We're starting a new business and want to use Appleworks6 for our spreadsheets, database, docs etc.
If there is someone out there who really really knows it well( I know the basics ), and is willing to spend
a few ours ( with pay of course ) just to help us actualize a certain 'work flow' we have in mind, please
send me an Email ASAP; redsoda5@yahoo.ca. Thanks so much!
Not too be rude, but don't use Appleworks to run a business.
Love it or hate it the world in on microsoft Office. Invest in a copy.
Ed
I agree that Appleworks is obsolete and shouldn't be used for any purpose requiring future reference.
But MS Office is hardly a more viable business proposition. Go opensource with OpenOffice. Only distribute PDFs to clients.
I'd have to disagree with z-Mac and agree with Smashedbanana. Microsoft Office (especially Word and Excel) are they way to go if you're running a business that has to interact with other businesses. Word and Excel are the standard in business.
I don't know about MS-Access, though, I've heard it may be on it's way out.
There's absolutely no way to argue that MS Office formats are better than PDF.
PDF is portable, is difficult to alter, and the tools are free. This makes it ideal for business communication.
Note that OS X talks PDF natively.
If collaboration on a document is needed, you can be using OpenOffice, which costs zero. However, Google Docs And Spreadsheets is a MUCH better solution than e-mailing any native document files back and forth and trying to keep versioning straight.
MS Office products undergo constant format changes so MS can break the competition. MS Office is also insecure. Finally, MS Office is expensive. The era of MS Office dominance has passed. Think forward, not backward.
Unless, of course, you work with backward people. ;^)
Firstly I stand by my advice. Buy office and yes for security or presence of mind use the save as PDF function in Mac OS when passing on documents that do not need to be modified.
But using open office is the same craziness as using Appleworks, lotus notes, Word Perfect, or any other unpopular desktop publishing software.
Love it or hate it MS dominates this marketspace. I have supported businesses that have tried Open Office, in order to save budgets and not one of them did not end up buying Microsoft Offfice. On a basic level open office is compatible but soooo often ther are issues. And it isn't worth wasting breath over cost savings if in the end everyone hates you for making them use something that doesn't work right. Either that or you end up making up their cost savings by being a 24/7 free mentor.
And it is going to get moreso very soon. Office 2007 (on PC) and the forthcoming Mac release will be built on a propriety MS XML code. And that means Open Office will become even less of an alternative....
Ed
Quote from: Smashedbanana on February 15, 2007, 01:44:47 PM
I have supported businesses that have tried Open Office, in order to save budgets and not one of them did not end up buying Microsoft Offfice. On a basic level open office is compatible but soooo often ther are issues.
And it is going to get moreso very soon. Office 2007 (on PC) and the forthcoming Mac release will be built on a propriety MS XML code. And that means Open Office will become even less of an alternative....
There are huge deployments of OO happening in organizations around the world, Sir.
The compatibility argument is a tired one. MS Office fails to be compatible with OO and fails to be compatible with other versions of itself. Document exchange should never be done in editable formats, and your former customers bring misery on themselves if that's what they intend to do against all common sense.
"Proprietary MS XML code." This is an amusing yet pithy example of why people should get the Microsoft monkey off their backs as soon as they can. XML is an OPEN technology. Microsoft would make oxygen proprietary if they could.
Then they would blame your incompatible nose if you suffocated.
Technologically, MS Office and MS Windows are beaten. They will generate money for a while because of marketshare, but Microsoft is a-scrambling to diversify.
If there are two "Old World" software companies that still have jewels that are unsurpassed by open-source products, they are Apple and Adobe. In Apple's case, they've only grown stronger by open-source products. (OS X itself!)
I agree with everything you have said. Unfortunetly it changes nothing.
I still think telling anyone to brave the elements and go OO for business use is bad, bad advice.
Ed
I can't think of worse advice than "use MS Office". Hmm, let me try... Erk... erk...
Nope, no way. There is no worse advice than to use proprietary formats for business. If someone has money to burn, at least let 'im or 'er burn it on something that creates documents that don't lock the organization into Redmond's sales cycle.
I've worked in software for 10 years, most of it for a well-known software publisher here that is a Microsoft partner. The company abandoned MS Office for serious document creation in 1997!
If it's easier on your nerves to tell stubborn users to use MS Office and leave you the hell alone, I sympathize. But then, if you have that many customers who need help, let's you and I join forces and give them the old Consultancy treatment. It works for IBM and SAP. :^)
Since this is still an active discussion, I thought I should add my 2 cents worth. The appropriateness of using AppleWorks or any other product as a business tool depends a lot of the size, scope and complexity of the business. Nothing that works is ever obsolete. Appleworks is actually a pretty decent spreadsheet program, though admittedly less powerfull than MS Excel. Government departments and networks abound with costly Microsoft tools which users use sparingly to do some of the most menial tasks. In other words, they bought a $1,000 professional toolbox when all they needed was a Phillips screwdriver. So without knowing what are the specific business needs of this enterprise, AppleWorks could quite conceivably fit the bill. AppleWorks projects done in spreadsheet mode allow you to save documents in Mac or Windows 2000 and XP Excel formats for maximus accessibility by clients. The program is quite intuitive and the AppleWorks help files provide added instruction.
Having said this, if something like MS Office is more to your liking, then perhaps you should explore a couple of other alternative 'clones" if you like.
One is NeoOffice (http://download.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php) which I guess is the OpenOffice solution alluded to in this discussion, the other is a program called Butler Office Professional (http://www.butlerofficepro.com/promotions.html) which apparently works very much like MS Office for a fraction of the price ($49US)
For a total software business solution, you might try a powerful Apple creation which has since become an independent cross-platform software company, formally Claris, now called Filemaker. It was designed as a database but has become a versatile, multi-tasking business tool. (http://www.filemaker.com/)
Hope this helps