iWork ‘08—Numbers & Keynote

Continuing part 2 of my review, I am going to focus on Numbers and Keynote.

As I mentioned in last week’s review, I am no power user. I’m not looking at an office suite to create billboard sized posters or memos worthy of Donald Trump’s blessings. I’m an average consumer, I need something I can cling on to quickly, something that will run fast and something that will allow compatibility with what the majority uses.

Luckily, all 3 apps perform adequately for my needs and, I am sure, yours.

The interface amongst the entire suite is nearly identical, with the standardized toolbar and your work all underneath it.

Numbers & Keynote

These two apps function much the same as their Microsoft brethren, obviously, but have a few critical features. Speed, design, and simplicity, now this is the normal Apple touch to any product (haven’t tried iMovie yet!) but there are still a lot of similarities.

Formats

As you know, Apple likes to stay in their own formats, but with iWork you are kept in the default, walled-in format; you do get some awesome export options, which makes up for it somewhat since you can’t set anything else as the default.

Keynote gives you Quicktime export (with some customization might I add), iPod export (same, you can customize it), HTML, Flash, PDF, Images, and P-P-P-PowerPoint.

Numbers gives you slightly less options: a PDF, Excel, or CSV file.

Use

I’m not going to say this is the best feature of all 3 apps, but for novices and new users it really is helpful: templates. Yes, I said it, templates. It seems like that was what the all the discussion was about, call me a fanboy or call me weak minded and suppressible to RDF, but I said it, I like templates.

When I open an Excel or even Numbers worksheet I don’t want to take the time to do some advanced calculations. I should be able to get right into what I need to do and do it quickly.

Even then, that is not all Numbers and Keynote have to offer. It’s essentially the Mac version of Microsoft office but light years ahead of what is actually available (no, the templates leave no permanent scars). 

But I do have a beef about Numbers. Granted, Keynote needs to be a resource hog for what it needs to do, it runs quite well on my 6-year-old iBook (every time I load Safari I go out in the backyard and dig this Mac’s grave a little deeper…), but Numbers might as well be a 5-year-old riding on a scooter in a Nascar race with a set of bricks instead of wheels.

Interface

What I do like about all 3 apps (besides Templates, I said it for you, I am template crazy) is the straightforward interface. You have your toolbar, you can select what goes in it and you have your work directly underneath it, it’s that simple. Everything is at your fingertips and while it imitates the look and feel of Office, it feels as if Van Gogh and Picasso got together to beat some good design into it.

Final Word


Yes, I love iWork; Text Edit has left the dock and Microsoft Office, who knows where that is (I might have sold it on eBay but I cannot recollect, I seem to be out $79.99). But to wrap this up, I am disappointed about iWork, to clarify, about what is not there. 

We all know Apple could make this into something literally everyone will and want to use but restricted by one thing: brand recognition. Do you see iWork on the PC? No, but you sure do see Microsoft Office prominently displayed. People who are switchers are expecting Microsoft Office to just be there, to be able to buy it and and use it for tasks that would make Stickies yawn. Most switchers know nothing about iWork, take out Microsoft Office and you filter out a lot of potential (noob) customers.