sorry if this is a repeat...

..but, being a life long PC user and wanting to make the switch, I have always used MS office for not only the word processor, but the email client as well. (realy don't use powerpoint or the other stuff too often) so my question is, would it be a good idea to get the MS office for mac? Like i said before, I have never owned a mac and will shortly, so I have completly NO idea what programs are out there for the mac. Yes, I'm a total NEWBIE!!! lol!

Mail.app (built into the OS) is an excellent simple mail application. If you need more power Microsoft Entourage (part of Office) has built in Calendar, Tasks, Address Book, Project Planner and Notes.

MS Entourage is the Mac equivalent of Outlook and it's awesome. Calendar, project manager, email, cotact database. This is a great program. Get it.

I love the MS Office for Mac... more than the PC version actually. It has been great because I still deal alot with PC Office users and it works better for me to keep using the same software instead of going to NeoOffice... or something like that.

I personally use Apple Mail over Entourage because it doesn't seem to tax my system as much. But if you are used to Outlook than Entourage would suit you perfectly.

Cool. thanks for th input. I might just end up buying the Mac version of office.

I use Outlook all the time on my work PC, but on the Mac I use the standard Mail and Address Book apps and iCal - because I don't really need to do all the extra stuff that Outlook / Entourage offer.

I do find syncing with iCal is a bit messy, but I can live with that to save having another Microsoft foothold on my precious Mac!