iWork or Microsoft Office for Mac?

Honestly when choosing a word processing platform, it has to be about compatibility. I have both iWork and MS Office on my Mac, and I get a lot more use with Office. Sure, iWork works better on the Mac, but it doesn't have the compatibility that Office.

I would say that if you are going to be in contact with other computers, maybe bosses or employees, or teachers and students, you should get MS Office. You need to be able to communicate easily with them and make sure that your files are able to be read on their computers.

If you are going to be printing out a lot of papers or working with a lot of people that own Macs, than get iWork.

Or, you can do what I did and just get both! Best of both worlds I say! :D

Microsoft Office... I just like it because I'm just used to it :)

When I initially installed Office I realized there was a lot of crap that came with it. So I uninstalled it and bought iWork. I have never regretted doing that. Additionally you'll get iCloud for backup which is nice, especially if you also have pages for the iPhone because you can edit documents on the fly. Plus it runs better then office anyway so I recommend iWork.

Between those two options: iWork, because you don't have to buy every app, and it's not expensive to buy.

However, you should give LibreOffice a try before buying anything.

iWork is simplier and cheaper, you can export from the apps to the corresponding format of Office apps

If MS Office compatibility is a must then no one even comes close. iWork and others have the ability to export to office formats but it has issues with certain layouts and formats and it'll just never look quite the same

I'd highly recommend Google Docs or LibreOffice long before I'd recommend iWork. So if MS Office compatibility is not a necessity I'd recommend you try using either or both of those for a few days before spending money on iWork.

I've used Open Office on my linux machine over here. Open office is also able to read and write Microsoft office files as well. And is available for OSX, Windows and Linux.

I have downloaded Microsoft Office for OSX and I came to find out that a lot of crap comes with it! With Microsoft Office for Windows it is very simple and doesn't come with a lot of stuff but the OSX version of Microsoft Office is slow and not needed

I have to use the office suite quite on a daily basis now to write reports for work and university. In my opinion Microsoft office wins hands down in terms of the ease of use, breadth of features and compatibility with others. If you are in a situation where you will be submitting files to other people who may use different machines its better to do it in office as it seems to be compatible with all the others. I have learnt that the hard way after other programs like open office, google docs and pages have completely messed with either the font or the format of the document when there are graphics, graphs, tables, charts references, citations and other document elements you may require. It may be more expensive but is worth every penny.

People use office a lot as its used for in their School or Jobs so they get used to using it and also they may need to sync with program's such as Outlook. But if the Mac is going to be your work laptop as well which you will solely use they I recommend iWork's as it is easier to use and you can use it with your iPad or iPhone. I don't have a Mac to use iWork on but it works great on my iPad and iPhone.