After all the testing I use a lot of programs to help me do my work. With all of these programs why do I still find myself using iWork? I think I know the answer and I will discuss it after the break.
When I write courseware and other products I need the use of large document systems like Master and subdocuments. I got into this with MS Word, and it continued into my use of OpenOffice. NeoOffice on the Mac. For large books where I am doing most of the work, then I use NeoOffice on my Mac. Yet, when I need to do a single sheet, or even a two sided cheat sheet, then I get out iWork Pages.
I think it is Page’s use of a layout mode similar to the PageMaker mode. The layout gives me more control over how the words fit on the page which is missing from traditional word processors.
For creative work I use Scrivener. I like the clean style of Scrivener, and how it gets out of the way when I an doing the actual writing. I do find myself actually converting Scrivener docs into Word docs to do another conversion into other formats. Yet, for output to send to a publisher Scrivener is the best.
Numbers is a really interesting spreadsheet. It’s more like Pages with sheets and a concentration on the iWork tables. This means that I can put a table anywhere on the sheet and do the necessary math. In many ways it’s more engaging. So, Numbers is a real big reason for me to use iWork.
KeyNote is the reason for iWork. It is the slickest presentation designer and player around. Steve Jobs uses it for his Speeches, so it had better be good. I use KeyNote all the time, even to using with PowerPoint presentations. Sometimes I convert and add my “special” touches to the presentation.
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