Good summary Gary. Some things from my experience: 1. I was a big Dragon dictation user (with PC Word) for many years, and initially there was nothing that came close to this on a Mac so ended up using a Windows VM in Parallels which worked fine. Over recent years, though, Apple native dictation into Pages has become almost as good - certainly good enough for me and I am a hard core writer. I also find that PDFs generated by pages somehow look nicer than those from Word. 2. I still use a Parallels Win VM for Excel though. This is to support a range of 10-15 year old VB macros that run very slowly in native Excel on the Mac if the there is a lot of number crunching involved. For day-to-day spreadsheet stuff though, I actually find Numbers more pleasant to use. Apple has done a good job replicating most of the Win Excel keyboard shortcuts. As a tip, I find mapping the modifiers to behave like a native Mac if you have to use Parallels (which is pretty easy to do) 3. We do a lot of charting of data for reporting purposes and Keynote is massively better for that, both in terms of chart creation and the quality for the final output (I would never embed a chart from PowerPoint into a published document, but Keynote graphics are fine). 4. I get sent a lot of PowerPoint presentations by other people (outside the company), but I find PowerPoint itself horribly cluttered, messy and intrusive nowadays, so I generally just open files once and save them as PDFs for general access. If I need to edit the content for my own purposes, then I generally convert it to Keynote and tidy it up. Lastly, as a general comment, when we (mostly) ditched MS Office, we were concerned about exchanging documents with clients for review. We found, however, that providing clients with drafts in PDF format works really well. Everyone can mark up a PDF and best of all, clients can’t tamper with (and screw up) your content - they can only comment :) Summing up (based on my and my teams’ experience): MS Office does more, but once you switch to a simpler environment, it seems unnecessarily complex and clunky when you go back, and the output doesn’t look as good.
I find the Microsoft 365 Personal plan, at $70/year to be a good deal, because you get 1 TB of cloud storage as well as access to all of the Office products. I still use Excel instead of Numbers, since that’s the product we always used in the business world. I have, however, gone over to Pages instead of Word, which I always found to be way too complicated.
I was a long time Microsoft user mainly because work was Windows based and Word, Excel and PowerPoint were what we all used. Now I’ve retired, I find I’m using Pages and, to a lesser extent, Numbers. Happily, the Macmost courses are exactly what I need to show me how to use the Apple apps.
I have used Microsoft Office for over 20 years on Windows. I was doubly surprised when I installed my Office 2019 pack on my very first Mac in 2021 (a 24-inch iMac). 1) my one-time Office 2019 license for Windows is perfectly compatible, I was able to download my purchase from my Microsoft account and import my license without having to buy a new license and 2) unlike Office on Windows, Office updates frequently in the background on my Mac. However, I prefer to use the mail app rather than Outlook because I find Outlook less well integrated on Mac and more complex to set up. The mail app is so much easier to use!
I am retired and don’t need the complexity of the Microsoft products any more. I am planning to use the Apple apps completely in future. My main reason is they are free!
Exactly. The Microsoft products are far more capable, especially Excel but Numbers is more than sufficient for most personal use. I moved to Apple when I retired. I’m on a Condo board but just export to Microsoft when needed.
@@Erin-Thor Although OpenOffice is technically still available, the project has been on "life support" for several years and is likely to be shut down. LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice and also its replacement.
As usual, Gary, you are one of the most objective and clearest explainers on RUclips. I am trying to transition to Pages after years of using Word and am doing so with the "crutch" of LibreOffice. My eventual goal is to do everything in Pages and save files in different formats in the end. I am now getting through your great Playlist of Pages Tutorials.
First computer: Osbourne. First GUI OS: Windows 2.0. However, this loooong time user of Microsoft is now totally fed up with them. I have switched to Mac. I will ONLY use Mac software and no longer be held hostage by Microshit. Love your tutorials, dude.
There are several differences between Microsoft Office for Mac and the Windows version people. Don't expect to do everything exactly the same way. I often lost a lot of time on the web looking for a way to do so to finally discover that the feature I needed didn't exist on Mac.
Thanks for this subject you have touched upon. One of the reasons for me to be tied to Mojave has been this: I am used to Microsoft Word. Tried to shift to Pages but found but was dissuaded from adopting it because I learned that the file sizes are more with Pages than Word documents. Regards.
Happy New Year Gary! Actually I think Microsoft Office (now Microsoft 365) increased Mac’s use in the businesses community. It happened to me. I really enjoy my Mac computers but also make intensive use o Microsoft 365 including Outlook because it is very easy to have a logo signature in it. Microsoft 365 for Mac and optimized for Apple Silicon is really great. It is a beautiful and powerful combination! Cheers!
Yes, you should have Office for Mac if you intend to engage with the big, wide world. Otherwise, I think Pages is a lot easier to use than Word and just as good if not better in some ways. It's improved exponentially through the years, and it will only get better. Keynote blows PowerPoint out of the water. As a company Apple does a far better job of respecting user privacy than Microsoft.
That would only matter if you and another person both wanted to work from the same document which to be honest is not that often for moat people. It is more simple to just produce your master document in word or pages and the pen convert to a pdf or some other format if you need to circulate it.
When I was a university student, I relied on Pages for note taking bc of how simple it is and its uncluttered look. It’s easy to hide the formatting panel. I noticed a lot of students were using Pages as well. I’ve never liked Numbers so I use Excel bc I’m more familiar with it. I have a hard time with Numbers for some reason.
