Customer Reviews
Solid Suite for the Non-Professional 
2008-07-03
This is a great suite of programs for those of us who don't necessarily need the full power of the Microsoft Office suite. It will be able to do nearly all of what you want it to do in a non-professional environment (read home or possibly small business) for a whole lot less money than MS Office will cost.
That's where this suite shines. For $79 or less ($69 currently on Amazon) you get 80% of the MS Office functionality plus famous Apple-brand style. It's infinitely better than the hack-job "NeoOffice" for Mac which is the free OpenOffice-based office suite that is nearly unusable due to a bad translation.
Pros:
-Pages is a fine little word processor for writing virtually anything you can think of. It's simple to use and flows well with the rest of the "Mac experience." If you just want to sit down and type a letter or a book, it's hard to beat. This is the Apple equivalent to Microsoft Word
-Numbers is a usable spreadsheat program that will do some basic number crunching and data manipulation. It's competent and works like most other Apple programs. This is the Apple equivalent to Microsoft Excel
-Keynote is the best application of the suite. It is a powerful presentation design program that is not only on par with, but superior to Microsoft Powerpoint, which it is aimed at. If you want an idea of what it can do, just watch any of Steve Job's keynote addresses to see a good presentation in action. He uses Keynote, too.
Cons:
-Generally speaking, if you are familiar with MS Office programs (as I am), you'll have a bear of a time migrating over to iWork. Apple has its own version of what is logical in the interface, and though I can't say if it's better or worse, it's definitely different and hard to navigate for an MS Office veteran. If you're new to such programs, though, it's probably more intuitive.
-Pages is a little light on features and flexibility. This offers a simpler user interface, but also means you lose a lot of power that the professional grade MS Word offers. It also has a lot of trouble importing anything but the most simplistic Word documents and doesn't appear to be compatible with Office 2008 for Mac yet (I'm not sure about Office 2007 for Windows, though).
-Numbers is the weakest program in the suite. It's not really usable in a standard office practice as it lacks so many features and capabilities that have been in Excel for generations. It's more-or-less a sort of placeholder until Apple decides it really wants to be in the Enterprise market. Few home users will bother learning to use a spreadsheet program of any type unless they have to. This is more of an afterthought.
-Keynote is the jewel of the set. It's only real weakness is that it will ruin you on Microsoft Powerpoint if you ever have to go back or have to export your presentation into Powerpoit format. That's the Achilles' Heel of Keynote is the lack of widespread use anywhere. Industry doesn't use it. Education doesn't use it. Heck, even hotels and conference rooms don't use it. You have to bring your own Mac if you really want to use it.
Overall, this is a great suite for the money, but can't really compete with its entrenched and much more mature Microsoft counterparts (except for Keynote). This is a must-have if you use your Mac for anything productive, especially if your budget is a bit tight.
i[t] works 2008-07-02
this product is great. it does what it needs to. there are many features that aren't apparent until you dig in and explore. one setback is that, when using graphs, you are very limited in your intervals and labeling the graphs. it is recommended that, if you need to produce graphs of any quality, create your graphs in another program and import them into keynote or pages...
Hits the mark but misses in a couple of areas 2008-06-28
First I have to say I'm a huge Apple fan. They slowly won me over from the PC side now I find PCs barely usable. That being said this is a very intuitive and usable productivity suite. It integrates wonderfully into OS X. That being said it does not support open document format yet (odt) or any of the open office formats.
Additionally with Open Office for Mac being as good or better than MS Office and it's free. It makes it hard for me to justify paying any money for office productivity suite.
Very disappointing! Still need office 
2008-06-25
Pages is not really a word processor at all. It is, at best, a mediocre page layout program. The spell-checking and grammar-checking are basically useless. In my mind, spelling and grammar are as fundamental to word processing as are cut and paste. Apple has been on a real role lately that I had really high hopes for iwork. It doesn't take long to find out this product is just plain junk. I'm sorry I bought it and will go back to office.
Learning 2008-06-22
Have always been a Microsoft user, but after years of frustration with PCs I switched to MAC and bought iWork. It is very similar to Office and very easy to use. Only complaint is that Pages does not count words, which is important to me when writing a paper. Other than that, I'm glad I purchased it.
iWork Lite: Not What I Expected 
2008-07-19
If Apple took its cues from Microsoft, we wouldn't have merely one version of iWork. iWork 2008, in Microsoft parlance, could more aptly be described as "iWork Lite". Alternately, this version might best be billed as iWork Home. What about iWork Office and iWork School? Or iWork Superior to include all of the above? Don't count on it, at least not from iWork '08.
If the other reviews on Amazon and Apple are any indication, the only application in this trio that truly rises to the Microsoft Office challenge is Keynote. My beef with this suite pertains to my primary reason for purchasing iWork: word processing. Microsoft Office 2008 amounted to a series of alarming 1-star reviews at the time I purchased iWork 2008, and aside from that is enormously overpriced. More importantly, however, I wanted to reward any developer who dares compete with the Goliath that is MS Office by casting a vote with my pocketbook in favor of their product. Apple, after all, has been updating iWork long enough to give it time to mature. Or so I thought.
While I appreciate the beautiful templates and intuitive interface that iWork offers, what remains when all the pretties are stripped away? iWork Lite: The version you weren't bargaining on but should have expected for a mere $79.99 (MSRP).
