Last week after a colleague ask a client to send a Word document as a PDF, I asked him how he got away without Office on his computer and he said he used iWork. I tried this route several years ago, but had to install Office when I started by job 2 years ago to use some wacky templates. It dawned on me that I no longer had a reason to keep Office on my machine.
I purchased a copy of iWork ’09 (yeah, I realize that iWork ’11 will be out before I know it) and received it today. I deleted Office and install iWork. I use a text editor for composing things, but every once in awhile I need to use a word processor and a spreadsheet. iWork should fit the bill quite well for this.
On the off change that someone sends me an Office document I can’t read, I can ask for a PDF or try loading it into Google Docs. It feels so refreshing to get Office off my machine. I know that things have changed for Office 2011, but it seems like it just keeps getting more and more bloated. Freedom!
For the odd Office document that iWorks cant load, wont Office running on a Windows VM be guaranteed to work?
That requires owning a copy of Office for Windows or seeing if they have a viewer. I don’t fire up VMs all that often.