Mac users, unlike their PC counterparts, are not tied to Microsoft Office as more or less the only office suite commercially available. iWork, Apple's answer to an office suite for Macintosh users, promises to offer a faster, easier way to create good-looking documents. I tried iWork over the weekend to see if it is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office.

Productivity software is a basic requirement in almost all home and office computers today, as applications such as word processing plays an increasingly important part of our lives. What's important when choosing an office suite then, really comes down to identifying one that is easy to use and is able to create an impressive, satisfying end product.

Mention "word processing" and Microsoft Word comes to mind. Word and the Microsoft Office Suite might be the most common productivity software in the market today, but chances are that you have at some point in time found yourself sitting at the desk, frustrated because you could not get a certain function to work.
iWork comprises three applications - Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheets) and Keynote (presentations). Upon starting any application, users can choose from a large number of Apple-designed templates or start with a blank document.

While templates are nothing new, iWork's pre-designed templates do stand out as visually pleasing and are surprisingly easy to customize. In the word processing application Pages, Apple offers about 140 templates for commonly used document layouts such as reports and resumes to fancy posters and newsletters. Adding pictures and other customizable elements is usually a matter of clicking and dragging, or selecting an option from a list and letting the application do your work for you.

For users who deem pre-made templates too generic and would like to start from scratch, iWork offers plenty of options for advanced users to flex their creativity. Advanced as these options may be, they are still very easy to execute.

For example, creating an animation of a plane icon flying from one part of a map to another in a presentation may require knowledge of using Flash and then incorporating that into a presentation. With iWork's presentation application Keynote however, the A to B Animation feature allows users to draw a path for a selected object to follow as it move across the screen. No knowledge of animation is needed as the application does it all for you.
iWorks also incorporates publishing features into Pages and Numbers its word processing and spreadsheet applications. If that is a difficult concept to visualise, think Microsoft Excel meets Microsoft Publisher.

This is a feature that I think most users will either like very much or find it difficult to get used to. Most of us have been used to looking at a spreadsheet document with an infinite number of cells across the screen. While users can still turn this feature on in Numbers, the application prefers that users work with a blank document instead. Tables and cells are created when needed and can be placed anywhere on the document without disrupting or changing the layout. I found this particularly useful - who hasn't experienced the problem of adding a new column into an Excel worksheet and messing up the layout of the entire document?

Compatibility and integration with other software is an important point in consideration when one selects an office suite. Who would want, after all, to create a stunning document only to have their friends and colleagues not be able to read it should they be using a different application?

For iWork users who want to share their documents with friends using Windows computers, all three applications offer several export options. Users can choose from .doc, .xls and .ppt file formats among others, so whatever work they do on iWork can be easily read on Microsoft Word. The export function also offers the new .docx format compatible with the new Microsoft Office 2007 for the PC.

I created several documents with iWork and checked if they can be read on Microsoft Word. Except for a few graphical elements such as iWork-generated reflections of photos and certain customized fonts, I was able to see the entire document without much difference or loss.

If you a looking for an office software suite for your Mac, iWork is definitely worth your consideration. There might be some differences that you need to get used to at first, but in general the application interface is straightforward and easy to understand. If you have been using Microsoft Office, you would still be able to find most of the basic commands in the same place. Some features such as text-wrapping for pictures, are also found in easier to access spaces on the iWork interface compared to Word.

Integration with other Mac software, and the iLife suite in particular, makes iWorks a good choice as you can share documents and files between applications without a hitch.

For Mac users who are used to "thinking out of the box" and enjoy Apple's impressive designs, iWork offers you the chance to showcase these aspects in the things you create.