07-11-2006, 03:03 AM

Hello everyone, I'm new here. I think this forum is great!

I just got back from NY and after using my cousin's iMac, having been a pc user all my life, I'm a believer now! Its very simple and the machine is practically silent!

I'm off to graduate school next month and am in line to get a compact laptop and macbook immediately came to mind. I've already been to the Apple Shop numerous times so I know the pros of getting a mac. Now, I know there is a learning curve with the mac and have the following questions:

1) I'll be doing alot of presentation and word processing/Excel and such. I played with my cousin's Mac Office and frankly speaking, it was hard to use! Exactly how easy it is to navigate Mac Office and did anyone have problems with it?

2) iPod! I understand that a Windows based iPod will also work on mac. However, I heard that Mac based iPods have alot more features than the Windows based (What exactly, I'm not sure). I guess in order to convert my current iPod to mac based, I'd have to copy all the songs to the macbook, reformat my iPod, then transfer the songs back in. Is this the easiest way? And will any problems arise from this procedure? (such as forgeign characters not being recognized, etc etc)

3) Can the macbook type Chinese?

Thanks in advance!

BTW, I'm looking to get the macbook off macmall.com with Windows XP. Just in case I don't get used to the OS, I can always go back to Windows. :miner:

07-11-2006, 03:06 AM

1, i'm fairly sure that office on the two platforms is fairly the same

2, any 3rd gen+ iPod can be used on a mac or pc no differences, no other features

3, yes, mac os has chinese character support right out of the box

07-11-2006, 03:40 AM

Thanks Zal for your response. I actually tried to sync my iPod (5G Video) to my cousin's iMac using Firewire and it did not work. It could charge but could not sync. So I guess if I want to use Firewire, I have to convert to a mac based.

07-11-2006, 03:45 AM

The LATEST iPods no longer support Firewire except to charge the battery. They only sync with USB2 since the Nano and new Video iPods came out. I think that might be your problem.

07-11-2006, 11:11 PM

How easy/fast is it to switch from mac to windows? I will install windows as well because my school only supports windows. Do I have to log back out and back in to switch OS? How long will it take?

And are the files interchangable? Meaning, can I access the files from Windows if I'm in mac OS? Can I also copy the file from one OS to another (i.e. just 'move' the files around?)

Thanks in advance

07-12-2006, 03:42 AM

Originally Posted by littlemin

How easy/fast is it to switch from mac to windows? I will install windows as well because my school only supports windows. Do I have to log back out and back in to switch OS? How long will it take?

And are the files interchangable? Meaning, can I access the files from Windows if I'm in mac OS? Can I also copy the file from one OS to another (i.e. just 'move' the files around?)

Thanks in advance

well, there are a couple choices when it comes to using windows on a mac. one option is to install apple's boot camp. boot camp creates a separate partition for windows and you have to shut down the mac os to use it. this allows the software to run at its full potential and is best for games. to reboot and get windows started up probably takes about 2 minutes.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

the other option is parallels, a program that runs windows on a virtual machine inside os x. the benefit is that you don't have to log out and you can work on windows programs while still working on mac os. this is suitable for most programs, but not for graphics intensive programs like games or 3d modelling. it also takes up quite a bit of memory to have two operating systems running, so i wouldn't recommend using this with less than 1gb of ram. to start windows in parallels takes about a minute.

http://parallels.com/

as for moving files between the operating systems, that a bit tricky. if you use boot camp and you format windows as ntfs, mac os can read the partition but it can't write to it. if you format as fat32, mac os can read and write the partition, but it can't be larger than 32gb and there can't be any one file larger than 4gb. in either format, windows can't read the mac os partition. one solution is to get mediafour's macdrive, which allows windows to read mac formatted disks. http://mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/

if you use parallels there is an option to have a shared folder on os x accesible from windows. it uses the network to transfer files into that folder. you can use it as a drop box and then move the files to wherever they need to be.

well, i hope that sheds some light on windows on a mac. feel free to ask us more questions if anything isn't clear.

07-12-2006, 03:43 PM

I really enjoy Pages for my word processing. It't comes with iWork. I havn't used Keynotes yet, but I will let you know how well it works.

07-13-2006, 11:18 PM

Hi Dohidied,

Thanks for your reply. But after reading your post, it almost certainly made me want to go back to Windows! It just seemed so troublesome! I simply just want to share the files in between two OS. I've actually narrowed down my choices to either the Lenovo X60 (I have always loved the IBMs and this one is only 3lbs/12 inch, and it has my favorite, a trackpoint!) or the macbook.

One thing that concerns me is getting used to mb's touchpad and not using the trackpoint. I felt that the mighty mouse was not too responsive. How do you guys navigate when using a macbook, if a mouse is not currently present?

Back to the file sharing question. Can I put my windows office files into a flash drive or something, and drag the files into the mac OS via USB? That way I don't have to deal with the NTFS or FAT32 stuff. Am I too naive? or I just don't get it?

I downloaded Windows Office files from my e-mail via my cousin's iMac and it opened perfectly.

Sorry if I still don't get it.....

07-14-2006, 02:47 AM

Originally Posted by littlemin

Back to the file sharing question. Can I put my windows office files into a flash drive or something, and drag the files into the mac OS via USB? That way I don't have to deal with the NTFS or FAT32 stuff. Am I too naive? or I just don't get it?

I downloaded Windows Office files from my e-mail via my cousin's iMac and it opened perfectly.

Sorry if I still don't get it.....

a flash drive works fine to get files between the two, as flash drives are FAT formatted. as for the email, it works because the file formats are the same on both versions of microsoft office. when you attatch the files to the email the formatting of the drive doesn't matter anymore. similarly, windows and apple machines can read each other's drives over networks.