PCMag reviews iWork '06. "For word processing, the Apple iWork '06 Pages program is no match for Microsoft Word or ThinkFree Office 3.0. But it's capable, and its ability to create gorgeous documents easily is unequaled on the Mac." My take: I concur. iWork is the best tool for the job when you need to create a document you yourself will distribute physically; however, since iWork uses a closed file format only iWork users can read, distributing it electronically is fairly useless.
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Member since:2006-06-06
Member since:2005-10-12
Isn't the argument about .doc that it is not one format?
One of my guys is a lead author and got ten .doc submissions from his collaborators. I could open 3 correctly in Word 2000. We could open a different 3 properly in OO. The rest were either impossible to open or garbled. I'm sure a different version of Word would have opened another different 3 and failed on a different lot. In the end I stripped out the text on the failed ones with Awk and reformatted. It was mostly tables that were the problem.
You're ok with .doc if everyone is on a recent version of Word, and if the material is not too heavily formatted, but it is not a bed of roses either. A lot to be said for rtf maybe?
Member since:2005-06-29
A lot to be said for rtf maybe?
In a sense, yes. However, in Word, you can simply check 'compatibility' mode. That way, you ensure it runs on Word 97 through 2003. I believe this mode disables any features any of these versions might not have; I'm not sure if it works that way though. I never had problems in any case, and I've received dozens, maybe even hundreds of .doc articles from people all over the Psychology as well as the Language faculty.
But yes, of course, .doc ain't no bed of roses. But in any case it is a better option for compatibility than iWork or PDF (edit: when peer review/editing is required).
Edited 2006-07-12 19:12
Member since:2006-01-23
I maintain a web based work flow management site for publishing company working on a large project that has over 800 contributors and right now the database has 13,700 word docs in it (and only the first of five volumes has been totally submitted). There has been one file that wouldn't open that I had to recover and we still have Word 2000 here, so there are 2 newer versions that the contributors may be using.
Member since:2005-07-06
It is the most sane choice when you are collaborating on a document. For turning in documents to professors or just letting other people read them, I always print to pdf. In fact, many of the professors at my university would not even accept .doc files. With that in mind, the business world uses .doc way more than .pdf
Member since:
2005-06-29
this despite the menu that allows you to also save as .doc, .html and .rtf file formats.
As noted in the review and in another comment here, iWork's .doc filters aren't really good. Other than that, I prefer to write documents using the office suite's native file format. In case of iWork, which is the best choice for beauty, this is iWork's format. When I need compatibility, I will stick with .doc. As simple as that.
.pdf is completely out of the question, as barely anyone I know can edit .pdf files. HTML is way too daunting, .rtf too limited. EVERYBODY I know uses .doc. Why is it so hard to accept, Kelly, that when working with multiple individuals, choosing the format everybody will be able to edit is the most sane choice?