I've had MS Office 2019 on both my MacBook and iMac for over 3 years after obtaining a volume license that cost me something like $50 (no subscription). I needed it to support old legacy version of data/files I had prior to my Macs when I ran Windows and found it easier to use over the Mac native versions (Pages, Numbers, etc.). I'll probably never upgrade them, nor will ever need to, as they do everything I need. I would, however, give my right leg for a cheap full version of Visio! I miss it so much and was an expert at doing so for my job (network & data center engineering documents).
A good summary. For the last 10 years of working life ( MS based) I used both systems when needed but one you didn’t mention is Keynote. I used it exclusively ( mainly because you were presenting with it rather than sharing.) I found it far superior to PowerPoint.
Having recently retired, I don't have to worry about sharing files with colleagues, so Apple's apps work great for me - they've got more than enough features for my needs, are simpler to use and easier on the eye. I keep LibreOffice as a standby in case I get sent any problematic MS Office attachments/forms, but so far I've not needed it.
Thanks for the video Gary. I finally pulled the plug on MS OneDrive and Office apps this months after years of using MS. Once I switched to all Apple a few years ago I use Pages and Numbers exclusively. I’m not a power user of office apps for personal use and the Apple office apps are more than powerful enough for what I need.
I’m a Mac user primarily, and find I prefer Pages over Word, but prefer Excel over Numbers. Numbers just seems slow and clunky to use sadly. But Pages is really good. I’d argue Pages is way better than word.
I am a fan of Pages and Numbers. I haven’t used office for years. I only do fairly basic stuff. I found adding media so much better using Apple utilities. What I really like is you can export to PDF without bothering about subscriptions.
I ditched Word when they switched file formats. I mailed those things home and opened them fine in TextEdit, which had a little helper applet on the Mac servers that automatically loaded to read and write whichever MS "standard" I needed to use that day. TextEdit is an overlooked masterpiece of simplicity.
Hi. I found Numbers to be the most different to office suite, namely Excel, than the other ones. For small documents, I like the fact that in numbers you can easily arrange different tables and graphs. This is less aesthetic in Excel with the spreadsheet that covers the whole page.
2:08 ".. the most powerful .. on the market." That is very subjective, and might not be true. LibreOffice is a very good, maybe the best alternative 'app'.
I've found that Pages scales a lot better on my 13 inch M1 Macbook Pro when I tile it to the right while doing research with Safari tiled on the left. I also find it a lot more aesthetically pleasing and less cluttered than Word.
Personally I find Pages and Keynote more than ok, Numbers not so much. Probably because I am pretty experienced in Excel. Luckily I have a Windows laptop from work, where obviously it's all Office.
Well, i love to use keynote, it has everything i need, and you can use your iphone as a remote at presentation which is so cool. With pages its fine, but for some more complex docs like creating more robust resume i was seeing some glitches, so small need for ms word and for notes i just use native apple notes app which is awesome. But for spreadsheets there is nothing like excel. It is powerhouse with build scripting, now also with python, and there are python packages to operate on excel files, everything you need for professional usage. Buuuut if you are someone like my mom who only do basic stuff on her laptop all of the apps from apple are great and most important free.
Thanks for your overview on Microsoft office which is the legacy workplace standard. I was stunned to learn that you were forced to use MS by your publisher. That really sucks. I’m writing a book and I think that I have a new publisher red line.
If you're in the working world, there's no way around Microsoft. You're just going to need it, because everyone else and all the documents, spreadsheets, presentations are all on MS products. I'm no fan of MS, but this is just the reality. Trying to switch to something else just makes your life un necessarily harder. So if you're still working, just buy the MS products and forget about it.
There is one glaring issue with the MS suite for Mac: not all functions of the Windows version of the suite are available on the Mac versions. Would running Windows on the Mac solve this issue? It’s an added cost, but you do not have to have a Mac/Windows setup.
As a professional I used MS Office from inception until 2010 (retirement.). There is no need to give MS your personal data if you don't have to use MS Office due to employment related reasons. I am perfectly happy wiht Apple's apps. Some features I missed at first, and felt awkward trying to learn a new system, but, overall Apple does everything I need.
I couldn't agree more. I only use Windows because I have to for work. I'll be buying another Mac soon after not using one for over two decades. Word for Mac is better than Word for PC, but Pages is better than Word altogether. Microsoft is downright creepy with all the personal info they want just to use their inferior products. Not worth it.
Thanks Gary for this really helpful video. I’ve been a Mac user for 10 years+ and always used MS apps. I’m now going to give Pages and Numbers a go. Your insights are always encouraging.
Hey Gary, when I first purchased my Macbook Air M1 chip, I was clueless about operating and setting up my computer until I came across your channel. Learned so much, thanks to you. I reviewed your video on How To Store Your Music On an External Drive which I think was about 2 years ago. Could you do an update on how to play music using an external hard drive? I tried your method from that video, but unfortunately, it's not working. Would appreciate it if you could, thanks
It should be basically the same. It is difficult to do tutorials on Music today because of the vast differences between how people use it. One person may still be ripping CDs, another buying from iTunes, and another using Apple Music.
For the last two decades I was a MS user. Now I have transitioned to Pages and Number , and I find them much better because they lack the frills, and are absolutely user friendly.
One plus to MS is scripting. It is easy to just record your actions to reuse, you can’t do that on an apple. We import automated data, what we call ROP (Routine Output Printer) logs that you have a large simple text file that are kicked out by cellular systems. We need to parse the data to see trends, call failures, dropped calls, handoff failures, etc. Excel and Word are easy to script on, numbers and pages are not.
