08-10-2010, 08:45 PM

I just received my iMac today, and I'm looking for software that would give me complete interoperability with Microsoft office, specifically Word.

I already tried OpenOffice and found out that it messed up the formatting of the work document - unacceptable to me. It can not mess up the formatting at all.

Is my best bet to use Bootcamp - install Windows 7 and then install Office XP?

08-10-2010, 08:57 PM

As far as I know iWork (Not iLife) Pages can open Microsoft Word documents without problems.

08-10-2010, 09:24 PM

If you want complete interoperability with Microsoft Office, then you have to buy Microsoft Office. End of story.

08-10-2010, 09:45 PM

Originally Posted by shades

If you want complete interoperability with Microsoft Office, then you have to buy Microsoft Office. End of story.

And even then, it might not always be the case. The same goes for Windows versions of Office amongst different generations of the product. If the formatting must be preserved completely intact, you'll want to convert it to PDF (File => Print => Save as PDF).

08-10-2010, 11:52 PM

iWork (not iLife as mentioned) can open up:

.doc/.docx
.ppt/.pptx
.xls/.xlsx

OpenOffice has a default format called ODF, and by default, any document you opened with OpenOffice/Neo Office will be saved in ODF. You can optionally set it to other formats, including Office 2007, Office 97-03 and other, less popular formats.

iWork default formats are:

.pages for iWork Pages
.keynote for iWork Keynote
.numbers for iWork Numbers

Even TextEdit can open up .doc and .docx files.

I'd say for specifically Word, you're covered.

As far as in-document formatting goes (such as graphics, colors, layouts etc.), those will be the main hurdles for you.

08-10-2010, 11:55 PM

Well, opening up the file is one thing; being able to retain formatting and comments, and tables, and margins, hmmm no. The others come close, but the OP asked for "complete interoperability with Microsoft Office."

08-11-2010, 12:04 AM

Originally Posted by Chris H.

iWork (not iLife as mentioned) can open up:

Whoops, thanks for pointing that out.

08-11-2010, 12:08 AM

Originally Posted by shades

Well, opening up the file is one thing; being able to retain formatting and comments, and tables, and margins, hmmm no. The others come close, but the OP asked for "complete interoperability with Microsoft Office."

Define "complete interoperability". Microsoft Office is Microsoft Office. iWork is iWork. Sure they share the ability to open up Office documents and create the same things, they're each their own program.

08-11-2010, 12:12 AM

Originally Posted by Chris H.

Define "complete interoperability". Microsoft Office is Microsoft Office. iWork is iWork. Sure they share the ability to open up Office documents and create the same things, they're each their own program.

As in..if I create a document in Microsoft Office, and open it up in say..Open Office, the formatting (tabs, indents, etc) and not being all screwed up.

08-11-2010, 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by SilverBlade

As in..if I create a document in Microsoft Office, and open it up in say..Open Office, the formatting (tabs, indents, etc) and not being all screwed up.

That's exactly why I stated "Define Interoperability". Even if you spring for Microsoft Office for Mac, you are still going to run into some issues. It's best if you stick with Microsoft Office in Windows if you don't want things to get severely messed up. Otherwise, if you're starting out fresh on the Mac, by all means try other software.