5 Reasons You Should Use iWork Instead of Microsoft Office

iWork has long been considered the inferior option to Microsoft Office (CA/UK). Word, Excel, and PowerPoint form the industry standard office suite, and that’s just what everyone expects to use. But it’s time to give iWork another chance.Which Office Suite Is Best for You? Which Office Suite Is Best for You?You'll be pressed to find an occupation that doesn't require word or number processing of some sort. And you may wonder, is Microsoft Office really the best solution? Here are your options.READ MORE

Many long-time Office users will be unwilling to transition away from the apps they’re so used to working with. Whether you’re an Office veteran or a complete newcomer to these types of apps, iWork may deserve another chance. Let’s take a look at why.

1. It’s Free

This might not matter if you get to use Office for free through your university or workplace, but to freelancers, hobbyists, and anyone else who uses these kinds of apps on a regular basis, this could be a pretty big deal.6 Ways You Can Use Microsoft Office Without Paying For It 6 Ways You Can Use Microsoft Office Without Paying For ItREAD MORE

A new copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016 is $100, which is a significant amount of cash for something you probably don’t need. A 12-month subscription to Office 365 will actually cost you $100 per year, which can really add up.

Of course, Office 365 does offer you access to a number of other apps, including Outlook, Publisher, and Access, but these are niche apps that many people don’t need anyway.

iWork comes with every qualifying Mac purchased after October 2014 for free. It’s hard to beat that. If your Mac is older and you need to download the suite from the App Store, you’ll pay $20 per app for a total of $60, still cheaper than Office. Most iPads and iPhones get iWork for free, too.

2. Cleaner Interface

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are very powerful tools, and their interfaces are absolutely jam-packed full of options and menus. If you’re a power user, this can be a good thing; you have quick access to all of the myriad settings you could want.

But the majority of users don’t need all of the options that are available. Managing references, text elements, and mathematical equations aren’t common concerns among most office suite users. I’d be willing to bet that at least 95% of Word users have never needed to adjust the hyphenation zone.

iWork gets rid of a lot of this clutter in favor of a cleaner interface, which eliminates distractions and provides a more peaceful productivity environment. As with many Mac features, this contributes toincreased ease of use.Drinking the Kool Aid: 8 Reasons People Love Their Macs Drinking the Kool Aid: 8 Reasons People Love Their MacsWhen you can buy a laptop for under $500, and a Chromebook will satisfy most people's computing needs, why do people insist on spending well over $1000 on a Mac?READ MORE

The top of the Pages window, for example, has Insert, Table, Chart, Text, Shape, Media, andComment buttons. That’s pretty much everything you need for word processing. Both Numbers and Keynote are similarly sparse when it comes to menubar options.

You can see in the comparison shots above and below just how much cleaner the iWork apps are. Seeing the Office apps next to them makes it obvious just how much clutter Microsoft’s apps have.

If you’re thinking to yourself “But I always need to adjust the Style settings in Word!” then you might not be a good candidate for switching to iWork. There is a sacrifice in power that you’ll make for these cleaner interfaces.

But for the majority of people, the tools available in the iWork apps are sufficient, and this makes them easier to use. There are many other options available through the menus, so it’s not like you’re giving up every customizable option. Just most of the ones you don’t need.

3. iCloud & Mobile Integration

There are tons of great cloud storage services out there, but iCloud has the advantage of being deeply integrated into every Apple product, from software to hardware. Being able to quickly and easily save your office documents to iCloud is a handy feature that can save you time if you come to rely on it.What Is iCloud Drive & How Does It Work? What Is iCloud Drive & How Does It Work?If you have updated your iPhone or iPad to iOS 8, and your Mac to OS X Yosemite, then you're ready for Apple's iCloud Drive. But what is it, and why should use it?READ MORE

By keeping all of your documents from Pages, Numbers, and Keynote saved in iCloud, you can work on them from any computer connected to the internet. You can even work on them from your iPhone, or non-Apple devices via iCloud.com.

Having access to mobile versions of these apps is also a big benefit. You can use Microsoft Office for free on your 9.7″ iPad, but on a Mac it requires an Office 365 subscription. Apple’s office productivity suite may be less powerful, but it’s also more financially viable if you don’t need all that power.

The mobile versions of iWork apps are also free provided you have a recent device, and they’re well-optimized for mobile work. Even writing on your phone isn’t too bad. Using an iPad or iPad Pro is even better, though.How You Can Type Easier and Faster on Your iPhone How You Can Type Easier and Faster on Your iPhoneThis isn’t the first thing I’ve written on an iDevice, but it’s the first time I’ve chosen to do it when I’ve had other options.READ MORE

4. Collaboration and Sharing

Once you upgrade to macOS Sierra, iWork is able to support real-time collaboration between colleagues via iCloud. This means you’ll be able to easily work on a document with a number of other people, much like you can currently do with Google Drive apps.