Thank you, I have the Microsoft office because I have a company and I do my bookkeeping with it. I recently have written it in numbers, and with the help off you I managed for 90% the whole bookkeeping with the formules in it. So thanks a lot for it. The reason was that I couldn’t look at my IPad because I had to pay for it extra but I didn’t like that. And now I can look everything I want too. And my checkbox always is up to date. Funny thing is that watching your video’s and learning a lot from it I get smarter. Normally I asked my husband for something about the computer and now it’s the other way 😀😀😀👌👌. Hope to still learn from you about pages, keynote and numbers. O, and by the way, I had a problem with all my devices, got stuck, had to do always restart every device but yesterday I looked a video of you about changing the e-mailadres on th Apple ID. Tried it, did it and all worked well again so thanks for that! Keep them coming!
In general the Apple apps are better and just as powerful to use as MS apps. The main issues are compatibility, and the lack of people who actually use the Apple apps. I like pages better than Word and used it for years. But it was a pain to export the document to Word to then see that fonts, graphics, pictures, dates, numbering etc, were off. It took more time to re-edit the word doc than it did to just use word. In addition it is very difficult to save these documents and then read them in word. There is no cross compatibility. So if I am at work and all I have is MS products and I need a letter that was composed in Pages. I couldn’t read it.
Tout à une solution. Toutes les polices ne sont pas multiplateforme mais certaines oui. On les appelles des « Polices Web ». Times, Georgia, Arial, etc…elles sont indiquées dans le Livre des polices.
MS Word is maybe more "powerful", but in 2024 it still can't align an image with a simple WYSIWYG interface. And even when you dive into the deep window/submenu interface, you still struggle to align it how you exactly want.
A very comprehensive overview. I handle the accounts reporting for our residents assn using Excel because I know it so well from using it daily at work. I tried hard to do the same with Numbers (for free of charge) but it didn’t have all that I needed. It did however create charts more easily but overall I stay with Office which incidentally is also compatible with iPhone and iPad, and couldn’t be happier.
I myself have never liked Pages, Numbers, or Keynote. Microsoft licenses can be available for Office for about $40 if you look in the right places. Worth the money for me. Very objective video!
I stopped using Microsoft products ever since they started this subscription BS. The other thing that forced my hand was when Apple went to 64bit and my 32bit Office suite would no longer work. I have never missed Office, but will say that Excel is much easier to work with than Numbers.
Great video Gary. One comment regarding that Apple Apps are free. If you need cloud storage, with Office 365 family, you get 6x1TB for $99 per year, which is way cheaper than iCloud + free Apps.
Our family is all Mac/Apple. When my kids went to university I subscribed to Office365 Family for the Office Apps and the cloud storage. Nowadays its Apple One Premier. The reason I still subscribe to Microsoft365 Family is for the enhanced email. We all have Outlook email addresses and I like the enterprise grade security.
Pages is great, Keynote is great, but Numbers...... Numbers is behind Excel by far. I would love to stop paying for the Microsoft365 subscription, but Excel doesn't let me. I tried to recreate my spreadsheets on Numbers but it's just impossible! Excel still the best!
I like Google Sheets and Pages. Your videos are really making my transition from windows to Mac bearable. Keep coming back for the stuff I'm forgetting. Thanks dude.
I never did, Open Office is free and good enough for me. I don't use Apple's Office either. When I share with a Windows user, is safe as .rtf Totally fine. Doesn't cost a penny.
I use Pages, Numbers, and Keynote since I prefer Apple products. The Apple apps are free whereas Microsoft Office has a subscription. I prefer the free versions.
Good summary. Thank you. After a lifetime of Windows at work we subscribe to Office. However I have found Keynote to be better and more creative than Powerpoint. Some of that may be because most people are overloaded with Powerpoint presentations and Keynote’s look is fresher for them.
I don’t like windows, but love Excel … so use it on my Mac. Even if it’s only 80% of the Win-version. I tried Numbers but it’s not the same. Don’t need Word or PowerPoint ; for that I use the Apple versions.
I've been a Mac user for years. Just recently purchased Microsoft 365 and am very frustrated using it. It is missing a lot of the ribbon functions, particularly in design. Customer service doesn't have the answers.
I use Numbers and Pages for my private documents because it's much easier to use it for me and for all the other reasons (Handoff, Collaboration with others etc.) At work because we use Windows Machines I'm stuck there with the MS Office Apps. The Problem between MS Office on Windows and on the Mac is, they are 2 different Programms. So lot of functionality that you have on windows doesn't mean you have them also on the Mac version.
I like that you you state that MS Word and MS Excel are the most powerful. I am using MS office on my Mac Mini, iPad and iPhone. I do use Apple Numbers for converting my contacts to CSV for transfer to the Apple Contacts. I cannot get Excel to convert the contacts to CSV properly. contacts will not recognize the CSV files from Excel. (i.e. I have both Numbers and Excel). Overall a very non partisan view of MS office vs the Apple Apps.
I used MS Office (mainly Word) when I was working because I had a copy supplied by my employer. I continued to use it (along with Apple's apps) after I retired until changes in OS/X meant I had to get a new version. I didn't want to pay the stupid subscription so I switched over entirely to Pages and Numbers. I find that they are more than adequate for my needs and, as you say, much easier to use (especially Numbers). I also have LibreOffice for those rare occasions when I need some bit of functionality that Pages or Numbers doesn't have.
I just started this week to migrate from Excel to Numbers. The current Office license I have comes to an end. I think that for my purposes Numbers is a good alternative for Excel.
Thanks bunches. When I first got my Mac, I installed Office 360. But you talked me into learning Apple apps. I have found once the learning curve has passed, I so much more enjoy Apple apps. The subscription of 360 automatically renewed a couple of months ago. Next year, I will not renew.
When I transitioned to mac from windows world, I had issues getting Microsoft office to function correctly. I do not subscribe to Office 365. But, having said that, I did install LibreOffice, the old open office. I found out it was easy to transition from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. Plus, LibreOffice maintained the format of my files and document.
