App: iWork
Price: £55 or $59
Leopard Ready: Yes
iWork is Apple’s answer to Office 2007 and it’s a good one. iWork is a huge amount less than Office and it has to be the best option for a mac, because Office is not yet native for intel macs and Office 2008 is a bit of a way off. In iWork ’08 Apple introduced Numbers a new application to make it a whole office suite. The best way to tell you about iWork in my opinion is to go through it by application.
Keynote
This is no doubt the best and simplest presentation application and most powerful I have used. There are some great simple effects and some more complex and better one to choose from. Keynote can make a great looking presentation. Keynote this is one of the main reasons to get iWork.
Pages
Used to be just a page layout app but in the latest version it is now a word processor. It is a good word processor but not as good as Word. If you type Word documents a lot this could be a down fall it is not that easy to find some of the features but if know were to look you can find some of them. It is not easy so it will take some time to learn your way around, but as a page layout app it makes great posters and invites.
Numbers
This is the new addition and a very good one it completes iWork to be a full office replacement. Apple have taken the idea of spreadsheets and done it their way. Apple have done it their way and made it more of a spreadsheet layout instead of a plain spreadsheet app. They have incorporated page layout so it is easy to link spreadsheets and implement pictures.
Keynote is definitely the best – can’t say I’ve used Pages or Numbers too much.
But why is it £55 in the UK when it’s only $59 dollars US – that is less than £30?