iwork '08 first impressions

so iwork '08 came out today and being the uber geek that i am, i've already spent a couple hours digging into the free trial version.

numbers looks really, really good. let's face it, your typical ms excel user arguably uses spreadsheets for presentation and listmaking purposes just as often as to do actual calculations. and over the years, ms has added precious little listmaking functionality to excel. at first blush, apple has made this kind of 'day to day' stuff much more accessible in numbers than it currently is in excel. e.g., numbers lets you very quickly add multiple lists to a page and then select from several out-of-the-box templates when making calculations.

yeah, there's a handful of bells and whistles that are missing in numbers - but it is definitely good enough that i may seriously contemplate dumping excel.

pages '08 feels substantially more developed than the prior version. i have to admit, i spend a lot of time in word and may have to 'unlearn' my word habits a bit in order to be objective about pages. but my initial impression is definitely favorable and i look forward to exploring pages more fully later in the week.

keynote: where to begin. i've always found keynote to be generally bling-ier than powerpoint. in general ease of use (charts/tables etc) and visual pizazz (transitions, effects) there is no contest - keynote by a mile. apple's overall look and feel, graphical tools, and the usability of the included templates are miles ahead of powerpoint. the templates are a particular standout in my opinion - the apple flair for great design really comes through here and gives you a running start when it comes to creating your presentations.

for $79, iwork is an absolute no brainer and may in fact shortly obviate the need for any microsoft products on my mac whatsoever. nicely done guys. (what's the current pricing on office mac these days... $125? pound for pound, it's no contest.) i'll have to warm up to pages a bit more, but taken as a whole, this is a great package and i will definitely be buying.

life on a mac just got even sweeter. gracias, senor jobs.