When I was a windows user my office program was Libre Office. And that I still use on my Mac Mini and MacBook. Works great. So I can work on the same documents with other people, for instance in DropBox and I don’t have to have two files (pages and docx) of the same document. As converting all the time is not ideal. That’s why I still haven’t managed to learn to work with pages and numbers and keynote. Problem is that I haven’t found a good app for my iPad. Advise is welcome.
"they've been around for a long time" euh don't you know apple was the first ?! aplleworks has been the first one and bill gates just copied it and stupid jobs put them on a MAC! back in the day I though word would disappear but job prefer killig his own software.. windows is just the worst and people have to pay to use those tiny software that should be free.
I use a Mac because I hate Windows. I am not installing any Microsoft shit on my MacBook Pro. If I needed Excel for business, I would just buy a cheap windows PC for that. It works better on a Windows PC anyway. For Everything else( Pages and Keynote) I would use my MAC.
What I tend to find as someone well within the walled garden who also works in a small business, Apple apps for personal use, Microsoft for professional. Numbers is perfect for my home finances, pages for CV/resume writing, and since work pays for the Microsoft apps I use them strictly for work-related business.
Here is my take on Office and „iWork“. - Numbers is no match for Excel. When you deal with big data files, the page format of numbers is hindering any effective work with your data - and the hole way of working and formatting is much easier in excel. Writing letters in word has not the same advantage as excel over numbers but formatting headings and paragraphs gives word an advantage. But pages does have own features that are handy, placing of fotos, figures and videos and export to epub for ebooks. - If you have office work to do or have to work together with people who use MS-Office, MS-Office should be your choice over pages and numbers. But if this is not on your plate, you should cut your ties with MS-Office. Do every thing with the apple programs and deal with their shortcomings. Writing letters, using templates, that can easily be done with pages. For small tables numbers is sufficient. - It is no pleasure to have more than one tool for a certain task. - Meanwhile although this is another topic I switched to markdown programs like Ulysses for writing, especially for developing ideas.
In general, sure. But Numbers handles large tables very well too. Not sure what you mean by "the page format of numbers is hindering any effective work with your data." What "page format?" Are you referring to printing? Otherwise, you can have huge tables without a problem and there are no "pages."
I have a sub to office 365 but I've been trying to learn the Mac versions. Numbers in particular I like for smaller tables and graphs since the tables can be resized. Makes for a good print.
However, the Microsoft apps for Mac have numerous issues, particularly with features. For example, unlike the Windows version, the readout loud function is pretty bad with Microsoft Word on the Mac. Do you have any ideas on how we may include similar capabilities into Microsoft Word for Mac?
@@macmost it just doesn't work as nice as I would like it to. It doesn't sound natural. I like natural reader app but it doesn't augment with Ms office word on Mac.
If Microsoft ONLY sold Word, or Excel separately instead of shoving up an ENTIRE package of stuff that we don't even use except for Word and Excel mostly, then I would consider subscribing. Therefore no, I will stick to a clean, transparent apps on Mac system.
Good summary Gary. Some things from my experience:
1. I was a big Dragon dictation user (with PC Word) for many years, and initially there was nothing that came close to this on a Mac so ended up using a Windows VM in Parallels which worked fine. Over recent years, though, Apple native dictation into Pages has become almost as good - certainly good enough for me and I am a hard core writer. I also find that PDFs generated by pages somehow look nicer than those from Word.
2. I still use a Parallels Win VM for Excel though. This is to support a range of 10-15 year old VB macros that run very slowly in native Excel on the Mac if the there is a lot of number crunching involved. For day-to-day spreadsheet stuff though, I actually find Numbers more pleasant to use. Apple has done a good job replicating most of the Win Excel keyboard shortcuts. As a tip, I find mapping the modifiers to behave like a native Mac if you have to use Parallels (which is pretty easy to do)
3. We do a lot of charting of data for reporting purposes and Keynote is massively better for that, both in terms of chart creation and the quality for the final output (I would never embed a chart from PowerPoint into a published document, but Keynote graphics are fine).
4. I get sent a lot of PowerPoint presentations by other people (outside the company), but I find PowerPoint itself horribly cluttered, messy and intrusive nowadays, so I generally just open files once and save them as PDFs for general access. If I need to edit the content for my own purposes, then I generally convert it to Keynote and tidy it up.
Lastly, as a general comment, when we (mostly) ditched MS Office, we were concerned about exchanging documents with clients for review. We found, however, that providing clients with drafts in PDF format works really well. Everyone can mark up a PDF and best of all, clients can’t tamper with (and screw up) your content - they can only comment :)
Summing up (based on my and my teams’ experience): MS Office does more, but once you switch to a simpler environment, it seems unnecessarily complex and clunky when you go back, and the output doesn’t look as good.
That's MS in my experience: "Unnecessarily complex and clunky".
Unfortunately, I do not agree with the complexity idea... I prefer having options and not needing them rather than needing and not finding them
@@abdelhakhadji9992 depend how are the options.
@@abdelhakhadji9992I agree
I find the Microsoft 365 Personal plan, at $70/year to be a good deal, because you get 1 TB of cloud storage as well as access to all of the Office products. I still use Excel instead of Numbers, since that’s the product we always used in the business world. I have, however, gone over to Pages instead of Word, which I always found to be way too complicated.
I agree.... $70/year was a deal changer for me since I came from the Windows world.
I was a long time Microsoft user mainly because work was Windows based and Word, Excel and PowerPoint were what we all used. Now I’ve retired, I find I’m using Pages and, to a lesser extent, Numbers. Happily, the Macmost courses are exactly what I need to show me how to use the Apple apps.
