Apple Creator Studio is a weird choice if you “only need a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation app …”. Seems like an impulse buy rather than an informed choice matching your requirements. And, you don’t need Creator Studio if you just want Pages, Numbers, and Keynote which are still free – unless you want the janky templates that are only available to Creator Studio subscribers.
Seems like you broke your admirable rule to avoid unnecessary subscriptions. Time for a Subscribers Anonymous meeting?
Perhaps! But in my defense, I grew tired of the nagging to upgrade, and I anticipate the feature gap to grow between the free version of iWork and the Creative Studio version. I may be over-interpreting, but I anticipate that over time, and probably not a long time, anyone who wants or needs to use Pages, Numbers, and Keynote will feel compelled to subscribe to Creative Studio. Time will tell. Secondly, I would be willing to bet a cup of coffee (I am not a big gambler ) that I have far fewer app subscriptions than the majority in this forum. I have three personal subscriptions: Apple One, Creative Studio, and MindNode. That’s it.
This is very much an unpopular point of view in this community, but I truly think Microsoft Word is a good application.
In fact, if you hide the ribbon, learn a few shortcuts and even create a few ones, you will find out that it can be a very seamless way to write.
In the end, it’s all about mastering the tool you need to get your job done. In the bureaucracy world of our times it’s Microsoft Word and its gang.
While I like the look and feel of other options, such as iA Writer, Pages or even Obsidian, it’s just not feasible to achieve the level of interoperability I need for working with my peers (for context, I’m a lawyer and an academic).
I still use Obsidian for pretty much all of my personal writing, however.
As for optimizations, I like to hide the Ribbon and create a few shortcuts to my main custom styles (numbered paragraphs and specially formatted indented quotes), so I can write really fast and not get fiddling with the text.
I also keep a few templates with my custom formatting styles handy so that I can quickly add a copy to the a given folder via an Alfred workflow.
But you’re paying for access to media-creation tools (the other apps in the CS package) that you probably will never use, just because maybe-someday Apple will release an amazing new feature to Pages. If they do, and I doubt they ever will, then buy the thing when the new feature comes and save your money until then. Tim Cook will soon retire with a nice package. He doesn’t need our help.
I would agree that Word, Excel and even Powerpoint are good apps, although very bloated as mentioned earlier in this thread. The problem I have is how to integrate them into my Apple ecosystem. OneDrive seems to be very bad compared to iCloud Drive or Google Drive, and trying to store Microsoft 365 documents within iCloud Drive has its own set of friction points. I would curious how you marry the two systems?
They are as you say bloated and also, ugly. But they do the job. I purchase access roughly every other years, because even Apple-centric publishers use MS Word for editing. Import/export isn’t enough at the editing stage because of very complex scripting, templates and workflows created by publishers.
I am dismayed by Apple’s decision to not provide a full-featured version of iWorks. As I said, I’m willing to pay, but not $129.00 for other apps I will never use.
I have not upgraded, and am waiting to see if Apple does the right thing for non-educational consumers. If they don’t, when the current version ceases to function or other wise becomes untenable, I will probably buy MS Word when I need to, but will use Google Sheets for spreadsheets, and Mellel or Libre Office for non-HTML large text files/word processing.
I am also very surprised that Apple is taking this path on iWork. On a Mac, I like Pages & Numbers, but on an iPad which I have to use a lot due to travel, Numbers is not good at all.
Several years ago I would not have seen myself saying this, but outside of working inside of a browser, what Google is doing to their Docs and Sheets apps is quite impressive. I am finding that SideBar Tabs, Smart Chips, Building Blocks have made a big impact on my productivity. And with Google pushing their PWAs (stand-alone apps), it is not that much different than native apps.
Exactly so. I drafted and edted a book using Googeapps via Chrome. I had to work on a single chapter file at a time, but it was doable. I used Sheets for several years because Numbers was a little frustrating until around 2016.
Yes! I’ve found the best way to use Word is to set up your document templates using the style pane, assign keyboard shortcuts to the styles you use regularly (e.g., headings, numbered lists, block quotes, etc), and never, ever format text inline except for applying the occasional bolding or italics to the body text. Set your document styles up beforehand, commit to them, and type away.
I ran into this sort of thing too. Not with publishers, but with professional collaboration in a nonprofit leadership capacity. One of my fellow leaders was trying to get by with LibreOffice, and it just wasn’t keeping up with some of the features that our central office was using. Non-stop problems.
So I had a purchased Microsoft Office subscription for about four years. At the time I think it was about $70/year - and it definitely saved me $70 worth of headaches.
Now that I don’t need it anymore though, I’m fine with regular Pages and Numbers for my use case.
And I don’t see a problem if that is your choice. When I refer to something as business class, I’m judging if it could be used, for example, to edit then return a spreadsheet from a vendor. Possibly multiple times.
Numbers was never able to do that. In fact LibreOffice wasn’t always able to open a complex Word document correctly.
If you tell me things have improved so that is now possible, I’ll take your word for that.
Not really, it would replace my Creator Studio subscription, for a little less. I subscribed to CS because 1) I hated the nagging and 2) I expect the feature gap between the free and paid version to grow over time.
I also used MS Office and Windows for nearly 30 years before switching to Apple. I’m still proficient with the apps and have made extensive use of custom templates with styles. I will also need to use Word once I’m in the finalization stage of the book project.
Besides, I only have three personal app subscriptions, which includes CS, so that is pretty minimal!
It’s not the count of subscriptions. It’s if those subscriptions give any value? Do they serve a purpose? Do they eliminate the friction, and do they save you time and frustration?
If yes then you have a winner for those subscriptions. I have more than 15. But yes. At times when I need them they are my trusted ones which never fail me. So it’s very personal choice for subscriptions. What is a necessity for me might be optional for you.
Take the opinions with grain of salt and choose your own.
Indeed. For me, the issue is not the number but the aggregate cost. I have shared previously that I do not want to rent my apps or other things to the extent I can control it, which is not always possible, for example, utilities and access to the Internet. However, I can strive to minimize paying for apps when viable alternatives exist. “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
As to the opinions offered on this forum, I find them informative and helpful. Forum members often offer contrasting perspectives, which assists me as I consider my own.
The thing about MS Office is that if I have to pay a subscription for my basic productivity apps, MS Office seems like a much better value than Creator Studio, which is why I raised the question.
Perhaps! But in my defense, I grew tired of the nagging to upgrade, and I anticipate the feature gap to grow between the free version of iWork and the Creative Studio version. I may be over-interpreting, but I anticipate that over time, and probably not a long time, anyone who wants or needs to use Pages, Numbers, and Keynote will feel compelled to subscribe to Creative Studio. Time will tell. Secondly, I would be willing to bet a cup of coffee (I am not a big gambler 
) that I have far fewer app subscriptions than the majority in this forum. I have three personal subscriptions: Apple One, Creative Studio, and MindNode. That’s it. 
