MS Works or ?

I recently purchased an iMac from the Apple web sight. I noticed that they were promoting MS works, trying to sell it as part of the package. What I want use is the word processor and ms money (just switched from pc) What I am thinking, is rather than lay out all the money for an "office sweet" when I don't really need or use a fraction of the stuff, is that a simple word processor and Quicken might fill the bill. What quick and easy word processors would you recommend? Word processing wise, do you use what comes packaged with the iMac, and are you happy with it? All I can find is iWorks Pages. It seems like a lot of hoops to jump through just to do a little writting.

thanks

I think you need to go back and look again. MS Works has not been available for mac for many, many years.

If you mean Appleworks, this is a very capable little program that is no longer bundled with new computers since it's not universal and definitely EOLed. If you mean iWork, you get a 30 day trial. However, iWork consists only of Pages, a word processor/page layout program, and Keynote, a killer presentation program. There is no database and only very limited spreadsheet capability.

You might want to look into Neo Office, which is a free mac clone of MS Office, if you like the MS approach to word processing, or of course you could get Office for Mac, which does not include Access or Publisher.

There is no mac version of Money. Quicken or Moneydance are your best bets there, although quicken for mac is limited compared to the pc version. I don't use moneydance but I know many people who have switched to it from quicken, especially if you need to deal with multiple currencies.

You might also want to check out textedit, which came with your mac. It's the mac equivalent of notepad, but it's far more deluxe and an increasing number of people are finding it sufficient for their word processing needs, if you don't need mail merge, track changes, etc.

It can even open and save in Word .doc format!

Yeah, it's a pretty amazing little app, which gives you access to all the OS X fancy features like ligatures and so on, too. Definitely deserves more respect than it usually gets.

--The best buy for ANY computer is Microsoft Office - the suite, (Excel, Powerpoint, Word, and Entourage), not just the word processor. It doesn't cost much more than MS Word alone.

It has the most features, is uncrashable, intuitively easy to use, and is used by more businesses and individuals than all the rest combined. And for Mac it comes with Entourage, the best email program available, which also has a reminder calendar, a notebook, a project center, and a Task center.

Appleworks is awful! Don't waste your money. The toolbar has obscure, feathery icons that are all but unreadable and the word processor is clumsy.
Loyalty to Apple Computer only goes so far.
My $0.02
Deecy//



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I've been using Appleworks for many years and find that it does everything I need for word processing.

I love appleworks and have been running a business with it for many years, but although it runs fine on intel macs, it hasn't had aa much as a maintenance update since 2004 and is pretty clearly over, as far as apple is concerned. A great pity, since I don't see iWork ever being able to do all the things appleworks can do (and do much more easily than Office), although Pages is much better at graphics handling and advanced typography.

Try open office. I use a pc, but dumped MS office. I will say that MS office is great, but has so much stuff you dont need...I just wanted to get away from all the HDD space being eaten up.

OO is free....multiplatform..And I reckon its dead on...I didnt switch for a long time, but now it is well up to par...no compatability problems either..give it a go.

Autoroute is good though...but pick it up or route 66 on its own..had money installed for ages, never used it...bar the credit card repayment calculator..and that scares you to death!
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That's why I recommended neooffice, which is open office with a more maclike, less hideous interface.

Conchita said:

That's why I recommended neooffice, which is open office with a
more maclike, less hideous interface.

Click to expand...

Missed that! shame they dont do it for windows!!! lol

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