Thinking of switching, have questions...

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jjgittes

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I'm thinking of switching from a windows desktop machine, to a new G4 ibook, probably the 12 inch. Some questions:

1. I will want to use an external monitor, perhaps a formac 17 inch. Will the formac VGA 17 inch model work ok with the ibook? The max resolution of the ibook and the formac are different, right? Any issues with that?

2. Will the ibook function with the screen lid closed? In other words, when using it as a desktop with an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, does it have to be open? I'd like it to be as unobtrusive as posible when I am using at as a desktop, which will be 80% of the time.

3. The ibook does not have a dvd burner. If you are not into editing home movies (or using it for your business) , what would I be missing out on by not having a dvd burner? I may want to burn cd's for my car, and for general storage, but I am just not clear on the advantage of dvd burners, if one isn't into home movie editing/ dvd creation...

4. Finally, does Microsoft office for macs actually work well? I have to use Word for work.

Thanks for the help.
 
Padawan

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jjgittes said:
I'm thinking of switching from a windows desktop machine, to a new G4 ibook, probably the 12 inch. Some questions:

1. I will want to use an external monitor, perhaps a formac 17 inch. Will the formac VGA 17 inch model work ok with the ibook? The max resolution of the ibook and the formac are different, right? Any issues with that?

2. Will the ibook function with the screen lid closed? In other words, when using it as a desktop with an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, does it have to be open? I'd like it to be as unobtrusive as posible when I am using at as a desktop, which will be 80% of the time.

3. The ibook does not have a dvd burner. If you are not into editing home movies (or using it for your business) , what would I be missing out on by not having a dvd burner? I may want to burn cd's for my car, and for general storage, but I am just not clear on the advantage of dvd burners, if one isn't into home movie editing/ dvd creation...

4. Finally, does Microsoft office for macs actually work well? I have to use Word for work.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

1. Yes, that display should work fine with your iBook.

2. To my knowledge, there is no way to prevent the iBook from going to sleep when the lid is closed.

3. The only thing you'd really be "missing out on" is the ability to burn large amounts of data to a disk, or to create your own DVD's (obviously). If you decided later-on that you want DVD-burning capability, you can always add an external DVD-R drive.

4. I don't have any experience with it, but it is my understanding that it works just as well, if not better, than the Windows version.
 
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trpnmonkey41


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1. no issues with that. i have a 15" powerbook plugged into a 17" LCD and it works fine. you can set the other monitors resolution to whatever it is capable of.

2. I think there is a way to use it with the monitors closed since they do that at the Apple store but i have not looked into how to set it up.

3. DVD burners are useful really just for two things...burning movies and doing large scale backups. I have a cd-rw in my powerbook and that is just fine for me. I would use a dvd-r for backups but i have an external harddrive so im fine with backups.

4. Office works great on macs...much better then on windows pcs. There is no access or frontpage but the suite with powerpoint, word, excel, and entourage (Outlook) is excellent
 
Padawan

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trpnmonkey41 said:
2. I think there is a way to use it with the monitors closed since they do that at the Apple store but i have not looked into how to set it up.
Click to expand...

Hmm..I've never noticed this with the iBook. Apple states on its site that dual-USB iBooks shouldn't be operated with the lid closed: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88199
 
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i didnt really look at what he was looking to buy. i havent seen them do it with iBooks but i have seen it done with powerbooks
 

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