Is iWork 09' worth updating to?

If using it online is worth while to you then yes. Otherwise I am gonna say pass.

I love iWork 09. Keynote alone is worth it, but they’ve made some major improvements to Pages also. I love the fact that I can create a document in Pages and save it as a Word doc if I have to. I also like the “full screen” mode they added. I have a bunch of presentations in Powerpoint (I’m a professor), and all I have to do is open them in Keynote, add the fancy transitions, and I’m good to go. Plus, I really like the graphics functions (being able to take the background out of a photo with a few clicks is miraculous to me!) The templates in both Keynote and Pages are really nice. I can’t say much about Numbers, since I don’t use spreadsheets much, but the other two programs are well worth the upgrade.

cool, thanks. i think i’ll try the demo

I wish there was a cheaper option to upgrade if you already own ‘08.

@suzyq2463 – Is MS Office compatibility the same as it was with iWork 08, or have they made it smoother? Does one still have to export to the Office format, or can it save directly as an iWork document?

@aidje It’s smoother. You have the option to save any document as a Word doc from the Pages save menu (it’s a checkbox underneath the save menu). You can also save it immediately as an iWork document for iwork.com, but I don’t find that necessary. In addition, you can save a document in Pages, but email it to someone as a Word doc. In other words, they’ve made it incredibly easy to do your work in Pages but share it with Word users. Since I work in a PC only environment but use my Mac for everything, I’m a very happy camper with iWork 09. Sorry for the delay in answering—I haven’t checked this thread in awhile.

@suzyq2463 – Thanks. That sounds fairly compelling.