I use LibreOffice on all my machines, Linux, macOS, and Windows.
I have used Microsoft Office for over 20 years on Windows. I was doubly surprised when I installed my Office 2019 pack on my very first Mac in 2021 (a 24-inch iMac).
1) my one-time Office 2019 license for Windows is perfectly compatible, I was able to download my purchase from my Microsoft account and import my license without having to buy a new license and 2) unlike Office on Windows, Office updates frequently in the background on my Mac. However, I prefer to use the mail app rather than Outlook because I find Outlook less well integrated on Mac and more complex to set up. The mail app is so much easier to use!
I am retired and don’t need the complexity of the Microsoft products any more. I am planning to use the Apple apps completely in future. My main reason is they are free!
And they are easy to use❤
Exactly. The Microsoft products are far more capable, especially Excel but Numbers is more than sufficient for most personal use. I moved to Apple when I retired.
I’m on a Condo board but just export to Microsoft when needed.
@@explorer7176 Well, that’s a pretty broad statement. But if you find your directors “power tripping” you can always run for the board yourself.
I just retired in January and feel the same way. Why pay for what I’m not using.
@@danharvey61 Enjoy your retirement, I certainly am!
But one could also use LibreOffice, and I'd like to see a comparison here. Many thanks for the concise explanation!
Open office too!
@@Erin-Thor Although OpenOffice is technically still available, the project has been on "life support" for several years and is likely to be shut down. LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice and also its replacement.
@@bcarr1122 - Good to know! I’ll try it, Thanks!
Best option. Will open office docs. LibreOffice #1 Microsoft bad stay away!
As usual, Gary, you are one of the most objective and clearest explainers on RUclips. I am trying to transition to Pages after years of using Word and am doing so with the "crutch" of LibreOffice. My eventual goal is to do everything in Pages and save files in different formats in the end. I am now getting through your great Playlist of Pages Tutorials.
Gary does have a gift!
I’ve learned more from Gary then I ever thought possible, so I agree.
First computer: Osbourne. First GUI OS: Windows 2.0. However, this loooong time user of Microsoft is now totally fed up with them. I have switched to Mac. I will ONLY use Mac software and no longer be held hostage by Microshit. Love your tutorials, dude.
There are several differences between Microsoft Office for Mac and the Windows version people. Don't expect to do everything exactly the same way. I often lost a lot of time on the web looking for a way to do so to finally discover that the feature I needed didn't exist on Mac.
Thank you, this is one of the most useful piece of information for someone considering jumping from Windows to iOS
You're welcome.
How often do features not exist? Are the Win versions way” better than the Mac versions? Thx
Mac Excel is a disaster if you want to use VBA to the point of being unusable. Also be careful before you jump if you want PowerPivot.
I do like Office better on Mac than on Windows, tbh lol
Thanks for this subject you have touched upon. One of the reasons for me to be tied to Mojave has been this: I am used to Microsoft Word. Tried to shift to Pages but found but was dissuaded from adopting it because I learned that the file sizes are more with Pages than Word documents. Regards.
I haven't used Microsoft Office for 15 years, and I don't miss it one bit.
Snap!
Really excellent, Gary. I"m stuck with one foot in each camp (Mac & Windows)
Happy New Year Gary!
Actually I think Microsoft Office (now Microsoft 365) increased Mac’s use in the businesses community. It happened to me. I really enjoy my Mac computers but also make intensive use o Microsoft 365 including Outlook because it is very easy to have a logo signature in it. Microsoft 365 for Mac and optimized for Apple Silicon is really great.
It is a beautiful and powerful combination! Cheers!
Yes, you should have Office for Mac if you intend to engage with the big, wide world. Otherwise, I think Pages is a lot easier to use than Word and just as good if not better in some ways. It's improved exponentially through the years, and it will only get better. Keynote blows PowerPoint out of the water. As a company Apple does a far better job of respecting user privacy than Microsoft.
That would only matter if you and another person both wanted to work from the same document which to be honest is not that often for moat people. It is more simple to just produce your master document in word or pages and the pen convert to a pdf or some other format if you need to circulate it.
When I was a university student, I relied on Pages for note taking bc of how simple it is and its uncluttered look. It’s easy to hide the formatting panel. I noticed a lot of students were using Pages as well. I’ve never liked Numbers so I use Excel bc I’m more familiar with it. I have a hard time with Numbers for some reason.
I've had MS Office 2019 on both my MacBook and iMac for over 3 years after obtaining a volume license that cost me something like $50 (no subscription). I needed it to support old legacy version of data/files I had prior to my Macs when I ran Windows and found it easier to use over the Mac native versions (Pages, Numbers, etc.). I'll probably never upgrade them, nor will ever need to, as they do everything I need.
I would, however, give my right leg for a cheap full version of Visio! I miss it so much and was an expert at doing so for my job (network & data center engineering documents).
Gary, love you, been watching for over a decade! Have you ever covered alternatives for MS Access on a Mac??
A good summary. For the last 10 years of working life ( MS based) I used both systems when needed but one you didn’t mention is Keynote. I used it exclusively ( mainly because you were presenting with it rather than sharing.) I found it far superior to PowerPoint.
he actually did !!!
Thank you. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to figure out if I needed to buy windows.
Having recently retired, I don't have to worry about sharing files with colleagues, so Apple's apps work great for me - they've got more than enough features for my needs, are simpler to use and easier on the eye. I keep LibreOffice as a standby in case I get sent any problematic MS Office attachments/forms, but so far I've not needed it.
When sharing files pdf is easy to use and not that much of a big deal.
