Apple provides some gems as well
It was inevitable. I’m a Mac Addict first and foremost and on the heels of that follows app addiction. So, somewhere along the way this blog was bound to include an app that was generated by Apple rather than all the wonderful 3rd party devs out there.
Well, not just one app but three — the iWork suite. Yes, yes, I know that it isn’t a serious contender yet for people in business who have been using that other Office suite for years and there are people who will be quite satisfied by free / open source alternatives.
But there is no denying that even developers of Apple software, like the folks at Panic, are impressed with Keynote. It’s the true gem of the 3 apps in this suite. It is truly amazing how easy it is to make a presentation with impact and polish without going overboard with effects. To be sure, the ability to add effects is there but there is no compelling need to pile them on to make your point. Keynote is just that good.I had the privilege of receiving version 1.0 after a Steve Jobs Keynote presentation at Macworld. I has only gotten better since then.
The second gem of this trio would have to be Numbers. It is such a pleasant departure from Excel. However, those who are extremely familiar with other spreadsheet apps will find some things take getting used to. But, the flexibility and again, the polish, that is built into this app makes it a joy to use, even if you aren’t fond of dealing with numbers and accounting in general. 
The third app in this suite has come a long way from it’s first version. It is a solid word processing app for all but the most complex of projects. It handles most formatting gracefully and handles graphics with ease. I’ve switched to it for all letter writing, fax cover sheet and standard short document work. Each of these apps have numerous templates that come with them upon installation and there are a number of sources for templates around the web as well. One place worth looking at is the iWorkCommunity.com Template Exchange