This may not be a big deal to many, but if collaboration was the one thing tying you to Google’s solution then it could make all the difference.

iWork already has some cool sharing features built in. The Share menu lets you share iCloud links or send the document via Messages or Apple’s built-in Notes app. Again, these might not seem like a big deal, but if you work with a lot of people who use Macs, you’ll likely appreciate it.Thinking of Switching From Evernote to Apple Notes? Here's How Thinking of Switching From Evernote to Apple Notes? Here's HowApple has a free notes app, and it received a rather substantial overhaul with iOS 9 and El Capitan. But should you ditch Evernote for it? That depends.READ MORE

5. Microsoft Office Compatibility

Using anything besides Microsoft Office always comes with the worry about compatibility. How will it deal with DOC and DOCX files? This used to be a big count against using anything besides Office.

iWork apps have come a long way in their compatibility, and can now open, edit, and save files instandard Office formats. While the default is still the iWork file extension (PAGES, KEY, NUMBERS), you can save files in DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, and PPTX, as well as a few others like PDF, CSV, and HTML.9 Rare Office File Formats You Have to Know 9 Rare Office File Formats You Have to KnowHave you ever come across strange file formats in your office suite? We'll give you a quick primer on rare, yet useful office file types and what you can use them for.READ MORE

While you may encounter an occasional difficulty with formatting, you aren’t likely to run into any serious problems. You don’t have to worry about your colleagues who use Microsoft Office having difficulty with your files.

Will You Make the Switch?

If you haven’t tried iWork in a while, I strongly recommend that you give it a shot in the near future. Unless you’re a serious power user of Microsoft Office, you might find that the cleaner interface and the better integration with the Mac operating environment makes it a winner!

6 Things That Ubuntu Does Better Than Windows

We all love Windows, right? It’s a great operating system, there’s no doubt about that. However, what if I told you that Ubuntu was better? You may laugh and think that nothing could possibly be better than your beloved Windows, but in this article we’re going to look at 6 reasons why Ubuntu is better than Windows.

Some of you may think that Ubuntu is just for nerds, and that the average user wouldn’t be able to use it. So how on earth could it be better than Windows? Well the truth is that Ubuntu is not that difficult to use, in fact, it’s actually just as easy as Windows to use, if not easier in some respects. So then, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why Ubuntu is better than Windows.7 Linux Misconceptions Debunked 7 Linux Misconceptions DebunkedNot that many people use Linux. True or false? Let's face it, there are so many misconceptions about Linux, it's time to start addressing them. Let's debunk a few, one by one.READ MORE

1. OS and Software Updates

Imagine the scenario: you sit down to do some work at your Windows PC, and just after getting stuck in to that important document you need to type up, you get a popup asking you to update Windows. Being the dutiful, security conscious user that you are, you decide to update and reboot your machine.

Fast forward another 10 minutes, you’re settling in again and wouldn’t you know it, Apple now pops up and lets you know that there is an update for their software also. Annoying? Yes!

You see, this is because Windows handles its operating system and application updates separately. So you will receive popups for different applications as and when they need updating. This makes the whole process very frustrating, to the point were many people just turn them off.

Ubuntu is different. Everything is done via repositories and it uses a dedicated update manager to update both the operating system and all of the applications installed. So you only ever have to manage your updates from one place. This makes the process far slicker and means users tend not to  turn them off — which means you are more secure. Speaking of which…

2. Computer Security

Windows has a number of security features that you can use to help secure your system, but there’s no getting away from the fact that Ubuntu is more secure than Windows.7 Windows 10 Security Features & How to Use Them 7 Windows 10 Security Features & How to Use ThemWindows 10 is all about security. Microsoft recently instructed its partners that in sales, Windows 10's security features should be the primary focus. How does Windows 10 live up to this promise? Let's find out!READ MORE

User accounts within Ubuntu have far fewer permissions by default than in Windows. This means that if you want to make a change to the system — like installing an application — you need to enter your password to do it. In Windows, you don’t. This makes it much more difficult to execute malware or a virus inside Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is also a lot less popular than Windows. That means that the bad guys who make all the viruses don’t really care about it, so they don’t bother writing much malware for Ubuntu: that’s great news for us users!

