10-06-2010, 12:14 PM

Hi

I'm trying to find good software to translate PC files I'm sent, specifically .wps .doc and .xls files (I've used MacLink before, but have seen poor reviews of it recently).

iLife seems to translate these files, but as my OS is 10.4.11, iLife 09 is no good (needs 10.5.6 or later). So:

- will iLife 08 do the translation job adequately?

- what about iWork: would it work any better?

Many thanks for all your help, folks!

10-06-2010, 03:13 PM

The iLife suite of applications include iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, and iWeb.

You would also need iWork (which is a separate suite which much be purchased) in order to read and write to DOC, XLS, PPT files. (MS Office files)
(The WPS files are WordPerfect files.)

From your post, I'm not sure what you're trying to do? If you just need to read and write to Office files and WordPerfect, download and install the free NeoOffice.

I'd recommend Open Office but it's for Intel only.

10-12-2010, 01:49 PM

Thanks so much.

"You would also need iWork ..." - are you saying I need both iLife AND iWork to do the job?

I looked at NeoOffice, but the website says "we expect that users will find crashing or other serious bugs ... If you feel that you need software that has been heavily tested, we recommend that you use a commercially-supported product like ... Apple iWork". As a non-expert, I'd be happier with a really stable product!

Your thoughts would be really appreciated.

10-12-2010, 02:13 PM

You don't NEED any of the iLife applications to open Windows documents, just iWork. iLife, as mentioned above, is not a single application, but a package of media applications. Word processing applications like Pages, Numbers, etc are part of iWork.

If you don't want to buy iWork, OpenOffice is another free alternative. I used it before I got iWork and I never had any problems with it.