Compare Microsoft Office 365 and Apple iWork. What to choose?
Makradar Technologies / / December 19, 2019
A year later, after the package iWork software from Apple It becomes free for new devices "apple", Microsoft, canceled paid subscription to Office 365. From now on, in the mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for free for iOS, you can not only view but also edit documents. In honor of this happy event, I decided to install Microsoft famous application on your iPad, compare them with peers from Apple, choose the vending and office suite to share with you my thoughts.
I think that the first criterion by which I will reveal to me appropriate application will take up space. My iPad 4 32GB is almost packed to capacity, so more "easy" set can immediately become a leader. However, the favorite no one could be: two office suites occupy about 1.3 GB.
After a short warm-up it was the turn of comparison applications head-on. To begin, I will run text editors, then the decision to work with spreadsheets, and at the end - a program for creating presentations.
Word and Pages
The first thing that catches your eye - a large number of ready-made templates in Pages. Their number exceeds that in Word almost 3 times! Of course, their diversity is unlikely to bring a lot of practical use, but the fact that a lot of them - enjoyable.
Function, which has both the editor absolutely comparable. Only a few functions, such as inserting breaks, change tracking, and additional styles and shadows, are available at a premium subscription to Office 365. If we consider that this is not such key features, for which I would pay the difference between the Word and Pages in this regard either. What matters is how it is presented to the user. And here, in my opinion, the product is Microsoft's head and shoulders above its competitors. Absolutely everything managing editor made on the top panel and grouped by tabs.
In Pages, on the other hand, some tools to change the properties of the text, is located directly above the keyboard. Menu to insert diagrams, tables, headings, and lists the buttons are hidden behind anonymous. Perhaps, from the point of view of the designer interface applications iWork package, this type of arrangement of the buttons the best possible, but it seems to me that this is not cool.
Some parameters of the text and does duplicated at both the bottom panel and on top. After working in Word interface Pages seems very poor and empty, but this is a matter of taste. I, as a Windows user with years of experience are likely to simply become accustomed to the logic and structure of the Microsoft applications.
As a student of physics and mathematics, I am often faced with documents that contain a furious amount of complex formulas. My negligence when copying cribs in Pages on the iPhone not so long ago, I made it more difficult exams. Text editor from Apple simply could not read me the necessary formula. Therefore, if you have to deal with these specific characters, Word - the number one application.
Excel and Numbers
Program to work with spreadsheets, I use a lot less than the usual text editors. But such a need may arise suddenly, so for me it is important to have an application ready to display right, forward, edit the document. With the amount of templates and structure of the interface MS Office and iWork programs we've already figured out. Ordinary files with simple graphics, diagrams and formulas are displayed the same in both applications.
To "combat" the comparison I was selected document to calculate the statistics of games with bookmakers, which allows to determine the probability, odds and many other parameters. Excel and Numbers work with this file that contains many formulas, not cause I have absolutely no complaints. Both programs behave absolutely correctly, offering the user a special comfortable keyboard to enter data into a cell. Certainly, Excel - more powerful application, but for me personally it is the variety of functions to anything, so this choice can have a major impact just a personal preference.
But one little thing that plays on the side of the product from Microsoft, I still found. The matter scrolling pages of the document. The panel with numbers of rows and columns of letters Excel automatically "tied" to the cells when scrolling, allowing not much bother with the movement of the worksheet. This can be compared with avtodovodchikom doors in the car. So here, the working area is clearly recorded without additional user effort. In Numbers such a function is simply not available.
PowerPoint and Keynote
If a variety of tabs and buttons in Word I had in mind, then the PowerPoint interface made me tense. It's not that everything here is completely different, and that the text writing process is very different from creating a presentation file. In Keynote eyes I intuitively find the button to add a new slide. It is logical that this button is located at the bottom of the pane to the thumbnail slide, because they are arranged from top to bottom from the first to the last. In PowerPoint, a button is cherished strictly in the opposite position. Perhaps for this and you can get used to, but why force yourself to use what initially seems to be uncomfortable?
Another advantage of Keynote - use your iOS device as a remote control to control the slide show on another mobile device or Apple on the Mac.
For the rest, both programs offer similar options for templates, the ability to add sounds, images and videos, animations and transitions collections.
What to choose?
It is difficult to summarize, when all three applications from each packet received different assessments. Leader to work with the usual documents, I would call the Word. Between Numbers and Excel I did not catch much of a difference except a nice scrolling workspace by Microsoft. When comparing Keynote and PowerPoint have the impression that work with the "apple" of the program easier and faster.
Each program can be synchronized via cloud technology. For iWork is iCloud, and for Office 365 - Microsoft and Dropbox storage account.
It looks like I'm going to stop your choice on the package of Microsoft software. Despite the fact that I really liked and Sports Keynote to use, use it again I would have to, at best, a year later. Much more important to have a good text editor, but here the advantage already not on the side of iWork. Familiar organization interface, borrowed from the PC-version, the location of all of the Tools tab on one panel, the correct display of the formulas - all of this had to my taste.
And what Office applications you use on your iOS devices and use at all? Comment and share your expertise!
Price: Free
Price: Free
Price: Free
Price: Free
Price: Free
Price: Free