Also, a lot of the bad guys use Linux distributions like Ubuntu themselves, so although Ubuntu isn’t impervious to virus’, it’s a lot less likely that you will get infected. It’s unlikely, but not impossible, which is why you should always use anti-virus software in Ubuntu.The 4 Best Free Linux Anti-Virus Programs The 4 Best Free Linux Anti-Virus ProgramsREAD MORE

3. Desktop Customization

There isn’t that much you can do with Windows when it comes to customization. Windows 10 gives more customization options than previous versions, but it’s still nowhere near that of Ubuntu.10 Quick Ways to Customize & Personalize Windows 10 10 Quick Ways to Customize & Personalize Windows 10Not all of Windows 10's default settings will float your boat. We show you all the possible ways to customize Windows 10 in a simple, step-by-step guide.READ MORE

You’re pretty much limited to changing your wallpaper and start menu colors in Windows, but in Ubuntu any aspect of the desktop can be easily changed. Want the window buttons on the right? No problem. Don’t like the icons? It’s easily fixed. Maybe the Ubuntu fonts don’t float your boat? Say no more!

The screenshot below is my Ubuntu 16.04 desktop. The changes I have made took around 5 minutes to apply and it looks very different from a stock install.

4. System Resources

Not everyone can afford an all-singing, all-dancing computer. So for some, the latest version of Windows may be out of their budget. However, the latest version of Ubuntu need not be.

On a test machine, I ran stock Ubuntu and stock Windows 10, and as you can see from the results below Windows 10 used almost double the amount of RAM as Ubuntu. Now that might not seem like a big difference, as this test machine has 8 GB RAM. But if your machine has 2 GB of RAM, that would mean that you have 60% of your RAM utilized in Ubuntu, or 90% utilized in Windows 10 and that’s before you start opening applications.

If your machine has even less resources than this, then there are lightweight versions of Ubuntu and Linux available that use even less system resources. This means that your computer could last years longer than you thought it would.LXQt: A Lightweight Linux Desktop Environment Built With KDE Technologies LXQt: A Lightweight Linux Desktop Environment Built With KDE TechnologiesDo you like the look of KDE, but wish it were less resource-hungry? With LXQt, your wish has finally been granted.READ MORE

5. Live Environment

If you haven’t used Windows before and decide you want to give it a try, you have to commit to installing it on your machine beforehand. That could lead to problems such as data loss, if you later decide you don’t like Windows.

That’s not the case in Ubuntu.

In Ubuntu — and many other Linux distributions — you can burn the image to a CD, or write it to a USB stick and boot it up straight from that media. This is a fully working version of the operating system, which means you can try every aspect of Ubuntu without having to commit to installing it on your hard drive.5 Best Linux Distros for Installation on a USB Stick 5 Best Linux Distros for Installation on a USB StickUSB drives are great, not just for installing portable versions of Linux but for protecting your computer when things go awry. Here are the 5 most useful Linux distributions for installing on a USB drive.READ MORE

Don’t like it? No problem: just reboot your machine and you will be back on your previous operating system as if nothing had ever happened.

6. It’s Free

That’s right, Ubuntu is 100% free. It won’t cost you a penny (although you can make a donation on their download page). I know what you’re going to say: “but Windows 10 is also free.”

Whilst it was offered as a free upgrade until the end of July, that offer is no longer valid (althoughthere are other ways you can still upgrade).Missed the Free Windows 10 Upgrade? Psst, Here's a Backdoor! Missed the Free Windows 10 Upgrade? Psst, Here's a Backdoor!The upgrade to Windows 10 remains free for users who depend on assistive technologies. However, Microsoft doesn't check whether you really do. We show you how you can use this backdoor to get Windows 10.READ MORE

If you want to buy Windows 10 it will cost you $119.99 for the Home edition and $199.99 for the Professional edition, that’s a lot of money. So why not save that cash and put it to better use elsewhere? You could download the latest version Ubuntu for free instead.

Windows vs. Ubuntu: Which Do You Prefer?

Overall, both Windows 10 and Ubuntu are fantastic operating systems, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and it’s great that we have the choice.

Have you tried either of these operating systems? If so, please do tell us about your experiences in the comments section below. If you haven’t tried Ubuntu, what’s stopping you?

Customize Your Mac Command Line With These Terminal Alternatives

One of the best ways to make macOS your own is to customize the command line, either through alternative apps or just tricking out the Terminal app. Working with the command line can be the doorway to becoming a power user on your Mac. You can begin with some improvements to the Dock.These 6 Awesome Terminal Commands Will Boost Your MacBook These 6 Awesome Terminal Commands Will Boost Your MacBookYou can only cram so much into graphical user interface before it becomes cluttered, so it should come as no big surprise that you can do some really cool things using the Mac Terminal.READ MORE

The Mac’s reputation as the “easier” OS is only there because of the Mac vs. PC ads. There was an entirely different campaign in the early days of OS X that positioned it as the best way to use Unix. The full command line was there along with many Unix utilities.

