Run MS Office (for pc) through virtual pc?

Hi.

I'm going to purchases an iBook quite soon, however there's one thing that's really troubling me. I have no problem switching from pc to mac (i'm actually excited), however what about MS Office?

I haven't heard anybody, anywhere, say two good words about Appleworks. And I'm not too keen on paying the (rather expensive) fee for MS Office for Mac. So I was thinking, can I use my PC's version of Office on the MAC simply through Virtual PC?

The price difference could be the breaking point between me buying an iBook or Windows laptop...

All help appreciated.

Sorry for the double post, but assuming I did buy the teacher/student edition of MS Office for MAC, what features does this edition leave out to make it so cheap compared to the standard/professional editions? Anything important?

I hear AppleWorks is getting revamped for Tiger and comparable to MS Office including import/export of MS documents...educational versions aren't upgradeable, thus cheaper. Pro versions usually only have a few more bells/whistles - not sure what in MS Office.

The education version of office is pretty much exactly the same as the standard version, just cheaper. You're right in thinking AppleWorks is pretty bad, but you could use iwork (http://www.apple.com/iwork/) with pages if it's just word processing and page layout you're interested in, and keynote for presentations.

deus_ex_machina said:

I hear AppleWorks is getting revamped for Tiger and comparable to MS Office including import/export of MS documents...educational versions aren't upgradeable, thus cheaper. Pro versions usually only have a few more bells/whistles - not sure what in MS Office.

Click to expand...

I'm just wondering why Appleworks would be getting updated (especially the word processor) when they just released Pages.

If you want a nice word processor I would reccmmend Abiword www.abiword.org . It looks a lot better than Openoffice.

MS Office for Mac doesn't have MS Access. Other than that omission, most reviews have said it is actually better than MS Office for PCs. If you have a new mac, there should be a demo version that de-activates itself in 30 days already installed. Check it out.

-Lonerider

If the MS Office price is a problem try NeoOffice/J. Open office for Mac that doesn't need X11. Installs and works like normal Mac software and has regular easy install patches available. Donations appreciated and a good forum available.
I've been using it for over a year now with no problems opening Office documents spreadsheets etc. Was Alpha now Beta.
http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/download.php

There are 3 editions of Office for mac:

Standard - comes with: Word, Excel, Powerpoint & Entourage (Outlook like app)

Student/Teacher edition: EXACTLY the same as Standard - only cheaper!

Professional: Like Standard, but has Virtual PC 7 as well.

They all lack a mac version of Microsoft Access. (Database app)

Unless you plan on buying Virtual PC anyway, I'd just get the Students edition (if you qualify) since Virtual PC costs a fair amount as well...

Okay thanks very much for the feedback, I think I'll just buy the Student edition of Office for MAC, it's not that expensive I guess. Who knows, maybe I will actually end up liking Appleworks anyway? But seeing as how I email alot back and forth between my pc and school, I need the compatability. I wonder why MAC office doesn't include Access?

Thanks again.