Mac Book questions for you experts!

Just got back from Florida (trip report to follow) and, as you do, spent lots of time in Apple stores, and have decided to finally treat myself to a Macbook pro, can get a good deal from Apple as I am on a teacher training PGCE, so can get Education discount. I am concerned though about exchanging documents etc within school with others who work on Windows and word etc, will this be a problem. What software should I buy, Iwork or MacOffice, and do they work, and what is Parallels? Also read that the aluminium case gets very hot, is this also true.

I know most of you are Mac fans, I really want to get one but am wondering if they are worth their price tag. Any comments gratefully received,

Lynne

[Nottingham Nick]

I am by no means the expert you require - there are lots of those on here, [8D] but I run Microsoft office:Mac on my Macbook and don't have a problem. I got the teacher / student edition when I bought the machine for Chris.

I understand parallels enables you to run the windows OS on a Mac, but I have never seen the point of this, so have never installed it.

I was a slow, somewhat reluctant Mac convert, but have had mine over a year now and am a firm Apple fan now. [;)]

Nick

[HighFlyer]

You shouldnt have any issues here, both iWork and Mac Office support the standard Microsoft file type associations. The only issue you may have is that there are some format styles that are not in the 'other' version so sometimes the PC or Mac will substitute but generally speaking this isnt an issue. I used to regularly swap office docs from my Mac to my PC without issue.

Parallels is a product that allows you to run Windows on your Mac in a virtual machine, so you have both Windows and Mac running at the same time - great if you have some apps that you want to run that are not available on the Mac yet. The Windows apps run seamlessly, so you just see the program, not a seperate computer window - if that makes sense? If not, let me know. I used to partner with Paralleks in a previous job role.

I would definitely say that the Mac is worth its price tag. I have never had any issues with mine, other than faulty batteries that were replaced free of charge at Apple.

Thanks,
Sarah

I run open office on my mac and have pretty much no issues sending, receiving and working on MS Office documents apart from the occasional format hiccup. And of course it's free.

The days of Macs being run only by geeks is well and truly over as far as I'm concerned.

Miopyk[8D]

Hi,

thanks for replies, my son said there would be an Open Office for Mac to download, that's what we use on our PCs now.

Have decided to take the plunge and order one, hope its as good as every one says! Just waiting till Thursday over with, that's A level results day and we'll know if No. 1 son has got into University or not, he's not at all worried, but I am!

Thanks again,

Lynne

It might be a good idea if people stopped going on about how good macs are... At the moment they tend to be bought by intelligent creative people and I'd prefer it if it stayed that way. If macs become market leader then we'll lose any sort of exclusivity and get all the script kiddies trying to write viruses for it. Have you ever heard of someone getting rid of their macbook pro to buy a PC?... Rarely happens.

No, I think once Lynne's got hers, we should all shut up and let the Windows users struggle on!!!

[:w][:w][:w]

P.S. Lynne, you'll get a free upgrade to 'Snow Leopard' with your mac... Instal it as soon as you can to make things easier during your transition. (It'll only install on a formatted drive). It's totally re-written for your 64bit Intel chips and rocks!!! (V.Fast).

[RichardMannion]

quote:Originally posted by Capt.Pag

No, I think once Lynne's got hers, we should all shut up and let the Windows users struggle on!!!


Well yes as there are quite a few of us with Windows. Can't really say I struggle with it though. Each to their own though.

I see that reply took 35 mins... Did you have to re-boot ???

[:D][:D][:D]

[RichardMannion]

quote:Originally posted by Capt.Pag
I see that reply took 35 mins... Did you have to re-boot ???




Sadly no, my machine hasn't been rebooted since I installed Windows 7 RTM. Whatever would give you that deluded thought? Whatever next, people buying Macs and then using VM Fusion/Parallels or BootCamp and installing Windows? [:w]

[HighFlyer]

Okay, that's enough. No Mac vs PC arguments here please! This thread is to help Billybob (and Lynne), not to start another Mac vs PC argument, which for those of us who have been around a while will recall can get rather heated.

Thanks,
Sarah

If it's any help, I use iWork on my Mac. I can open Word .doc files no problem and save an iWork (Pages) document as a .doc file so a person using a PC can open it.

[Darren Wheeler]

I must revisit mine with Parallels again. Anyone found any good prices on 4.0. Miles too would be good. [:)]

quote:Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
I must revisit mine with Parallels again. Anyone found any good prices on 4.0. Miles too would be good. [:)]


Either www.play.com or www.ebay.com

Don't forget to log in to your flying club account first and then follow the shop link to pick up those extra miles [:D]