HyperTerm (Free)

HyperTerm is a Terminal app that you customize by editing a file. If you’re an old enough Mac user or a Hackintosh enthusiast, hacking PREF files and KTEXTs is a familiar way to customize programs. If you’re a web programmer, it’s along the lines of CSS. The app has support for tabs, which you would expect from anything trying to compete with Terminal.How to Install Mac OS X on a PC (Without Using a Mac) How to Install Mac OS X on a PC (Without Using a Mac)READ MORE

Once you open the configuration file for HyperTerm, you can set up plugins and extensions. The app’s website says to search via the command line, but you can find a great list of availableextensions on Github.

The list includes themes and extensions. There’s even one to use 1Password to manage your passwords for the command line. Once you find the extension you want, add it to the config file, and it starts running when you open the app.

You can check out the app’s page on how to develop an extension using Javascript. All of HyperTerm is built in Javascript. If you check Activity Monitor, you’ll see it loaded as a web view, not an app. If you’re looking for an extensible alternative to Terminal, this is it. It’s a freeware app too!

Cathode ($4.99)

Cathode is not meant to replace your Terminal with a productivity powerhouse. Instead, Cathode takes your Mac back to the good old days of CRT scan lines and glowing green text. It even has a fake room reflection from the background. There is something pretty great about a command line app configured entirely for nostalgia’s sake.

There is a compelling set of customization tools, allowing you to choose from the old school system design you like. Was your classic machine just white text on a black background? If you prefer the Doogie Howser look of white text on a blue background, you can choose that as well. I also allows you to choose how densely the text should be spaced. There’s a variety of monospace fonts to make sure that you can set the configuration to scratch your own nostalgic itch.

Terminal and VIM combine in a way to create a distraction-free writing environment. With Cathode you have an added bit of flair. The aesthetic looks a bit like Wordstar, the old DOS app George R.R. Martin uses to write Game of Thrones (no promises Cathode will get you a deal with HBO). In fact, if you want to work with just a text editor in this style, check out the other developer’s app: Blinky.nano vs. vim: Terminal Text Editors Compared nano vs. vim: Terminal Text Editors ComparedAlthough Linux has become easy enough for practically anyone to use without ever having to use the Terminal, there are some of us who regularly use it or are curious about how one can control...READ MORE

Cathode even brings back the sounds of older computers. If you yearn for the simple days of the Apple II, this is a good approximation sitting on top of the power of a modern computer. There’s a demo you can try on the developer’s site, or you can pick up Cathode for $4.99 on the Mac App Store. There’s also an iOS version you can use for SSH sessions.

iTerm (Free, Donationware)

If you have a Mac IT guy at work, he probably uses iTerm. It’s one of the original and most powerful alternatives to Terminal. If you’re working with a few different command line apps, or connected to a bunch of remote servers, you can subdivide the window, so everything is displayed simultaneously. It ends up looking like total madness if you over do it, but it is possible.

The foundations of the huge recent updates to Terminal have their roots in iTerm. You can set different profiles, complete with a unique background image. Then you can open each tab and window split with different profiles, which can give visual distinctions to each working session.

iTerm has a few unique features Apple hasn’t copied. Each command you enter can have a time stamp attached. You can also annotate each command or output, a convenient feature for sharing your work as a walkthrough. Combine with the Instant Replay function that allows you to step through each command you entered, and you’ve got a great tool for creating screenshot walkthroughs.

iTerm is an app for power users that live in the command line. It’s a free app supported by donations so that you can try it out easily. The main question you should ask yourself is what level of complexity do you need? Download it here.

What About Terminal?

With all of these alternatives, you could be forgiven for thinking macOS’ built in Terminal isn’t that powerful. Like most Apple apps, it strikes a balance between accessibility for new users and deep features for power users.

You can’t infinitely split the window like you can with iTerm, but Terminal does support tabs. Terminal can be customized with an array of colors and any system font. The background image can be to anything you like. This means that you can make a unique combination for a custom look for your Terminal. There’s a bunch of preset profiles built into the app, and you can set your customization as the default when Terminal opens.

The profiles are useful because you can save a set of windows to open when you launch the app. As you can set each profile to run a command at startup, you can have a window open your remote SSH session, another to Vim, and yet another to your working directory. This can also be set up as tabs, rather than windows.

If you’re not able to install custom software on your work Mac, customization can still help you make your command line your own.

Doing More With the Command Line

We’ve looked at a few different options for customizing the Mac command line to make it your own. If you’re a Mac user, and you haven’t played around in Terminal, check out this tutorial for ideas on where to begin. Then you can check out some of these apps to find which fits your personal taste.