My desktop PC is dead. May it rest in peace in Dell heaven, if there is such a place. Ha.

So it looks like I'm going with MacBook Pro. Problem is:

1. I am in love with Excel and Word. What is the Mac equivalent? Can I open Excel/Word files from a PC user if they email them to me and I'm on a Mac?
2. I have Photoshop CS2, PC version. Is it correct that if you call, they will inactivate the PC version and send Mac version.
3. Will any printer (I have an HP) work with a Mac?

That's all I can think of now. I really am completely uneducated on the subject of Apple/Mac, so any assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you!
Sherry

1) They sell a version of Office for Mac. You can buy it at the Apple Store at the same time you buy your macbook pro. I'd recommend checking out OpenOffice - just as many features as MS office, but it's a free download. I prefer it over MS Office in just about every way.
2) I have heard this but not verified it... may want to look into CS4 as soon as it's available as it will run much faster on the Intel processors that apple is using now.
3) Apple has better printer support built in than microsoft... if it doesn't work out of the box it shouldn't be too difficult to get the right drivers installed.

1. Yes, microsoft office is available for mac. Don't waste your money though, go to http://neooffice.org and download their free opensource office program, which is virtually identical to MS Office, and FREE... did I mention it's FREE??

2. Yes, you can call adobe and ask for a "cross platform upgrade" from windows to mac. This doesn't cost a thing. HOWEVER... CS2 WILL NOT RUN PROPERLY ON ANY NEW (intel) MACS!!! Upgrade your copy of CS2 to CS3 in the process. CS4 will be out later this year but CS3 will function more than well enough to last you for a few more years at least. Again, CS2 will not work properly on intel macs... this is something that MANY MANY people don't understand, but it's written in an older "language" that is not supported by the new processors, at least natively.

3. Yes, it will. In fact, you probably won't even have to run the installer CD... just plug it in and OS X Leopard will most likely have the driver for you already.

If you have any other questions, feel free to post here or send me a PM. If you haven't already bought your computer, shoot me an e-mail and I can help you save a few (hundred) bucks.

Buy this book

Now

Don't wait!

WAHOOOO!!!!!!!!!
another PC bites the dust!!
Macs rock. point blank rock.

I flippin LOVE mine!
I TRIED to bog it down this past weekend and couldn't do it. My quad core PC would have been screamin in pain...



Everything Trevor said... +1

I think you will be very pleased with the performance of your new machine. You made a good decision. Enjoy!

Now if we could just more software written for the Mac

Quickbooks to handle CCard processing.

QImage

LumaPix FotoFusion

Gotta run Windows on my perty Mac until the software designers get off their lazy butts.

I have a PC desktop and a Mac Lap top. Since I still use my PC, I bought a new Photoshop for the Mac.

You can open excell documents in Numbers, and you can open Word documents in Pages. So, you won't have any problem there.

You can even export a numbers doc as an excel doc, and you can export a pages doc as a word doc. I do this all the time since I work on both computers. I didn't want to pay for the word for Mac.

As Kari has mentioned above, "iWork 08," which contains Pages (word) and Numbers (Excel) as well as Keynote (PowerPoint's big brother) is a really nice set of word/number/presentation processing software at a relatively small ($79) price tag. However, I still suggest that you use Neo Office, as it will do more than enough and works, feels and looks SOOO MUCH like MS Office. However, should you feel it to be unsatisfactory, I highly suggest iWork!

Congrats to you! I just switched 4 or 5 weeks ago and have a Macbook Pro as well.

I didn't know about Neo office, just heard about it yesterday so I might go check it out. I did download Open office. It's free as well, and does all of the things MS Office does.

Your HP printer should work fine. My Lexmark printer/copier/fax didn't work, nor did my Canon printer/copier/scanner...but my plain ol' HP did. Now I just need a copier...

Now why would you ruin a perfectly good Mac by installing a Microsoft product on it...the only time my Mac has crashed was when I was running a Microsoft program on it...

NeoOffice is great...have had no issues with it at all. OpenOffice is working on a native interface to the Mac but it's still in alpha...go with NeoOffice.

Might you be thinking of CS (1)? CS2 runs on Intel-based Macs natively. I have the CS2 Creative suite on my MacBook and my G5 tower, and neither of them have a Classic environment installed.

What MS program do you mean? I didn't install any MS programs on my Mac...I'm in agreement with you on that one.

Nope, Trevor is right. (when it comes to Macs he usually is, don't tell him that though). CS2 will work fine on a G4/G5, but not on an Intel Mac without emulation software (you might be running it and not even know it...). CS3 was designed for the Intel Macs. Software has to have the 'Universal' designation to signify it's written to work on the Intel Macs.

As bill said, I'm right. LOL, no but seriously (and not trying to be an ass here) just because you have it installed on both systems doesn't mean it works now, does it

CS2 will "sort of" run on an intel mac.... sure... it's running in Rosetta, or whatever it's called. Try comparing it though to CS3... you'll see a world of difference, and no crashes. Honestly, I've never had CS3 crash on a mac once... except for InDesign CS3 which apparently isn't supported by quad core PowerMac G5s (google search it... it's the most ridiculous, frustrating thing ever) which is why I now use entirely intel macs... the G5 has been pushed back to the secondary workstation position in my studio.

bottom line is to just be careful and not rely on anything CS2 on an intel mac... if you haven't had problems yet, you will. before that happens, maybe look into upgrading your copy of CS2 to CS3...

Ah, okay, when you said it wasn't running "natively" I was thinking of the really old-school method of opening up a Classic environment to run OS 9 applications. Also, I had a ditz moment, I said G5 and should've said quad core Intel, must've typed it out of habit, but yeah, both the laptop and desktop are Intel chips.

Sure enough, now that you mention it, Rosetta does sound familiar, I'd totally forgotten about it. I didn't notice any performance ding because I upgraded Photoshop alone to CS3 when I got my 40D, and InDesign and Illustrator CS2 work fine for the low amount of work I'm doing with them.

Sorry to get a bit sidetracked from the original thread, but Trevor, would you recommend I upgrade my remaining CS2 apps to CS3? I'm having trouble justifying the expense when they're only used occasionally and I'm not pushing any boundaries computationally or feature-wise on anything but Photoshop.

But to get back on topic, grats Sherry on the new comp! I have Microsoft Office for Mac, I'm not proud of that fact, and I can't really recommend getting it over any of the other software options mentioned above. I'm thinking of going to get NeoOffice anyway despite having paid-for software already installed just for the feel-good aspect...

dude your going to love your new mac!

¡¡sɔɐɯ buıddı1ɟ