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Microsoft vs. Apple software - which do you prefer

Which do you prefer?

  • Word

    Votes: 27 38.6%

  • Pages

    Votes: 10 14.3%

  • Excel

    Votes: 33 47.1%

  • Numbers

    Votes: 6 8.6%

  • PowerPoint

    Votes: 15 21.4%

  • Keynote

    Votes: 14 20.0%

  • Windows 7

    Votes: 34 48.6%

  • OS X

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Total voters
    70

Baylor

Philosopher
B
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
8,394
Not being much of an Apple user, I was wondering how it stacked up to Microsoft. Thoughts?
 
For word processing and spreadsheets, I prefer the MS ones, since that's what I'm most used to. I've tried the Apple versions, and I have nothing against them. As for Powerpoint versus Keynote, I'm told the latter is an order of magnitude better than the former, but it seems rather like comparing turds to see which is the cleanest.
 
iWork definitely takes the prize in response time. Pages and Numbers takes about two seconds to load on my MacBook Pro, while Word and Excel take about fifteen. I also like the templates included in iWork a lot more than their Office counterparts.
 
I hate Office and how it's always ******* thinking for you.
Let the autocensor do its job. That's why we have it. Won't someone think of the autocensor?
Posted By: kmortis
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Don´t know much about Macs, except that everything is difficult to find in them for a Windows user.

But my iPhone really sucks. The scrolling bar on the right is only 33% of the width that would be comfortable to use with a human finger... simply annoying to struggle with the scroll bar all time. Also the horizontal scrolling bar of the main desktop is too narrow for human fingers.

Then the phone app, OK you dial the number and the number pad disappears as the phone call starts... then some company numbers have a menu where you are asked to select 1 for service in English, 2 for service in French... Otherwise fine but my iPhone doesn´t show the number pad any more at that point, so the next thing you do is borrow someone else´s non-iPhone to call that company number.

Next you want to silence the annoying sounds when locking or unlocking the key pad. How do you do that, without silencing everything else too, I still dunno. Or cancel the pop-up screens that appear and wait for OK after every successfully sent SMS. Or modify the keypad layout when writing SMS to include your most used special characters on the screen at the same time, without rotating through 3 or in my case 5 different keypad layouts everytime when you need to type a character other than lowercase a-z.

I am not impressed to the least extent by the "developers" of this product.
 
I'm not sure if this was meant as a joke, but in case it wasn't ...

JJM 777 said:
Don´t know much about Macs, except that everything is difficult to find in them for a Windows user.
Click to expand...

That's normal when switching platforms, in my experience. Windows users are generally just as confused when they initially encounter Gnome, KDE, or MWM.

But my iPhone really sucks. The scrolling bar on the right is only 33% of the width that would be comfortable to use with a human finger... simply annoying to struggle with the scroll bar all time. Also the horizontal scrolling bar of the main desktop is too narrow for human fingers.
Click to expand...

I use gestures to scroll around, and I rarely encounter a page big enough to justify scrollbars.

Then the phone app, OK you dial the number and the number pad disappears as the phone call starts... then some company numbers have a menu where you are asked to select 1 for service in English, 2 for service in French... Otherwise fine but my iPhone doesn´t show the number pad any more at that point, so the next thing you do is borrow someone else´s non-iPhone to call that company number.
Click to expand...

Press the keypad button.

Next you want to silence the annoying sounds when locking or unlocking the key pad. How do you do that, without silencing everything else too, I still dunno.
Click to expand...

Settings --> Sounds --> Lock Sounds = Off

Or cancel the pop-up screens that appear and wait for OK after every successfully sent SMS.
Click to expand...

My iPhone doesn't do that.

Or modify the keypad layout when writing SMS to include your most used special characters on the screen at the same time, without rotating through 3 or in my case 5 different keypad layouts everytime when you need to type a character other than lowercase a-z.
Click to expand...

I don't have that need, nor do I know anyone who does.

I am not impressed to the least extent by the "developers" of this product.
Click to expand...

I am. They've developed a device for the average person, whereas their competitors seem stuck on catering to the geek crowd.
 
I use both extensively; Win 7 at work and Mac OS at home.

Overall I like Macs better. It used to be that some softwares were not available on the Mac platform but now, it pretty well a non issue. While the equipment is more expensive, it lasts longer.
 
For word processing, both Word and Pages have some positive points. As I mostly deal in a corporate environment, Word is the defacto choice.

Excel vs. Numbers is no contest. I am a heavy Excel user and the power available blows Numbers away.

Keynote is head and shoulders above Powerpoint. Powerpoint 2010 is getting better, but Keynote is still more powerful and intuitive. But, Powerpoint is still the defacto choice in the corporate setting.

As mainly a Windows user, I much prefer Windows 7 to OSX. Much of that is plainly comfort. But there a a few things about OSX that really seem backwards. The single Menu bar and the way OSX handles folder merges. OSX does seem more polished in the UI department, but the fact that I have to buy Apple hardware to legally run their OS makes it a non-starter for me.
 
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I do all my personal finances etc. in Numbers now, but still use Excel at work.

I think Numbers is more intuitive, I get charts and graphs done quicker and they end up looking much cleaner and more professional. All the basic math/formulas etc have the same syntax as excel.
Excel seems to be more powerful for scripting/automation and integration with Visual Studio (or integration with Realbasic on Mac), so I'll still always have it, too.

I think Keynote is hands down better than PowerPoint. But people only want .ppt so I either use PowerPoint or run the gamble of exporting from Keynote to .ppt (a gamble which I've lost before).

Pages and Word are interchangeable to me. I assume Word has a lot more features but both Pages and Word have umpteen million things I would never need for any document I've ever had to write.
 
daSkeptic said:
I'm not sure if this was meant as a joke, but in case it wasn't ...
Click to expand...
Notice how iPhones or iOS wasn't even in the polls, hence, it was another thinly-veiled "I hate America" rant -- all too common in the stupid forum. I find it hard to believe that a grown ass man thinks he can't use his iPhone to call a voice recording. Either he's intentionally being ignorant or he really thinks a rotary phone is superior to an iPhone.
 
UNLoVedRebel said:
Notice how iPhones or iOS wasn't even in the polls, hence, it was another thinly-veiled "I hate America" rant -- all too common in the stupid forum. I find it hard to believe that a grown ass man thinks he can't use his iPhone to call a voice recording. Either he's intentionally being ignorant or he really thinks a rotary phone is superior to an iPhone.
Click to expand...
Liking Microsoft more than Apple software = "I hate America"?

Talking about iOS = off topic in a thread about Apple vs Microsoft software?

That is absurd.
 
UNLoVedRebel said:
Notice how iPhones or iOS wasn't even in the polls, hence, it was another thinly-veiled "I hate America" rant -- all too common in the stupid forum. I find it hard to believe that a grown ass man thinks he can't use his iPhone to call a voice recording. Either he's intentionally being ignorant or he really thinks a rotary phone is superior to an iPhone.
Click to expand...
No, I read that as meaning that it wasn't immediately obvious how to bring up the keypad after a call is connected. I think your tone is a little uncalled for. And Microsoft are about as American as you can get.
 
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