And yet, last week, Apple brought out a new spreadsheet program called Numbers, thus completing one of its least-known products: a productivity suite called iWork. The iWork ‘08 suite, which competes with the Macintosh version of Microsoft Office, also includes a word-processing program called Pages and a presentation program called Keynote. The two were upgraded last week. IWork costs $79, about half the price of the lowest-cost version of Microsoft Office, which sells for $149.

In the past 10 years, Apple has out-designed Microsoft and its hardware partners in a number of key areas. But can Apple really take on Microsoft in the category of productivity software, where Office rules on both Windows and the Mac? To find out, I’ve been testing the new iWork, which runs only on the Mac, against the Mac version of Office.

My verdict: iWork ‘08 is a nice product, capable of turning out sophisticated and attractive word-processing, presentation and spreadsheet documents. It can even read Microsoft Office documents, whether created on the Mac or on Windows computers, and can save documents in Microsoft Office formats so they can be opened in Office on the Mac or on Windows.

But iWork simply isn’t as powerful or versatile as Microsoft Office, especially when it comes to word processing and spreadsheets. And it suffers from a design that places far more emphasis on making documents look beautiful than on the nuts and bolts of the actual process of writing and number-crunching.

There’s one big omission in iWork: It has no integrated email, contacts and calendar module comparable to Outlook in Windows or to Entourage, the Outlook equivalent that’s a part of the Mac version of Microsoft Office. Apple decided to rely on the very good email, calendar and address book programs that it builds into every Mac.

But iWork has one big plus: It’s the first Mac office suite that can open (though not create) files in the new formats Microsoft introduced in the Windows version of Office earlier this year. The Mac version of Office won’t do that until Office 2008 is out in January.

The new Numbers spreadsheet has some refreshing innovation that makes it far more approachable for casual spreadsheet users than Microsoft Excel often is. Numbers allows you to place multiple spreadsheet tables, plus charts and graphics, on a blank canvas that you can arrange any way you want. Each of the spreadsheet tables functions like an Excel spreadsheet with individual cells able to hold numbers, text or formulas.

Numbers has some other nice features to make things simpler. Any cell meant to contain a value you type in can be controlled with a slider or up-and-down arrows, so you can rapidly see how different numeric values would alter calculations without a lot of retyping.

I also found that Numbers made it easier than Excel to sort columns, and to add or move columns and rows. It’s also easier to create formulas using the actual names of columns and rows rather than their number/letter coordinates. And Numbers lets you drag and drop common formulas, such as Sum and Average, to the bottom of a column of numbers.

For real spreadsheet jockeys, however, Numbers is wimpier than Excel. It has only about half as many functions for making calculations and doesn’t do pivot tables.

The Pages program was originally more of a page-layout program than a writing tool. The new version attempts to fix this imbalance with a less artsy word-processing mode. But the effort is only partly successful. It still de-emphasizes some writer-friendly features. For instance, its auto-correct function is much weaker than Word’s. Another example: In Word, to see how many words your document contains, you just glance at the bottom of the screen. In Pages, you must dig down into a submenu to find the answer. The command for showing invisible formatting marks also is harder to find than in Word.

The strongest part of iWork is Keynote, the presentation program, which still makes it easier than Microsoft’s PowerPoint does to make rich, beautiful slide shows. The new version isn’t a major overhaul, but it includes a new feature called Instant Alpha that makes it easy to eliminate unwanted backgrounds from photos.

In my tests, importing and exporting documents between iWork and Office worked fine for simple files. But fidelity isn’t always perfect, especially in Numbers, where missing Excel functions or Numbers-only features don’t carry over.

If you’re a Mac user with basic word-processing and spreadsheet needs, and a strong emphasis on design, iWork is good choice, especially if perfect compatibility with Microsoft Office isn’t a high priority. But for office-suite users more concerned with function than form, I’d recommend sticking with Office.

Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. Find all my columns and videos online free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Clearly, many people are furious about these unwanted programs and icons, which are sometimes called craplets. Many would like to smite them without going through the laborious process of uninstalling them manually, one at a time. Some readers suggested strategies. The following are some options.

One ray of hope is a free program called PC Decrapifier. It can be downloaded at pcdecrapifier.com. This software automates the process of uninstalling craplets. It was written originally to clean up Dell computers, but its author says it will work on other brands, too. Before PC Decrapifier runs, it allows you to remove from its proposed deletion list any programs it considers junk, but which you might prefer to retain.

I haven’t tested PC Decrapifier, but even assuming it works well there are a couple of downsides. First, it may not remove every craplet from every manufacturer. Also, unless you carefully tweak the deletions list, PC Decrapifier might remove some full working copies of preinstalled software that you want; it can’t easily differentiate between trial and real versions of some commonly bundled programs.

Another option is to order a PC without the craplets in the first place. Some high-end Dell gaming machines are sold this way. Dell says you can also opt out of some third-party software on other models. Certain business models from various makers can be purchased clean, as well. But even business machines sometimes come with unwanted trial software, like limited versions of accounting programs, and may not be configured for consumers.

Dell, Sony and others say they are moving toward a new scenario in which all of this stuff will be easily refused on all models.

An alternate strategy is to avoid brand-name Windows computers and buy a Vista PC from a local shop that will construct it to your specs and leave off all the craplets. The catch is that you may pay more, and you must be certain that the shop will be around and willing to provide support for the life of the machine.