My hope was that Pages would reference Webster's New World Dictionary, which is regarded as a superior reference in hard copy form for capitalization and proper hyphenation. While Pages approaches this level of accuracy, it doesn't quite make the grade. This calls into question its usefulness for English majors, journalists and writers of all stripes. Worse, Pages proofreader is a poor substitute for MS Word's grammar checker. As a result, Pages is also a questionable choice for teachers, students and professionals.
Other purported iWork limitations include:
* Few keyboard shortcuts (native Mac users once prided themselves on the ease with which they could zip through tasks with minimal mouse clicks);
* Cannot change the "save as" to default to an export file type;
* No auto-save/recovery;
* No auto-correct;
* Pages lacks an outline function;
* Weak on functionality: Does not support right-to-left language types. Cross references and the automatic numbering of legends, equations, references are missing. Limitations using the chart editor. "Start count at" and indentation level controls frustrate some users. No HTML import/export;
* iWork Server/Client works on an intranet using Rendezvous, but does not support Internet networking;
* Pages supports only basic citation and footnoting. Cannot use footnotes and endnotes simultaneously. Can accept Grapher/LaTeXiT services but does not support bibliographies (fails to interface with EndNote, for example);
* Opens Appleworks files only via the "import" command;
* Cannot add images -- such as company logo -- to Pages headers or footers;
* Numbers will not satisfy technical users, nor those who wish to include some of the following in a Keynote presentation: It does not support pivot tables. Cannot plot a graph with two y-axes. Will not graph error bars. Does not support Visual Basic macros. Cannot perform trendline analysis or basic statistics (t-test). Does not permit users to freeze/unfreeze panes;
* Apple reports: "Your ability to open a large Numbers file or import a large Microsoft Excel file into Numbers '08 may be constrained by the amount of memory installed on your computer. This constraint adjusts with the addition and removal of memory from the computer."
* Users porting complex Excel documents to Numbers report the need to perform numerous corrections;
* Does not include a database application. Lacks SQL database integration, among others;
* Does not support envelope printing within Pages (envelope printing is left up to Mac Address Book);
* Does not support mail merge (except from Mac Address Book);
* Cannot email a page from within an iWorks application;
* Does not include a standalone email application (relies instead on the integrated email application in OS X);
* Apparently, native iWork files are actually packages, which many web-based email servers do not support. To overcome this limitation, iWork files must be exported and/or saved and subsequently attached to outgoing web-based email messages as archives (zipped files);
*iWorks users who are borderline on system compatibility or whose machines place them at the lower end of iWork's system requirements may encounter sluggish performance (I encountered a number of pauses during which the rainbow colored beach ball appeared while working in Pages).
Do I recommend iWork? That depends on who, what, where and why you wish to use it. From my vantage point, iWork is not a Microsoft Office competitor but an entry-level trio of applications that are big on potential but small on delivery. Nevertheless, there are some users -- primarily those who require strong visuals and a template-based approach to productivity -- who may benefit from iWork 2008.
iWork 
2008-07-14
The new iWork program is a great software package that is extremely easy to use. iWorks has three applications (Pages '08; Keynote '08; & Numbers '08) with common operating features. The iWork program allows me to quickly create everything from a news letter to business documents.
I previously used MS Works and MS Office on my old PC and was proficient with their uses. After two week's use of iWork, I am creating better quality documents in less time. I see the potential through the use of iWork for me to becoming a creative pro.
This is an excellent product that will not disappoint. I am a very satisfied user and highly recommend this software suite of programs.
Good Apple program for the average person 2008-07-12
I bought my macbook for grad school and wanted to get as far away from Microsoft as possible, so It made most sense to buy Iwork 08 pre-installed. After one semester of use, as well as using the page layout portion of Pages, I am extremely happy with my decision. While word has more features, most of which I never used, Pages has the features and tools I need. Where Pages fall short is in its editing tools. Pages lacks a good spell and grammar check. Which could be a good thing because I often rely too much on a spell checker and do not manually check my writing myself. The page layout part of Pages is amazing for its price. While it's not InDesign, for a1/5th the price, its good. From what I've read, many reviewers are annoyed with the import function. Personally I do not find importing to be annoying or burdensome. To import to word or powerpoint, it takes two seconds.
I have not worked with numbers, and have limited experience with keynote. But from what I've tried and messed around with in Keynote, I can tell it is a great program.
So, overall this office suite is worth the low price and I do not miss Microsoft Office.
Does everything I need for much less $$ than that other Microsoft program.... 2008-07-08
I recently switched to Mac and since I had been using Microsoft Office ever since I can remember, I thought I would just order it for my Mac as well. That is, until I saw an ad for iWork and was drawn to it by the much, much smaller price tag. I thought I would try it since it cost so much less than MS Office.
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of this piece of software. It has excellent word processing, page layout, spreadsheet, and presentation software. iWork can even flawlessly import and open documents from MS Office, and it can also export to those formats so that I can share documents with my PC using co-workers without a problem.
I'm actually ordering a second Mac (an iMac to compliment the MacBook I already have) and will be sticking with iWork for it as well.
Excellent Alternative to Word 2008-07-04
I've been a long time user of Word on my Mac and when I upgraded my laptop I decided to give iWork a try.
I need basic word processing, spreadsheet, and PowerPoint capabilities. iWork works beautifully. I especially like Keynote as a substitute for PowerPoint. iWork provides many useful templates in Keynote, Pages and Numbers. With iWork I can also open all the Office documents friends send me via e-mail.
So far I've experienced no problems or glitches with iWork unlike the many I encountered with Word on a Mac. Apple's backup to iWork is also much better than Microsoft's with Word.
Nice product!
