10-23-2008, 01:18 PM

Hi, I am very very tempted to get one of the new mac books - migrating from a thinkpad. One of the things that is holding me back is I use my laptop for business, and communicate with companies mostly running the Windows version of MS Office (mainly Word, Excel and PowerPoint).

I get the impression that Mac Office is not fully compatible with Windows office - for me thats unnacceptable.

Therefore the best option would seem to be running parallels or fusion + MS office.

Has anyone done this and does it work flawlessly? Any other comments and advice much appreciated

Thanks a lot. D

10-23-2008, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by diggerbarnes

Hi, I am very very tempted to get one of the new mac books - migrating from a thinkpad. One of the things that is holding me back is I use my laptop for business, and communicate with companies mostly running the Windows version of MS Office (mainly Word, Excel and PowerPoint).

I get the impression that Mac Office is not fully compatible with Windows office - for me thats unnacceptable.

Therefore the best option would seem to be running parallels or fusion + MS office.

Has anyone done this and does it work flawlessly? Any other comments and advice much appreciated

Thanks a lot. D

This highly depends on what you do with your files. For example, if you are like 90% of the business people out there, then you will probably find that you will have no problems using Office to communicate with your associates. Now, if you are using advanced Macro's and such in Excel, for example, then yes, you would need to install Fusion and then run Office in there.

10-23-2008, 01:36 PM

Thanks thats a good point, its bog standard stuff really, nothing too advanced.

My biggest worry is that I create/edit a document and it looks great, but the person who receives it (on windows) sees something different.

A minor worry is the Mac Office user interface - its quite different from what I've seen to the Windows one - although I'm a big mac fan, I have to say I like Windows Word, Excel and PowerPoint and know my way around them really well.

10-23-2008, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by diggerbarnes

Thanks thats a good point, its bog standard stuff really, nothing too advanced.

My biggest worry is that I create/edit a document and it looks great, but the person who receives it (on windows) sees something different.

A minor worry is the Mac Office user interface - its quite different from what I've seen to the Windows one - although I'm a big mac fan, I have to say I like Windows Word, Excel and PowerPoint and know my way around them really well.

That really shouldn't happen because you are using the same office formats. In my company we have Mac's and Window's machines and I have yet to run into that problem, not saying it's not possible, but I haven't personally seen it, even with PPT and PPTX files.

10-23-2008, 01:59 PM

I use Office for Mac on a daily basis for work and it's a non-issue for me. I've never had a problem with Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. I use basic forms with Word files, and they work fine on both PC & Mac.

I have also installed XP/Parallels and run Office 2003 without a problem as well. It runs perfectly under Parallels. I chose Office for Mac over this option, since it takes a minute to start up XP/Parallels and then start Office 2003.

You may also want to check out CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac. It claims compatibility with Office. It starts PC applications with one click just like they are native OS X applications without loading Windows first. I've never used it with Office, but I did try the 30 day trial with another application and it did work.

Windows Applications Seamlessly Integrated on Mac OS X - CrossOver Mac

It wouldn't let these concerns prevent you from making the switch. While we can't tell you exactly what the best solution will be, we can tell you that one of these options will work.

As for the differences in appearance between the PC and Mac versions, they aren't that much greater than the differences between the different versions of PC Office. As I recall, 2003 Outlook had a different look than XP Outlook, but I don't know anyone who had any real problems learning the new design/layout.

10-24-2008, 02:24 PM

Thanks lifeafter2am and jaygray. I guess the thing to do is to give it a go with Mac Office.

Crossover looks good, but most MS office apps from 2003 onwards only receive silver or worse ratings

10-24-2008, 05:15 PM

Provided you have sufficient memory in any machine, Office 2008 will run smoothly and you will have no problems with documents provided you save in the .doc format and not the .docx format which is the default.

Have used Office for Mac in emailing documents and Excel spreadsheets for many years with sales and marketing figures with very few problems. Make sure you download the Microsoft Open XML converter also.

10-26-2008, 11:24 AM

I changed over to a Mac from a pc just a year ago. I use Office for Mac 2008 and did use 2004. There is absolutely no incompatibility, other than the lack of vbasic macros in the Mac version which is a minor irritation.

10-27-2008, 02:03 PM

Well, seems like I was misinformed about compatibility issues. Though good to knowm about parallels etc as I have some other windows only software to run anyway. Thanks again !

10-27-2008, 07:41 PM

I believe you can't embed fonts in the mac version as you can in windows. If I'm wrong can someone please let me know?

10-28-2008, 10:31 AM

Hi, sorry what do you mean 'embed fonts' ? (excuse my ignorance )

10-29-2008, 09:11 PM

If your document uses fonts not available on other computers, then in windows versions of word you can embed the font into the document itself so that it shows correctly on other computers that do not contain a particular font. As far as I know Word 08 doesn't have this feature. I'm told it was in Word 04 though. If it is there I'd be glad if someone can point me to where it would be.