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Question about Macs and office documents
subedii
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Someone I know is interested in getting a new computer. Basic needs are just for work, and plenty of photo editing. He's interested in a Mac.
He has a wealth of word, powerpoint, and other documents using the Microsoft Office suite though, and he needs to be able to access them. Is this stuff going to be readable / usable using a Mac's usual suite of office type applications or will he need to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for Mac?
I've also heard a fair amount about Open Office (key feature of it being free and simple enough to use. Not that he has any trouble learning new software if he has to). Is it capable of reading / editing standard Microsoft Office documents (and writing documents readable by Microsoft applications)? Also, is there an apple version or is it PC only at the moment?
And before anyone asks, yes I AM pretty certain Linux is out, at least for the time being.
So, any advice?
He has a wealth of word, powerpoint, and other documents using the Microsoft Office suite though, and he needs to be able to access them. Is this stuff going to be readable / usable using a Mac's usual suite of office type applications or will he need to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for Mac?
I've also heard a fair amount about Open Office (key feature of it being free and simple enough to use. Not that he has any trouble learning new software if he has to). Is it capable of reading / editing standard Microsoft Office documents (and writing documents readable by Microsoft applications)? Also, is there an apple version or is it PC only at the moment?
And before anyone asks, yes I AM pretty certain Linux is out, at least for the time being.
So, any advice?
subedii on
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Not sure about any office software that is bundled with the Mac though. In fact, I can't think that there is any. There's a basic notepad type application but there isn't a proper word processor, spreadsheet or presentation application that comes free with OSX as far as I recall. You'd need to buy iWork or something.
However, the new Macs can all run Windows, so if he really needs something that isn't available/doesn't work 100% on OS X, he could just get a copy of Windows and run both. AFAIK, a Mac running Windows is the same as a regular PC running Windows.
Yeah but the problem is cost and convenience. I don't think either of us would see much point in him getting a mac if he had to do all his work in windows, and had to pay extra for the privilege. That, and the fact that I'm the one that usually gets called in on tech support when something nasty hits the fan. Frankly, I doubt I'd ever want a Mac for myself but I'm happy for him to get one because he just needs it for work and it's less likely to throw a curve ball at him. Macs just work, or so the theory goes. Aside from the standard office utilities, internet and photo editing are the only other things he's really going to make much use of, both of which a Mac has no trouble with.
In any case, it seems as if I'll have to look into Open Office (or NeoOffice). From what I've heard it's intuitive enough to get the hang of, and if it's compatible with the standard Word / Excel / Powerpoint formats, then that's easily saving a lot of money. Will probably look into iWork as well (assuming that can make use of Microsoft Office files).
Thanks all.
There's lots of free stuff... but there's lots of free stuff for Windows, and he's not using that now anyway.
So tell him that he can use the free stuff for now, but if it pisses him off and doesn't work like he wants, to just buy office. Compatibility is basically 100% and while the interfaces are slightly different, overall the experience is identical.
I mean, as a worst case scenario, "just buy office" is pretty good.