Freakin new Appleworks

[pbmac]

I believe that the next big software package to come from Apple will be AppleWorks, or whatever
the next version will be called. Why do I believe this? Well, apart from the need to create an Office v.X alternative (following Safari's footsteps), a simple glance at the program itself should prove that something must be done. Considering Apple's push to improve its products, this seems to be the last frontier. What do you think?

- pbmac

[Rhino_G3]

I never have found appleworks that user friendly, although I came from a PC world 5 years ago, when Office 97 was brand spankin new. once I got Office 98 for the Mac I hardly used Appleworks. Something about the interface I didn't like.

If they were to improve upon the concept I would rather enjoy using it. No matter how much I like v.X I would like the choice of a different enterprise level office suite.

[Lazarus18]

I guess alternatives are good, but Office X works well, and if Apple proves to MS that there is no need to develop software for Macs then we lose a good argument for switching to Mac. "You can open the same Word files on Mac as you can on PC... except you have to do it in Appleworks." That's all fine and good but as soon as the next version of Word comes out the conversions will start to get worse and worse until there are serious incompatibilites between the two and we're back at "Macs can't function in an office environment." I may not like MS, but the Mac BU has done all right as far as I'm concerned and I hope MS doesn't decide that the Mac market is too small to care about and pull the plug on the MBU. Office could use some speed boosts, though, Office on PCs of comparable speed runs much faster.

Safari had to come out since no one was doing a decent job on the browser front (though some will contest that Omniweb and Chimera were adequate, I'd disagree). I don't think there is the same necessity for Appleworks.

[adambyte]

I agree. I dunno how smart it would be to make a complete replacement, and discourage the Mac unit of Microsoft. I couldn't care less in what program I open my documents, but the public.... they need Microsoft Word, even if it does look all Aqua-y... they need that name recognition. They don't care what it is, just as long as it's made my Microsoft, fully compatible, and has the same name.

[hulkaros]

Originally posted by adambyte
I agree. I dunno how smart it would be to make a complete replacement, and discourage the Mac unit of Microsoft. I couldn't care less in what program I open my documents, but the public.... they need Microsoft Word, even if it does look all Aqua-y... they need that name recognition. They don't care what it is, just as long as it's made my Microsoft, fully compatible, and has the same name.

Apple made an office product which would be what Keynote is to P.Point and call it:
Office X for Mac?

[Pengu]

In case you all hadn't noticed, www.MacOSRumors.com is reporting that MS is indeed stopping support for OSX. Go have a read. While i can understand your worries about the "compatibility" issue. For one, Office is only updated once every... 2 years? Apple usually ships a major revision of all its software in 12 month intervals. So, supposing we had the rumored Document.app, and a handful of other office-apps in a new Office suite from apple. They release Document.app 1.0 (or a beta i guess) which will read all versions of Word files, plus of course txt, html, rtf, xml, etc. In 6 months time, the new version of Office for Winodws comes out, there is no Mac version. Apple work out what's changed, release an update saying.. "This update allows Document.app to read and write the latest version of MS Word documents, as well as various other enhancements and bug-fixes"
Personally i think that people in IT are slowly beginning to realise that Microsoft isn't quite the god they thought it was. More and more companies/people are turning to alternatives, and often they are finding OPEN standards will provide a solution. Just think how much easier the world would be if everyone used .rtf instead of .doc???

[Arden]

Safari is fine because it's free, exactly like IE. I don't see where the money train rolls in with the Explorer stamp on it... however, MS Office:Mac makes MS money, and it supports the MBU, leading to more & better MS products for Mac.

[plastic]

I hope Apple can rework the Appleworks to make it more intuitive and user friendly... I can never tap into the more advance features of this powerful app. It does too many things but I just cannot TAP it... not intuitive enough... and I hate having to refer to "help" all the time... sigh...