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 - Hey Microsoft......get a clue!Apple proves once again that software, like hardware can be elegant and simple. Unlike the Bloatware that is MS office, iWork comes in a small package and is well priced. I work for an Apple Reseller and it boggles the mind how many people think that because the package costs half of what Office does it must not be any good. The interface is clean and intuitive while being powerful enough for most uses. Rating: - Useful, simple, fantastic resultsI've been a slave to Microsoft for too many years, and using iWork '08 proves it to me. This software is fantastic for students, academics, and now with the inclusion of Numbers, for the business world as well. As someone who will complete graduate school soon, I can promise you that this will be the software of choice in my office. Templates are well thought out and it's easy to add more templates by creating your own or visiting a number of other sites on the web where templates are shared. This is a real step up from my Office experiences of the past. Rating: - Iwork works.Iworks is a great set of apps. I use Keynote for professional presentation software. It is excellent and easy to use. I also love pages which is a very easy to use word processor which uses the standard Mac OS system of editing tools. Some times simpler is far better! Pages works and you don't need a Ph.D. to use it. Rating:  - Numbers is the bestI have not yet used Keynote in iWork '08, that is why I rated this product a four. However, without it I would rate it a five. Especially Numbers... absolutely LOVE it!!! I can make tables in seconds! So easy! Much easier than excel, but if you have experience with excel then you will for sure think Numbers is a breeze! Leave it to Apple to create things a little more simpler! Rating:  - Not the answer to all my problemsKeynote is a great presentation package which I have no qualms about using. Besides standard presentations I also use it to make title slides for slide shows and movies. Pages won't substitute for Word when you really need it, which happens frequently with collaborations. It does a very good job otherwise, only failing in the details when you really need a professional documentation/layout package. For me that would be long document support. Numbers is a first effort, but is pathetic. The major defect for me is that you can't lock the top row and left column titles to scroll around large spreadsheets. It's the only spreadsheet program I've ever used that doesn't do that. Even the early 1980's Visicalc did it! It's also very poor for function and graph support and is missing solvers. Finally, this product replaces and extends upon Appleworks. So where are the drawing, painting, and database programs. Especially the first two which I could use for any document. Also there is no equation editor in iWork, while that is present in Word, OpenOffice, and AppleWorks.
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