The Office Suite Smackdown

Can iWork ’08 challenge Office 2008? See which is right for you.

by Jeffery Battersby, Rob Griffiths, Franklin N. Tessler, Macworld.com

For years, Microsoft Office was the undisputed champion of Mac software suites. Then came Apple’s iWork. At first it consisted solely of Pages and Keynote—not enough to take on Office head-to-head. But when Apple added Numbers to iWork ’08, the suite became a viable alternative to Microsoft Office.

Illustrations by Jonathan Carlson.

How viable? That’s what we asked Jeffery Battersby, Rob Griffiths, and Franklin N. Tessler—our go-to experts on word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation programs, respectively—to find out.

We asked each of them to use Office and iWork to create a project in their respective areas of expertise (Word and Pages for Battersby, Excel and Numbers for Griffiths, and PowerPoint and Keynote for Tessler). Each project was to progress from the basics (data entry and formatting) to more-advanced features (adding a data-entry form to a spreadsheet, for example, or advanced animations in a presentation). Our questions: Is one program better than the other? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Which jobs (and which users) require which tool?

Of course, we knew our test wouldn’t touch on every single feature in every program. But we figured we’d be able to compare the tools that you might typically require in a real-world job. Which suite came out on top in our software bouts? Read on to find out.

The Office Suite Smackdown

Can iWork '08 challenge Office 2008?

Word 2008 vs. Pages ‘08

Which word processor is really right for you: Word 2008 or Pages ‘08? Jeffrey Battersby puts them in the ring and lets them duke it out.
Excel 2008 vs. Numbers ‘08

We asked Rob Griffiths—our go-to expert on spreadsheets—to use Excel 2008 and Numbers ’08 to create the same project, progressing from the basics (text entry and formatting) to more-advanced features. Our questions: Which program is better at each stage of the job?
PowerPoint 2008 vs. Keynote ‘08

We asked Franklin N. Tessler—our go-to expert on presentation programs—to use PowerPoint 2008 and Keynote ‘08 to create the same project, progressing from the basics (data entry and formatting) to more-advanced features.