PC vs Mac
 

First of all, I am NO expert on this matter and need help.
I've only ever used a Windows driven PC at work and for home use and have now purchased a iMac. I think the Apple is great apart from not being able to use Excel, Word, Powerpoint etc.
I understand Mircosoft Office can be downloaded to the iMac.
How do I do this?
Remember I'm no expert and would appreciate and explanation in its simplest terms.
Thanks in advance.

You need a MAC specific version of Office. It is mostly compatible with the PC versions of Office. There are issues with Powerpoint for Mac reformatting slides when it opens an PC Powerpoint presentation. and there is no Outlook version.

Someone mentioned 'free' software called Boot Camp, but I need a copy of Windows XP for the download.

The simplest solution is to go buy MS Office for the Mac. Files transfer seamlessly between the two platforms except for the latest version of Office on the PC (which most aren't using yet afaik).

Or run Open Office. Or buy iWork and run Pages for word processing. Between the iApps you really don't need much else for typical work.

Thanks.

95% of what I do gets sent to my customers as an attachment. If they can't open it I'm screwed.

Moses was telling me about parallels, but I forgot to ask him if the files created in "Windows mode" have compatability issues.

that's why i have mac office on my computer. I have yet to have a compatibility issue...

I don't have an intel mac yet, so I can't comment on parallels.

I'll be getting a new laptop soon and I would consider an Apple, but I'll need to share MSOffice docs with others, especially MSWord, MSExcel and MSVisio docs. It would be easy to get another Dell laptop and run Windoze on it, but I am really considering the Apple, I just need to research it a little, especially considering the applications I use.

Stuart993,

I use Windows Office2004 for Mac on my Macs.
I have zero problems "communicating" with our office staff.
At first they were reluctant to let me go Mac, but now they let me do what I want because I have not cost them a cent, or a minute of IT tech support since using my own Mac stuff.
My Macs (laptop and desktop) are not the latest Intel versions. If you have a brand new Intel Mac,you can still use Office for Mac on the new Intels IIRC, it will just run a tad slower.

max
(Mac convert)

You can get a native version of Office for the Mac, or you can download OpenOffice.org for free. It is also Free software. http://www.openoffice.org

I use Ms Office for Mac - works well. You can also use Windows software on Intel Macs using Bootcamp or Parallels.

I have tried to open MSExcel and MSWord docs with Openoffice and had problems. My documents have macros, etc... and are extremely "version sensitive" and older versions of MSOffice have problems with them.

If you get a Mac you have several options:
Apple Boot Camp.
Boot Camp is beta right now, but it'll be built-in to the next version of OS X which will be released within the next month or so.
You supply a copy of XP or Vista, install Boot Camp and you can either boot into Windows or OS X.
I do it on my MacBook Pro and it works like a charm.

Parallels.
Parallels allows you to stay in OS X and virtualize Windows - basically run Windows applications in a window without having to reboot.
Again, you supply a full version of XP or Vista and you're off and running.

CrossOver
CrossOver is a little bit different. You don't need a copy of XP, but it'll open many MS applications like MS Office, MS Project, MS Visio, IE, etc.
It works, not through emulation, but by implementing a compatibility layer that provides implementations of the Dynamically Linked Libraries (DLLs) Windows application depend on.

Another option is to buy Office 2004 Standard Edition for OS X. It'll run non-natively on Intel Macs through the Rosetta Emulation layer. Microsoft does not intend to update Office 2004 for Intel Macs, but has announced that Office 2008, to be released in the second half of 2007, for Mac will have universal binaries capable of running natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

The new Intel-based Macs are solid machines.

Re: PC vs Mac
 

Excel was first written for the Mac, then ported over to the PC. Same with MS Word. I think Powerpoint came out for both at the same time.

You want MS Office X, I forget which version it's up to now.

And, yes, the Mac version reads all files generated on the PC.

I use NeoOffice. It is a free download. It is a little slow loading, but it works great.

Wrong.

In 15+ years and thru every version on BOTH platforms I have yet to encounter incompatabilities.

As far as Powerpoint it's usually a font conflict issue which can happen going from one Mac to another, a Mac to a PC or even a PC to a PC.

I bet I hit Lotto before you run into a cross platform issue with Office.

And the latest version of Office for the Mac runs better than Office for the PC.

Did I read that right, someone said "and there is no Outlook version"? :eek: http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/lol2.gif

Somebody needs to know that the first thing you should do when you get a PC home is trash Outlook.

The Mac mail client is definitely better than Outlook. Mozilla Thunderbird is free and is better than Outlook, FWIW. I've never had compatibility issues between Windows 2k and Mac OS 10.x Office files, FWIW.

Actually there is. It's just called Entourage on the Mac. Hooks into Outlook servers, the whole nine yards.

Eeeeeew!