Just got my new MacBook Pro- should I get Microsoft Office for Mac or iWork?

<p>What are the differences between iWork and Microsoft Office for Mac? I don't know what to get...should I get both???</p>

<p>I think that each of the main iWork applications (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) are much easier to use and provide a better user experience than the equivalent MS Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). On the other hand, the MS Office programs have a much wider feature set, and are much more compatible with files that will probably be given to you from others (or vice versa). As a result, I do most of my word processing and number-crunching in Word and Excel. MS Office 2011 is a big improvement over the previous (2008) version, and fixes a lot of the complaints of Mac users.</p>

<p>So, bottom line, I’d go with MS Office.</p>

<p>So MS Office 2011 version is definitely and being sold? Wasn’t sure, some people thought it was like 2008 or 2009 or something. </p>

<p>ALF- with what you say about MS O being more compatible, do you mean as far as opening existing MS O documents that were made on a PC? I’m switching from PC to Mac and have many PC MS office docs to transfer onto the Mac. I’m guessing I wouldn’t be able to open old MS office docs in iWork…</p>

<p>The majority of the files you could, not sure how far back iWorks compatibility goes though. The major issue would be formatting errors. Things that aren’t present in iWork (some transititions, fonts, styles, etc) that were available in Office when you made it and Vice Versa. iWork has some really amazing templates for both pages and keynote and I’m figuring some of these would also have issues coming over to M.O. if you were to import them. Thats the majority of complaints i hear though. You can export any file you make in iWork into a Office compatible file with a couple clicks. You cannot, however, open iWork native files in Office. Obviously a drawback, but i’ve been using iwork for 2 years now for all my college work and have never really cared. Try them both out before you buy. Both have a trial version you can download and try out so take your time in choosing. Get what you feel comfortable using, but as ALF said, Office is the standard among most of the world. Not saying you can’t get work done with iWork (I have without any issues), but Office would be the option to choose if you wanted everything to work perfectly back and forth between windows and mac.</p>

<p>MS Office 2011 is definitely out, I use it every day at work. It is rare that I get any formatting errors when folks send me MS Office Windows documents or spreadsheets. Sometimes, folks send me old MS Office (.doc or .xls or .ppt formats) files, and on occasion I see some small formatting glitches there. Still, much better than Pages can do. I have received some Excel documents with very involved macro commands, and on occasion, some of the macros don’t work properly. Still, this is a HUGE improvement over MS Office Mac 2008, which couldn’t handle any macros.</p>

<p>some colleges give you a free copy of ms office (and maybe iwork too, i am not sure). i know that i get a copy of ms office if i pay the tech fee. so i would look and see if your school does that before you buy anything!</p>

<p>Definitely get MS Office. I have no idea which software is better but MS Office will be more compatable with what other people our using. Using a computer today is an interactive experience and you will be creating files that others will be needing to modify. Compatibility is critical.</p>

<p>On a similar note, does anyone know how well Office 11 works with Office 2003 and 2007?</p>

<p>my school gives us some $ off, if you go through some website they recommend where you get a discount for college, but we don’t get it for free at all, that would be awesome though!</p>

<p>Is this the right MS Office for Mac to order: [Microsoft</a> Office 2011 for Mac - Physical Media | VarsityBuys.com | Academic Software Discounts for Students, Faculty and Staff!](<a href=“http://www.varsitybuys.com/index.php?product=49722&store=students]Microsoft”>http://www.varsitybuys.com/index.php?product=49722&store=students) It’s the “Home & Business” edition…is that right?</p>

<p>This is what I’ve seen from Apple, the “Home & Student” edition <a href=“http://store.apple.com/us-hed/product/H2437[/url]”>http://store.apple.com/us-hed/product/H2437&lt;/a&gt; in the yellow box, and the other thing is different, but it’s a website I got off my school’s website. I’m confused…</p>

<p>The link you got from your school looks to be for a single license for microsoft office 2011. It appears to be the right version for you. The single license means you’ll only be able to install the software on 1 machine. The apple.com link is for the family pack which has 3 licenses for 3 different machines. Its going to be more expensive obviously. They have different names and boxes, but they look to be about the same product. The school link version has Microsoft Outlook, which can be used as a central point for your emails if you don’t like apples built in Mail application. Go with the cheaper version.</p>

<p>But it’s “Home & Business”…don’t I need the “home and Student” edition???</p>

<p>Does anyone know of sites that have this with college student deals because I can’t find it???</p>

<p>I researched the Home/Business and Home/Student edition differences. </p>

<p>I decided to buy Home/Business because I found it on a better deal- found out PowerPoint, Excel, and Word are the same exact thing on either edition. Business just adds Outlook, which I don’t need, but it’s somehow cheaper through a site from my school to get H/B than H/S, so I went with that. Got everything on it I need, plus 1 more program. </p>

<p>Thanks for everyone’s input and advice!</p>