These comments relate solely to Pages. We are still evaluating Numbers and Keynote.

Our firm has been evaluating the Pages component of the iWork 08 suite for one month, with a view to using it as our primary word processor in a document-intensive business.

This is a good product: easy to use and capable of producing great results. The "layout mode" is fabulous for producing more sophisticated or complex documents. We also like the integration with other Apple applications.

There is a little bit of a learning curve for those used to Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org, or NeoOffice, because some of the logic underlying Pages is different. Actually, this is more of an "unlearning" curve, because one must unlearn some of the more cumbersome processes, such as formatting, that these other apps use.

There have been several shortcomings, however, that dampen our enthusiasm for this product. Some of these are really strange to find in an application that is elegant and a very good value otherwise. For example:

1. The help function is vague in places. Simple document formatting tasks can take a long time for a first-time user to figure out.

Lesson learned: Be ready to spend some significant time learning how to use Pages to its full capability.

2. On-line support at www.apple.com is non-existent -- no "Knowledge Base" or FAQs, just a PDF users manual and a support forum with apparently little or no interaction with Apple staff. (Where is an Apple "genius" when you really need one.?)

Lesson learned: Disappointing products usually have disappointing support.

3. There is no auto-recovery. If the application crashes -- and Pages crashes more often than it should -- all unsaved work is lost.

Lesson learned: Save save save save.

4. When closing a document in Pages, be sure that you have also saved all other documents that you want to keep open. About half of the time, Pages crashes under these circumstances. When this happens all unsaved data in the documents that you want to keep open is lost.

Lesson learned: Save all open documents before closing any of them.

5. The "layout" mode is great! However, you cannot switch between "layout" and "word processing" modes on the fly. A document created in "layout" mode cannot be opened and edited using the more powerful and efficient functions of the "word processing" mode.

Lesson learned: Decide which mode to use before you start.

6. There is no support for Open Document format.

Lesson learned: Keep that copy of OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice up to date.

Summary: This is a good product, and a big improvement over the iWork '06 version. It still has some problems that keep it from being a solid business application.