I’m a Mac guy. I believe computing on a Mac “just works”, as they say. I also believe it’s more aesthetically pleasing. And that does count. If you are going to stare at a computer screen for half the day (or more), then you should enjoy looking at your work.
In my job, I live in Excel much of the time. I don’t exactly “hate” Microsoft, but I do not care for their OS or Office. I think it’s bloated. I prefer Pages to Word (but usually write in TextEdit or Journler) and Keynote to PowerPoint. I don’t use a database, but when I did I used FileMaker.
But for Excel, there has been no alternative. Then, on Tuesday, Apple announced iWork 08, which included their new Numbers spreadsheet program. I toyed with it late last night, watching some of the tutorials, and I must say it is a great entry into the field.
That said, Numbers is not an Excel killer for power users. If you use PivotTables (which I don’t), then you are stuck with Excel. If you use macros (which I do with a few of my reports), then you are stuck with Excel. Numbers is not scriptable at all, which is odd. I’m assuming Apple will add this ability in a future update.
Past that, for your moderate to even advanced-but-not-power users, Numbers would work. (Personally, I’m just a moderate user. I’ve never written a macro, and I don’t know what’s involved. But people in BNI far smarter than I have written them into key reports.)
Still, Microsoft could learn a lot from Numbers. The interface is terrific. Apple has added a few tricks that makes building spreadsheets and manipulating data much easier than in Excel, at least for someone like me who has limited to moderate knowledge of Excel.
Numbers is most likely aimed at people with my Excel skill level whose company or work does not require Excel because of either macros or PivotTables. As for me, I might try porting a few worksheets over, and I’ll definitely move my home budget to Numbers.
Otherwise, Excel stays in my dock and one of my most used programs. (For now…)
