Tag: office suite

When we look at modern-age computer programs it is often a challenge to think back to the “simpler” times when computers and technology revolved solely around the purpose of making our day-to-day lives easier.  Before social media and before online videos and Internet-connected games computers were primarily found in offices and businesses for processing data and handling other mundane tasks.  Sure, computer presence in office environment grows on a daily basis as we as society work towards a paperless lifestyle; but the reality is that many of the business features that we see in “modern” workplace computers existed ten, maybe twenty years ago.  Look at your standard office suite for example.  Word processors and spreadsheet applications have been around forever, and visual presentation applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint have become standard components of every office suite on the market today.

With office suites dating so far back, it’s amazing to see how the everyday productivity applications that we as computer users have woven deeply into our everyday lives have gone so far over the last decade or so.  But even with Microsoft Office being the dominant office suite, it’s not unusual for people to look at other suites and products simply to get a feel of exactly what else is out there.  Having been a user of Microsoft Office since I began using computers, I personally have never had that much of a reason to look at anything else.  Of course I toyed around with OpenOffice/LibreOffice while I was using the Linux operating system, but Microsoft Office has always seemed like more of a “standard” for me; something that could be used with ease for basic tasks yet offered the functionality to conform to whatever else was thrown at it.  The other day though I downloaded the iWork ’09 (the latest version) trial from Apple‘s website so that I could get a feel for Apple’s alternative after using Office for Mac for over a month.  But how did it hold up against Microsoft Office for Mac?