes’ function. As a result, I reluctantly conclude that a college student should have MS-Office installed on their computer. The student version costs about $150, which is not a bad price for what you get.</p>
<p>I recommend putting Office (Student Edition is fine) for Mac on your macbook. One of my college kids prefers iWork so he has both iWork and Office on his Mac. He uses iWork most of the time.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you can afford the extra $49, you might consider having iWork along with Microsoft Office on the laptop. This way, you can play around with iWork and see how you like it.</p>
<p>Many colleges offer heavy discounts on Office too. Some even give it out for free. So don’t buy anything before you find out what the school has.</p>
<p>None of this. OpenOffice.org</p>
<p>It’s free and open source.</p>
<p>it also kind of sucks . . . but maybe you (the OP) don’t need good productivity software. i’d try it out and see if it meets your requirements.</p>
<p>OpenOffice is great…if it’s the only software used. But it can screw up the formatting on files made in MS Office…and I find it does it quite often.</p>
<p>I don’t really like OpenOffice. </p>
<p>I have iWork but prefer to have Office installed, just in case, you know? I’ll be getting a Macbook Pro soon and I’ll be installing it as well. ^^</p>
<p>I’d have to second OpenOffice.org.</p>
<p>I’d agree that it’s not perfectly compatible with files from MS Office, but you get the same issue between different versions of MS Office / iWork. Plus, how much does this formatting really matter to you? It’s not like you’re going to be interchanging documents that often with others, and as you’ll quickly learn – it’s the content that really matters.</p>
<p>The question to ask is - is MS Office truly worth $100 more than OpenOffice.org? Is iWork worth $50 more than OpenOffice.org?</p>
<p>check with your school about MS Office - i got it for free through the student store for my macbook pro.</p>
<p>Both iWork and Office for Mac suck. I do all my Office work on my Windows 7 partition, because I seriously cannot stand Office for Mac. No idea how Office 2011 will be, but I’ll have to try it out once it’s released.</p>
<p>I’d avoid Open Office. The computers in my local library (where I work on lots of group projects) all run it, and it is not the easiest to work with in addition to being incompatible with everything. </p>
<p>I get really OCD about formatting, so I cannot use iWork either. It makes me want to pull my hair out whenever things are rearranged. But few are as crazy as I am.</p>
<p>I’m just going to be that kid and say: Emacs :)</p>
<p>Just pirate word.</p>
<p>Don’t even think about getting anything other than Office. I don’t like Microsoft, but this package is standard everywhere you go, and it is almost certainly what you will be using when you graduate and get a job. Better to become familiar with it by using it all through college than have to learn it later. There are usability advantages to iWork, but they are not significant. And Office has no real drawbacks. But make sure you get the Student Edition; there is nothing in the business-focused versions that you need for college.</p>
<p>With the same reasons, I’d say that you should use anything but Microsoft Office.</p>
<p>Sure, it’s what you’ll <em>most likely</em> be using after you graduate and get a job, but there are some places that don’t use it. More importantly, Office would have probably been redone by then. The most important thing is to not learn just one piece of software, but rather to gain an understanding on how various pieces of software work in general. In this case, you’re gaining experience with another office suite. If you’re proficient in the area, you should be able to take any office suite and use it.</p>
<p>Oh, unless your job title is administrative assistant or something, being able to operate word processing software at maximum efficiency is not part of your job description!</p>
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<p>It doesn’t mean that places would have the newest iteration of software by then. Unless you’re working in a computer software/computer engineering type of place, the IT budget is probably one of the lowest concerns for administrators.</p>
<p>I currently intern at a medical research institute that sees hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Most of it goes, obviously, towards supplies and tools for research, and everyone is stuck using Pentium 4 PCs with Windows XP and Office 2003.</p>