I n an opinion piece for PC Magazine, editor-in-chief Michael Miller wrote Friday that while iWork (Pages and Keynote 2) doesnit have many of the features found it Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, that the software may turn out to be the more influential announcement from Januaryis Macworld Expo, more important than either the iPod shuffle or the Mac mini. The reason, according to Mr. Miller, is because Apple approached both applications in a new way.
Mr. Miller approached the idea from the standpoint that most of the new features added to Microsoftis Office suite in the last few years have been aimed at the Enterprise market. iWork, on the other hand, isnit "fully ready for the broader business audience."
"Pages lacks a grammar checker, revision marks, and the collaboration, tracking, and security features that Microsoft Word offers," wrote Mr. Miller. He also suggested that Keynote is sluggish on G4s, has issues with importing PowerPoint files, and lacks other needed features found in PowerPoint.
With those complaints, one might think that Mr. Miller was coming down on Appleis renewed entry to the productivity market. Not so.
"So why is iWork so important?" asked Mr. Miller. "Because the software truly rethinks the way these features are presented. iWork offers a visual way of looking at your documents, so it brings out many features that are buried in Microsoft products."
Thereis more in the full editorial, which we recommend as an interesting read, especially coming from the editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, a publication focused mainly, but not exclusively, on the Wintel world.