Thanks for the video Gary. I finally pulled the plug on MS OneDrive and Office apps this months after years of using MS. Once I switched to all Apple a few years ago I use Pages and Numbers exclusively. I’m not a power user of office apps for personal use and the Apple office apps are more than powerful enough for what I need.
I’m a Mac user primarily, and find I prefer Pages over Word, but prefer Excel over Numbers. Numbers just seems slow and clunky to use sadly. But Pages is really good. I’d argue Pages is way better than word.
I am a fan of Pages and Numbers. I haven’t used office for years. I only do fairly basic stuff. I found adding media so much better using Apple utilities. What I really like is you can export to PDF without bothering about subscriptions.
I ditched Word when they switched file formats. I mailed those things home and opened them fine in TextEdit, which had a little helper applet on the Mac servers that automatically loaded to read and write whichever MS "standard" I needed to use that day. TextEdit is an overlooked masterpiece of simplicity.
Microsoft Office is the primary tool for business. Without it being fully functional on an iPad, it's not much use.
Hi. I found Numbers to be the most different to office suite, namely Excel, than the other ones. For small documents, I like the fact that in numbers you can easily arrange different tables and graphs. This is less aesthetic in Excel with the spreadsheet that covers the whole page.
That is true, but only for sheets with little data. And the whole point of excel is to analyze big tables with filtering, pivot and powerquery.
Thank you Gary 🙏
I use libre office, it's free, compatible with Microsoft Office files and can do everything both options do.
I also use it bro it's almost same as Microsoft office
2:08 ".. the most powerful .. on the market." That is very subjective, and might not be true. LibreOffice is a very good, maybe the best alternative 'app'.
I've found that Pages scales a lot better on my 13 inch M1 Macbook Pro when I tile it to the right while doing research with Safari tiled on the left. I also find it a lot more aesthetically pleasing and less cluttered than Word.
I also love using a MacBook along side an iPad.
Personally I find Pages and Keynote more than ok, Numbers not so much. Probably because I am pretty experienced in Excel. Luckily I have a Windows laptop from work, where obviously it's all Office.
Well, i love to use keynote, it has everything i need, and you can use your iphone as a remote at presentation which is so cool. With pages its fine, but for some more complex docs like creating more robust resume i was seeing some glitches, so small need for ms word and for notes i just use native apple notes app which is awesome. But for spreadsheets there is nothing like excel. It is powerhouse with build scripting, now also with python, and there are python packages to operate on excel files, everything you need for professional usage. Buuuut if you are someone like my mom who only do basic stuff on her laptop all of the apps from apple are great and most important free.
Thanks for your overview on Microsoft office which is the legacy workplace standard. I was stunned to learn that you were forced to use MS by your publisher. That really sucks. I’m writing a book and I think that I have a new publisher red line.
Most of the citation tools such as zotero don't support pages and endnote is not free.
I use macros in bigger Excel worksheets at home, so I would need to keep office since numbers can't open Excel files with macros.
If you're in the working world, there's no way around Microsoft. You're just going to need it, because everyone else and all the documents, spreadsheets, presentations are all on MS products. I'm no fan of MS, but this is just the reality. Trying to switch to something else just makes your life un necessarily harder. So if you're still working, just buy the MS products and forget about it.
Thank you for this video, much appreciated!
There is one glaring issue with the MS suite for Mac: not all functions of the Windows version of the suite are available on the Mac versions. Would running Windows on the Mac solve this issue? It’s an added cost, but you do not have to have a Mac/Windows setup.
As a professional I used MS Office from inception until 2010 (retirement.). There is no need to give MS your personal data if you don't have to use MS Office due to employment related reasons. I am perfectly happy wiht Apple's apps. Some features I missed at first, and felt awkward trying to learn a new system, but, overall Apple does everything I need.
I couldn't agree more. I only use Windows because I have to for work. I'll be buying another Mac soon after not using one for over two decades. Word for Mac is better than Word for PC, but Pages is better than Word altogether. Microsoft is downright creepy with all the personal info they want just to use their inferior products. Not worth it.
I am a VBA programmer. It s not really available in Excel for Mac.
New Subscriber! You are very helpful to me with my new Mac. Thank you
Thanks Gary for this really helpful video. I’ve been a Mac user for 10 years+ and always used MS apps. I’m now going to give Pages and Numbers a go. Your insights are always encouraging.
WPS office works on both Mac and Windows, and it is free.
Hey Gary, when I first purchased my Macbook Air M1 chip, I was clueless about operating and setting up my computer until I came across your channel. Learned so much, thanks to you. I reviewed your video on How To Store Your Music On an External Drive which I think was about 2 years ago. Could you do an update on how to play music using an external hard drive? I tried your method from that video, but unfortunately, it's not working. Would appreciate it if you could, thanks
It should be basically the same. It is difficult to do tutorials on Music today because of the vast differences between how people use it. One person may still be ripping CDs, another buying from iTunes, and another using Apple Music.
Okay thanks
For the last two decades I was a MS user. Now I have transitioned to Pages and Number , and I find them much better because they lack the frills, and are absolutely user friendly.
One plus to MS is scripting. It is easy to just record your actions to reuse, you can’t do that on an apple. We import automated data, what we call ROP (Routine Output Printer) logs that you have a large simple text file that are kicked out by cellular systems. We need to parse the data to see trends, call failures, dropped calls, handoff failures, etc. Excel and Word are easy to script on, numbers and pages are not.
I’m divorcing and everyone else is using Excel, so I need to learn to do so on my Mac.
I fi d the pages app to be ridiculous easy and intuitive to use
Thank you, I have the Microsoft office because I have a company and I do my bookkeeping with it. I recently have written it in numbers, and with the help off you I managed for 90% the whole bookkeeping with the formules in it. So thanks a lot for it. The reason was that I couldn’t look at my IPad because I had to pay for it extra but I didn’t like that.