Some techies wrote me to say that the first thing they do with a new PC is to wipe out the hard disk and reinstall Windows so they start with a clean machine. But I can’t recommend this for average users. For one thing, many new PCs no longer come with disks for reinstalling a full, clean version of Windows. Some have special sections of the hard disk from which you can perform a “recovery,” but these recoveries may not be complete or may reload the craplets along with Windows. You could, of course, buy a fresh copy of Vista to reinstall, but that could cost hundreds of dollars.

Also, wiping out and rebuilding an operating system can be tricky for nontechies. Dell told me, “It is not advisable for nontechie consumers to wipe the hard drive and reinstall. … This is intended as an emergency backup or for the technically sophisticated.” Sony and Gateway sent me similar warnings.

Finally, an excellent way to avoid or minimize the craplet problem is to simply buy an Apple Macintosh computer. New Macs don’t have any craplets displayed on their desktops. On a new Mac, no third-party software is automatically launched when you start the computer, and you don’t need antivirus or antispyware programs because the Mac is essentially free from those menaces. So, even my year-old Mac laptop reboots roughly three times as fast as my three-week-old Sony.

Apple does include a few third-party programs on Macs, including one that, oddly, is for drawing comic-strip effects on photos. But these are tucked away in the applications folder and most are full working versions, not trials or offers. The main exception is a trial version of Microsoft Office. With some Mac models, you get trials of two Apple programs, iWork and FileMaker Pro. But these trials can be deleted simply by dragging the icons to the trash can.

Computer makers should stop dumping craplets on us. Until they do, you can find ways to avoid them.

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. See video versions of my reviews at wsj.com/mossbergvideo.

The makers of the gadgets have been trying to move them into the mainstream. GPS navigation has shown up in cellphones, personal digital assistants and fitness gear. But these new incarnations have failed to make GPS navigation a big hit with average people.

Now, one of the top makers of GPS receivers, Kansas-based Garmin Ltd., has taken a bold step toward that mainstream. It has created a small, sleek portable GPS receiver meant to be carried everywhere. This new gadget has been recast as a “personal travel assistant,” to shed its geeky roots. And it includes not only satellite navigation and mapping, but also a built-in music player, photo viewer, U.S. travel guide, audio-book reader, language translator, currency converter and more.

I’ve been testing this new gadget, called the Nüvi 350, in and out of my car, and I find myself torn about it. On the plus side, it’s really well designed and has a good, simple user interface. It does what it promises for the most part, and requires no setup or technical knowledge.

But at $900, the Nüvi costs as much as a decent laptop, and more than double that of such established portable prodigies as Palm’s Treo smart phone or Apple’s top-of-the-line iPod.

And the Nüvi’s core function, GPS navigation, is still too crude and clumsy to command such a high price from a mainstream, casual user. This is a problem with every GPS receiver I’ve tested, not just the Nüvi. Too often, all of them suggest routes that a savvy local driver would immediately recognize as too long or too slow or too likely to place you into heavy traffic. That level of inaccuracy might be fine in a $150 device, but $900 is a lot to pay for roundabout directions.

The Nüvi is a rectangular, silver-colored plastic device that’s less than four inches wide, less than three inches high and less than an inch deep. It weighs about five ounces. Its front surface is dominated by a large, 3.5-inch color screen that’s bright and vivid. Other than a power button on the top, there are no buttons, switches or scrolling devices on the Nüvi. Everything is controlled by touching options on the screen.

The only features on the outside are a flip-up GPS antenna on the rear — a squarish panel of silver-colored plastic — and three openings on the side that accept an SD memory card, headphones and the cables that charge the Nüvi or connect it to a computer.

The Nüvi starts up quickly and, more importantly, acquires the signal from the satellites in seconds, a vast improvement over the last Garmin model I tested some years ago. The main menu has just three entries: Where to?, View Map, and Travel Kit. The first is where you enter a destination, and the last opens a submenu that includes all of the Nüvi’s nonmapping functions.

Using the included suction-cup mount, I placed the Nüvi inside the windshield of my car, just to the left of the steering wheel. For a few days I breezed around the Washington, D.C., area, letting the Nüvi direct me to and from my house, my office and other locations. Its maps, which can be in 3D if you like, were easy to follow. The female voice that told me which turns to take sounded almost human.

Like every other navigation system I’ve tested, Nüvi gave me routes that were technically accurate, but usually suboptimal, often seriously so. My favorite example was when it tried to put me on the notorious Washington Beltway, and then a second freeway, at rush hour to get me to a point I could have reached in five minutes via a local street that was maybe 200 yards past the freeway entrance.

I was able to change these instructions by selecting an option instructing Nüvi to avoid freeways, but then it would have ignored them even when they were the best option. The Nüvi includes a clock. So, why doesn’t it, at the very least, have the brains to keep you off urban freeways during rush hour?

The Nüvi suggested different routes for the same trip on different days, and once lost its way when I emerged from a tunnel. It also had a habit of suddenly, and without notice, zooming its map view out so far that it showed the whole city, instead of my route. These examples may seem like nitpicking, but they’re fair when a product like this costs almost $1,000.

The non-navigation features worked fine, but were very basic. The music player handled songs OK, either from the Nüvi’s internal memory or an SD card, but lacked the ability to make or use playlists. The photo viewer slide shows had no manual controls or transitions.

Worst of all for such a costly device, the built-in travel guide has only sample data. To get the whole thing, you pay another $75.

As slick as the Nüvi is, I consider it too expensive for the value it delivers, at least for mainstream, casual users.

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com.