12-14-2007, 05:16 AM

We are buying our daughter(11) a new macbook for Christmas and I need some advice as we are PC users.
Originally I was going to buy Office 2004 forher because of the free upgrade but then I saw Iwork 2008...my concern is compatibility at school. If she needs to present a slide show presentation on a PC at school can she use the Iwork software? I assume the mac Office will work on a PC. Which software is better?

If my husband upgrades the RAM will that void the warranty? We have already purchased additional RAM and I will take it to an Apple store to be installed if need be.

Any other advice?

12-14-2007, 05:34 AM

It really depends on how she will be doing the presentation. If she will be taking her Mac with her and hooking it up to the projector, then it doesn't matter which office suite she uses. However, if she has to bring in the presentation file, then getting Office would be the better choice simply because you can guarantee compatibility and not have to worry about anything being lost in the conversion process (you have to export to a Powerpoint file from iWork to be able to use it in Powerpoint at school).

Upgrading the RAM on a Macbook will not void the warranty. It's about a 5-10 minute process, very simple to do.

12-14-2007, 05:40 AM

Thank you very much that was exactly the info I was looking for.

We will purchase the office. Do you happen to know if she is working on a powerpoint a school (PC) and brings it home a Thumb drive if she can then work on it on her MAC?

She is going to be over the moon with this MAC!

12-14-2007, 05:47 AM

99.99% of the time, yes, it will work just fine. I don't say 100% because there can be that one rare file that just doesn't want to open. Don't worry though, it's not a Mac-only problem, Windows users get it every once in a while as well.

12-14-2007, 06:51 AM

One thing to bare in mind is that Powerpoint 2008 (and Keynote for that matter) can do things on the Mac that aren't replicable on the PC, so some transitions and effects like drop shadows either wont show up, will be replaced or the file may even refuse to open (I haven't actually used it so I can't say what will happen exactly). This compatibility issue is made even worse if the school is using an older version of Powerpoint.

I think the best bet to stay compatible is to use Powerpoint 2004 on the Mac (as slow and lacking as it may be).

If she can take the MacBook to school and hook it up to the projector (will need an additional adapter, most likely miniDVI to VGA), and has created the presentation with Keynote, then she'll at least have the best looking presentation