And now I can look everything I want too. And my checkbox always is up to date. Funny thing is that watching your video’s and learning a lot from it I get smarter. Normally I asked my husband for something about the computer and now it’s the other way 😀😀😀👌👌. Hope to still learn from you about pages, keynote and numbers. O, and by the way, I had a problem with all my devices, got stuck, had to do always restart every device but yesterday I looked a video of you about changing the e-mailadres on th Apple ID. Tried it, did it and all worked well again so thanks for that! Keep them coming!
In general the Apple apps are better and just as powerful to use as MS apps. The main issues are compatibility, and the lack of people who actually use the Apple apps. I like pages better than Word and used it for years. But it was a pain to export the document to Word to then see that fonts, graphics, pictures, dates, numbering etc, were off. It took more time to re-edit the word doc than it did to just use word. In addition it is very difficult to save these documents and then read them in word. There is no cross compatibility. So if I am at work and all I have is MS products and I need a letter that was composed in Pages. I couldn’t read it.
Tout à une solution.
Toutes les polices ne sont pas multiplateforme mais certaines oui. On les appelles des « Polices Web ».
Times, Georgia, Arial, etc…elles sont indiquées dans le Livre des polices.
MS Word is maybe more "powerful", but in 2024 it still can't align an image with a simple WYSIWYG interface. And even when you dive into the deep window/submenu interface, you still struggle to align it how you exactly want.
I love the apple apps except for numbers because excel is just the GOAT. But like, pages just seems to be more usable than office especially on Mac.
A very comprehensive overview. I handle the accounts reporting for our residents assn using Excel because I know it so well from using it daily at work. I tried hard to do the same with Numbers (for free of charge) but it didn’t have all that I needed. It did however create charts more easily but overall I stay with Office which incidentally is also compatible with iPhone and iPad, and couldn’t be happier.
That has more to do with your own skills developed through experience.
I myself have never liked Pages, Numbers, or Keynote. Microsoft licenses can be available for Office for about $40 if you look in the right places. Worth the money for me.
Very objective video!
iWork is free and in the cloud too and do the same thing better.
@@joselucnico For people like myself that have lived of Microsoft products for 15 years, I honestly have no desire to switch to anything else.
@@PizzaJet1984 what are you doing here ? 🤷♂️
@@joselucnico watching a video and making a comment that some may disagree with.
I would love a quick tip on how to turn off MacOS automatically opening apple apps when opening a word, ppt or xls document
ruclips.net/video/oVqka7TGdOA/видео.html
I stopped using Microsoft products ever since they started this subscription BS. The other thing that forced my hand was when Apple went to 64bit and my 32bit Office suite would no longer work. I have never missed Office, but will say that Excel is much easier to work with than Numbers.
I second the notion of using LibreOffice!
Mahalo from Maui, you are the BEST!
Great video Gary. One comment regarding that Apple Apps are free. If you need cloud storage, with Office 365 family, you get 6x1TB for $99 per year, which is way cheaper than iCloud + free Apps.
Our family is all Mac/Apple. When my kids went to university I subscribed to Office365 Family for the Office Apps and the cloud storage. Nowadays its Apple One Premier. The reason I still subscribe to Microsoft365 Family is for the enhanced email. We all have Outlook email addresses and I like the enterprise grade security.
Pages is great, Keynote is great, but Numbers...... Numbers is behind Excel by far. I would love to stop paying for the Microsoft365 subscription, but Excel doesn't let me. I tried to recreate my spreadsheets on Numbers but it's just impossible! Excel still the best!
Don't use Office 365. You will download also telemetry and it will send your data to Microsoft.
Hi Gary. Great video! …as always! What about Google apps? Want to throw that into the mix?
What about them? I suppose the same idea applies. If you want to use them, go ahead.
Great Content!
I like Google Sheets and Pages.
Your videos are really making my transition from windows to Mac bearable. Keep coming back for the stuff I'm forgetting. Thanks dude.
Ever since I switch from Words to Pages, I'm now no longer interested to use Words because Words' UI is ugly and cluttered.
I never did, Open Office is free and good enough for me. I don't use Apple's Office either. When I share with a Windows user, is safe as .rtf Totally fine. Doesn't cost a penny.
I miss a referencing tool in pages. Except that pages meets my other requirements.
TBH i still don’t get why i am paying for office365 sub ….
Lol😂
I happily live without any Microsoft products since 2011.
I use Pages, Numbers, and Keynote since I prefer Apple products. The Apple apps are free whereas Microsoft Office has a subscription. I prefer the free versions.
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You're right Gary, I admit it is a habit and sadly I live surrounded by Windows Eco system here in Peru. So it's office for me...
Good summary. Thank you. After a lifetime of Windows at work we subscribe to Office. However I have found Keynote to be better and more creative than Powerpoint. Some of that may be because most people are overloaded with Powerpoint presentations and Keynote’s look is fresher for them.
I find Apple’s apps much smoother to run that Microsoft’s ones.
What features are you missing.
I don’t like windows, but love Excel … so use it on my Mac. Even if it’s only 80% of the Win-version. I tried Numbers but it’s not the same. Don’t need Word or PowerPoint ; for that I use the Apple versions.
I've been a Mac user for years. Just recently purchased Microsoft 365 and am very frustrated using it. It is missing a lot of the ribbon functions, particularly in design. Customer service doesn't have the answers.
I use Numbers and Pages for my private documents because it's much easier to use it for me and for all the other reasons (Handoff, Collaboration with others etc.) At work because we use Windows Machines I'm stuck there with the MS Office Apps.
