I must admit that when I retired from corporate life, I continued to use and pay for MS Office even though I switched back to an Apple computer.  But like most Microsoft apps, Office 365 is glut-ware. It is filled, and therefore complicated, with things that I will NEVER use.  Trying to remember all the “rules” is just beyond my patience now.

Let me just say up front that the UI (user interface) is the most important thing to me.  I don’t want to have to remember hundreds of different shortcut keys to be able to use an app.  Often times when I am using Office 365 apps I seem to spend more time learning their rules rather than what I am actually trying to create. That bugs me to no end.

Yes, I know MS apps are primarily designed for the corporate world so they think it needs to be complicated in order to meet all possible circumstances. This same logic applies to the Microsoft Windows versus macOS. 

There are a lot of people out there that are complaining when Apple announced a new app called the “Apple Creator Studio” and they are charging a subscription fee for the eight or so tools provided in the app. No, I don’t particularly like subscription fees, but how can I expect those apps that only charge an up-front fee to keep it up to date with the latest features that things like AI provide.

Let’s finally get to the point of this post.

When I discovered the Apple Creator Studio package I had to try it out. I was astounded by the improvement that I found there!

• Last year I bought Pixelmator and found the UI difficult. It reminded me of Adobe glut-ware. Since Apple acquired Pixelmator it now has a user interface that is designed for ease-of-use. I won’t go into details, but instead just say that it is now my tool-of-choice for creative design. I have been using Affinity Designer, but since it also was bought out by another company that doesn’t seem to care about the “Designer” app, I have now converted to Apple Pixelmator Pro.
• I know there are a lot of reviews wondering why Apple folded iWorks into the Creator Studio subscription plan. But, when I tried Pages and Numbers in this new package the improved user interface is much better than the old iWorks apps.

So, I now use the Apple Creator Studio to replace Office 365 and Affinity Designer.  That is a substantial reduction in costs, and a substantial improvement in the user-interface for tools that I spend a lot of time with.

Goodbye Microsoft 365 — Hello Apple Creator Studio