http://www.bakersfieldvoice.com/home/Blog/tigoree/13500 It was almost as if my last post on Microsoft Office was a prayer that has been immediately answered! Now, I understand that this won't be exciting to about 85% of the world's computer owners (because that is the rough percentage of Windows only users), but just last week, Apple announced iWork '08.&nbsp; This would be their first attempt to compete head-to-head with Microsoft Office. iWork '06, which was the previous version, consisted of two programs: Pages (word processor) and Keynote (presentation program).&nbsp; These were good programs, and on a Mac, I have found myself gravitating toward them in everyday use.&nbsp; I had, in fact, completely dumped PowerPoint in favor of Keynote about 5 months ago.&nbsp; Conspicuously missing, however, was a spreadsheet program.&nbsp; Excel, of course, is really Microsoft's killer application in the Office suite of applications.&nbsp; There is no one out there that has been able to truly match it's functionality, though it's intuitiveness has at times been suspect. iWork '08 now includes a spreadsheet program called Numbers.&nbsp; I was able to get my hands on the new software early this week, and so far I can say it looks good.&nbsp; Importing and exporting Microsoft Office formats is seamless,&nbsp; and any loss during the export is reported to you via simple statements.&nbsp; So far, the only importing losses I have to report are along the lines of fonts and unusual page formatting elements. I know that this only pertains to Macintosh users, but I am excited mainly because I currently live in a Macintosh world at the Norris School District.&nbsp; For the volume of software that we would need to buy at the district, the cost would be about one-third the cost of Microsoft Office!&nbsp; Now, the challenge will become selling the idea and training.... Stay tuned! It was almost as if my last post on Microsoft Office was a prayer that has been immediately answered! Now, I understand that this won't be exciting to about 85% of the world's computer owners (because that is the rough percentage of Windows only users), but just last week, Apple announced iWork '08.&nbsp; This would be their first attempt to compete head-to-head with Microsoft Office. iWork '06, which was the previous version, consisted of two programs: Pages (word processor) and Keynote (presentation program).&nbsp; These were good programs, and on a Mac, I have found myself gravitating toward them in everyday use.&nbsp; I had, in fact, completely dumped PowerPoint in favor of Keynote about 5 months ago.&nbsp; Conspicuously missing, however, was a spreadsheet program.&nbsp; Excel, of course, is really Microsoft's killer application in the Office suite of applications.&nbsp; There is no one out there that has been able to truly match it's functionality, though it's intuitiveness has at times been suspect. iWork '08 now includes a spreadsheet program called Numbers.&nbsp; I was able to get my hands on the new software early this week, and so far I can say it looks good.&nbsp; Importing and exporting Microsoft Office formats is seamless,&nbsp; and any loss during the export is reported to you via simple statements.&nbsp; So far, the only importing losses I have to report are along the lines of fonts and unusual page formatting elements. I know that this only pertains to Macintosh users, but I am excited mainly because I currently live in a Macintosh world at the Norris School District.&nbsp; For the volume of software that we would need to buy at the district, the cost would be about one-third the cost of Microsoft Office!&nbsp; Now, the challenge will become selling the idea and training.... Stay tuned! en-us Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:18:54 PDT For Windows users there is a free alternative to Microsoft Office called Open Office - openoffice.org<br /> I like Office better but if I had to pay for it myself... http://www.bakersfieldvoice.com/home/Blog/tigoree/13500/#c_130439 http://www.bakersfieldvoice.com/home/Blog/tigoree/13500/#c_130439 For Windows users there is a free alternative to Microsoft Office called Open Office - openoffice.org<br /> I like Office better but if I had to pay for it myself...