What is the best for the imac for word processing. I need to do a dissertation for my masters degree and I used to use neo office which is OK but not great. MS word (office) for the MAC is about £100 if you prove you are a student. Is this good value for money? Or is the MAC own word processing package better? And what about compatibility?

Give this a go, I find it very easy to use, and makes things pretty too.

http://www.apple.com/iwork/download-trial/

i got office for mac, worth running i reckon. ive iwork but use it little(i like some of the templates in pages). all written stuff seems to be done on word.

do you need to use any bibliography software, i used Word for that reason as it made my life easier. Although i believe that Pages has compatibility and i think the interface is nicer.

You can try OpenOffice which is free and can work with Microsoft Office documents.
http://why.openoffice.org/

Now here is my little claim to fame! This package offered by Nisus is actually my uncle's company. He's been developing for the Mac since it was launched in 1984 and for Apple before that:

Nisus Writer

Thanks guys…I am going to try the iworks trial to see if I get on with it. I am not sure how much it is after that (compared to MS MAC office).

It will at least get me underway…Do iworks doc transpose in word or visa verse?

Pages (iWork) can both read and save .doc files.

STOP right there, before i started my dissertation i was told by the macman at uni that MS word was the number 1 word processor on the block, mainly due to its spell checker/grammar checker.

If you know your way round MS word for a document as important as yours I wouldn't piss about. good luck.

Pages is perfectly good.

I end up having to use Word as everyone else I work with uses it and the other components of Office and it's not worth the grief of people complaining if there's any minor kind of incompatibility. But I wish I didn't; the only things I dislike on my Mac come from Microsoft…

As a result I've never used Pages, but it is very well thought of. I haven't used Mellel either but it seems to have quite a following, as long as you don't need to share stuff with other people too much.

If you want something really cheap you could try Bean – a free word-processor for OSX. I downloaded it the other day and it's great for quick jottings – it opens almost instantaneously (unlike Word) and seems pretty compatible.

I'd also suggest taking a close look at Scrivener which I used for a recent thesis. It's not a word-processor but it's an excellent writing tool for structuring complex documents. Hard to explain but read the reviews and try out the free trial

Good luck!

MS word was the number 1 word processor on the block, mainly due to its spell checker/grammar checker.

I use Pages at home and Word (2003 on a PC) at work. I'd agree about the spell checker etc.

But it's easier to makes thing look pretty with Pages.

Christ on a bike . . . download OpenOffice . . . MS office on the mac is terrible, simply stunningly BAD, NeoOffice was just a port of OpenOffice anyway, anything else is just asking for compatibility hassle . . . OpenOffice is the sensible choice, fast, compatible with MS, PDF, etc, and FREE . . . http://download.openoffice.org/

I've been using openoffice/Neopffice on linux/Mac/Windows for a number of years in an MS Office workplace and never had an issue . . . while you have to accept that most people fall into the FAIL that is MS software, you don't need to be one of them . . .

Fd

MS office on the mac is terrible, simply stunningly BAD

Interesting. MS Word (2008) on my Mac seems to be significantly better than the completely illogical version of Word that we have at work on the PC. Not sure what version the work one is – its the one were everything has been moved around to frustrate users / keep them on their toes.

Pages – great for simple layout-type work (cards, fliers). Great for letters & regular documents.

If you liked office '97 and 2000 then get OpenOffice – it really is very good. And even better when you think that it costs £0 to use.

But if you want to do 'real' word processing. And you want to use RefWorks or EndNote for your citation management. And you're used to office 2007. Then pay the, very fair, £100 for Office and get Word 2008 for Mac. It does the job very well. I find it nicer to use than Office 2007 on Windows because of its floating palette and general Mac neatness. It also plays well with moving files back & forth with Office 2007. But then so do Pages and OpenOffice.

Sorry Ferg, but OO is bloated rubbish, quickly dumped for office 04 on the old iBook.
Office 08 on the macbook is even better.

In descending order…..

Pages – Great, reasonably priced, easy to use, good to look at, compatible with MS office

Office for Mac – Significantly better than office for Windoze, reasonably familiar

OpenOffice – I didn't get on with it at all – not as familiar as Office, not as pretty as pages

Home Use: Pages (easy to make pretty letters etc)

Office/Dissertation Use: Microsoft Word 2008 (excellent referencing tools)

Last Resort/I have no cash: OpenOffice

Christ on a bike . . . download OpenOffice . . . MS office on the mac is terrible, simply stunningly BAD, NeoOffice was just a port of OpenOffice anyway, anything else is just asking for compatibility hassle . . . OpenOffice is the sensible choice, fast, compatible with MS, PDF, etc, and FREE . . . http://download.openoffice.org/

I've been using openoffice/Neopffice on linux/Mac/Windows for a number of years in an MS Office workplace and never had an issue . . . while you have to accept that most people fall into the FAIL that is MS software, you don't need to be one of them . . .

Fd

Well the trouble with that theory is that you also need to keep a copy of word around to make sure your documents don't look like arse when somebody else opens it (and they often do).

I would say that OpenOffice on OSX is terrible. It doesn't behave like a native app, scrolling is jerky, it crashes a lot, it's slower than the other two, the spelling and grammar checks are nowhere near as good etc etc etc. To be honest, even running Linux I used to use MS Word in WINE because OO.o is so shart.

I believe that you can save files in multiple formats, including Word with Nisus Writer Express.

Seriously, have a look at the package; you can download a trial version and it is very powerful and inexpensive (about £28). Plus it's my uncles company (I'm going to have someone acknowledge that sooner or late :D)

Nisus Writer

If you want to use styles and toc etc, which you should, then at the moment, word is the best choice.

Also have a look at Scrivener.

While it takes a bit of getting used to all the features (it comes with great tutorials though) it will do everything that you need it to and only costs $40.

It's got some amazing tools that really help when putting together large documents, and I've found it invaluable when working on large reports etc.

Certainly worth looking at and has a 30 day free trial