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The selling point in the software is really Keynote, Keynote just puts powerpoint to shame. Pages is more then just a word processor, I find my self using it in my graphic design class to make posters and business cards. My projects for school never looked better, I had teachers thinking i used some expensive software like photoshop but I only use iWork which is only 79 dollars, you just can't beat that price (even office will set you 150 dollars back and it can't compare to this). I never used a spread sheet program before until Numbers. Numbers is alright but the the templates that it includes are very useful when it comes to managing my money better (college is not cheap). Just download the 30 day trial and try it your self, and don't worry because iWork can export to Office documents or pdf.

(15 of 18 people found this review useful)

I love Pages a lot. But unfortunately I run a small business that relies on a setup where I'm using spreadsheet data to create documents and Pages just doesn't allow me to 'custom' choose the spreadsheet records individually to create my end _aw_document.

Also, as another reviewer has pointed out - when you save your document for compatibility purposes as a .doc (because that's what the rest of the world uses) it won't appear the same as it beautifully did on your machine.

If however, you are using Pages for writing and printing at home, with no need for compatibility worries, then it's freaking awesome.

Numbers is brilliant too, play with the pre-created spreadsheets. Again, saving these as .xls will affect the way they look.

Enjoy!

(4 of 4 people found this review useful)

other people have talked enough about its features and limitations. i just want to add that iwork really need way more templates for scientific paper writing and easy referencing etc. so far there is only one research paper template, and the formating is not really correct. given that macs are really popular among the science community, i think more support for scientific writing is really important for iwork.

(14 of 17 people found this review useful)

Pages is fine for creating something on the fly. I did notice that it lacks many of the more advanced options that Word has.... although, they may just be buried somewhere in the interface. I would suggest using TeXShop with BibDesk for larger documents with multiple references.

Keynote is remarkable. After using the Beamer package in LaTeX and PPT for years, I have finally found something I can use easily and still add a fair amount of complex images, movies, equations, etc. Being able to use LaTeXIt!, incredible transitions, and the great export features makes Keynote far superior to PPT. However, I did notice that the pdf export wasn't as polished as one would like. It would be nice to have options for printouts or presentation in pdf (i.e., multiple pdf pages for on slide text/picture transitions). I also think that the rendering of the presentations in Keynote make your work look more professional than PPT as well.

Numbers still needs a lot of work. It suffices for simple spreadsheets and calculations, but is inferior to Excel in most ways. Plots and Tables being the exception.

(3 of 3 people found this review useful)

Yes iWork is compatible with Word. But, it is compatible in that you can open a document in word which doesn't look like the document that you typed on pages. Colours and layout for instance are not what they are when you saved your file as a .doc
I tried this using fonts which are native both to Pages and Word, such as Arial and Times New Roman. So there should be no reason why there should be problems. But there are, and it is really annoying.
Keynote is excellent, but I have not yet used it save as .ppt feature. I have not yet used Numbers for this purpose either.
However, how can you rate a package which says it is compatible with another format, when it isn't compatible in its entirety! I can't, hence two stars.

(17 of 20 people found this review useful)

Covers all my needs and more.
Far smoother, intuitive and imaginative than Office 2008, and so thankfully I can scrap that from my MacBookPro.
Now Safari 4 is making the likes of myself less reliant upon Microsoft!
WELL DONE APPLE !!

(8 of 8 people found this review useful)

Not up to par with office, pages is ok in comparison to word but has to be converted to a word file or pdf to email docs. Numbers is pretty much useless, difficult to use if youre used to excel. I bought this because it was much cheaper than office and i was told its comperable but i ended up having to buy office anyway. As a college student it is just not up to par

(54 of 153 people found this review useful)

I am a very busy wife, mother, teacher, and grad student. I have always been a PC person-well until my mother bought me an iMac in 2007. I use Microsoft at work so 'naturally' felt that I should have it on my Mac. Word runs extremely slooooow and freezes (both on my mac and work computer). To be honest, I never considered that there are other options.
I downloaded the trial version of iWork just to see what it looked like. I though that the layouts were simply stunning! It was exactly what I was looking for my grad portfolio project do in June. Pages is simple to use, beautiful, and runs seamlessly.
I keep wondering how Microsoft is the industry standard?? Mac software and computers are smooth and drama-free. Oh, iLife is the 'off the hook' too.

(64 of 75 people found this review useful)