The Problem between MS Office on Windows and on the Mac is, they are 2 different Programms. So lot of functionality that you have on windows doesn't mean you have them also on the Mac version.
I like that you you state that MS Word and MS Excel are the most powerful. I am using MS office on my Mac Mini, iPad and iPhone. I do use Apple Numbers for converting my contacts to CSV for transfer to the Apple Contacts. I cannot get Excel to convert the contacts to CSV properly. contacts will not recognize the CSV files from Excel. (i.e. I have both Numbers and Excel). Overall a very non partisan view of MS office vs the Apple Apps.
I use Pages in Mac (no 3rd party apps in it) and I have a PC laptop with MS Office if ever I want to use it.
Does "Office Libre" sufficiently take the place of the "power" difference between Pages and Word?
Hard to say. Probably a subjective answer. Try it and see.
Thnaks. But what if our friends don't use Pages?
Export as PDF. Or, export as Word. Or, share and they can open in the free web version of Pages. Or, use you use Word too when working with them.
Good video, thanks! Pages for private use. Word only if you HAVE to. Word absolutely drives me furious🤯!
I used MS Office (mainly Word) when I was working because I had a copy supplied by my employer. I continued to use it (along with Apple's apps) after I retired until changes in OS/X meant I had to get a new version. I didn't want to pay the stupid subscription so I switched over entirely to Pages and Numbers. I find that they are more than adequate for my needs and, as you say, much easier to use (especially Numbers). I also have LibreOffice for those rare occasions when I need some bit of functionality that Pages or Numbers doesn't have.
I just started this week to migrate from Excel to Numbers. The current Office license I have comes to an end. I think that for my purposes Numbers is a good alternative for Excel.
Thanks bunches. When I first got my Mac, I installed Office 360. But you talked me into learning Apple apps. I have found once the learning curve has passed, I so much more enjoy Apple apps. The subscription of 360 automatically renewed a couple of months ago. Next year, I will not renew.
When I transitioned to mac from windows world, I had issues getting Microsoft office to function correctly. I do not subscribe to Office 365. But, having said that, I did install LibreOffice, the old open office. I found out it was easy to transition from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. Plus, LibreOffice maintained the format of my files and document.
The only thing I wish numbers had that excel does is the ability to highlight columns and use the tab to move around in just those highlighted areas
I just love the way you explain things Mr. Gary. I have seen this clip number of times. Thanks.
When I was a windows user my office program was Libre Office. And that I still use on my Mac Mini and MacBook. Works great. So I can work on the same documents with other people, for instance in DropBox and I don’t have to have two files (pages and docx) of the same document. As converting all the time is not ideal. That’s why I still haven’t managed to learn to work with pages and numbers and keynote. Problem is that I haven’t found a good app for my iPad. Advise is welcome.
Like I recommend in the video, you can use both. So maybe when you need to write on your iPad, use Pages.
Only for non pro users
"they've been around for a long time" euh don't you know apple was the first ?! aplleworks has been the first one and bill gates just copied it and stupid jobs put them on a MAC! back in the day I though word would disappear but job prefer killig his own software.. windows is just the worst and people have to pay to use those tiny software that should be free.
I use a Mac because I hate Windows. I am not installing any Microsoft shit on my MacBook Pro. If I needed Excel for business, I would just buy a cheap windows PC for that. It works better on a Windows PC anyway. For Everything else( Pages and Keynote) I would use my MAC.
What I tend to find as someone well within the walled garden who also works in a small business, Apple apps for personal use, Microsoft for professional. Numbers is perfect for my home finances, pages for CV/resume writing, and since work pays for the Microsoft apps I use them strictly for work-related business.
Here is my take on Office and „iWork“. - Numbers is no match for Excel. When you deal with big data files, the page format of numbers is hindering any effective work with your data - and the hole way of working and formatting is much easier in excel. Writing letters in word has not the same advantage as excel over numbers but formatting headings and paragraphs gives word an advantage. But pages does have own features that are handy, placing of fotos, figures and videos and export to epub for ebooks. - If you have office work to do or have to work together with people who use MS-Office, MS-Office should be your choice over pages and numbers. But if this is not on your plate, you should cut your ties with MS-Office. Do every thing with the apple programs and deal with their shortcomings. Writing letters, using templates, that can easily be done with pages. For small tables numbers is sufficient. - It is no pleasure to have more than one tool for a certain task. - Meanwhile although this is another topic I switched to markdown programs like Ulysses for writing, especially for developing ideas.
In general, sure. But Numbers handles large tables very well too. Not sure what you mean by "the page format of numbers is hindering any effective work with your data." What "page format?" Are you referring to printing? Otherwise, you can have huge tables without a problem and there are no "pages."
Excel originated on the Mac.
I have a sub to office 365 but I've been trying to learn the Mac versions. Numbers in particular I like for smaller tables and graphs since the tables can be resized. Makes for a good print.
As a physics teacher, the main reason to use ppt rather than keynote is the equation functionality.
Not sure what you mean exactly, but you can insert an equation using MathML or LaTex in Keynote.
However, the Microsoft apps for Mac have numerous issues, particularly with features. For example, unlike the Windows version, the readout loud function is pretty bad with Microsoft Word on the Mac. Do you have any ideas on how we may include similar capabilities into Microsoft Word for Mac?
Why not use the macOS text-to-speech function instead?
@@macmost it just doesn't work as nice as I would like it to. It doesn't sound natural. I like natural reader app but it doesn't augment with Ms office word on Mac.
If Microsoft ONLY sold Word, or Excel separately instead of shoving up an ENTIRE package of stuff that we don't even use except for Word and Excel mostly, then I would consider subscribing. Therefore no, I will stick to a clean, transparent apps on Mac system.