Switcher? Best App for MS Apps

I just bought a Black MacBook 2.0Ghz and still have the need to run the MS Office Suite programs (Excel, PP, Word, Outlook). I bought this notebook for travel and video/photo work, but I would like to be able to bring it into my office (Which is all MS XP Pro Based, with Server 2000/2003) and connect to our network drives and be able to utilize the MS Office apps.

What is the bets way for me to go about running these apps? (Boot Camp and XP or just run Office 2004?) or any other ideas you know that are better....

I know an aweful lot about PC's but less than a toddler on the mac.

Thanks in advance for the help

You could try Open Office.

Excuse my ignorance...Thats the Office 2004 for Mac, correct?

dupressdsu said:

Excuse my ignorance...Thats the Office 2004 for Mac, correct?

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Nope
http://www.openoffice.org/
should tell you everything you need to know.

Office 2004 is the least-hassle route. If you don't want to buy Office 2004, buy Parallels and Windows XP - it will let you run your Windows-native version of Office within OS X within XP through Parallels. Plus you can run most of your other windows apps.

How does this OpenOffice work? Do I just install it on the Mac OS X and then install the regular windows Office? (God I feel stoopid about Macs....Thats my PC side saying that)

Let me also preface this by stating that I have licenses for Office XP Pro and Office, if that helps with the deciding. I just kind of felt that installing Windows defeated the purpose of going with a Mac altogether, but I could be wrong.

Also when I try to download the OpenOffice, which version do I need and would this be for the Mac platform or the Windows platform....TY

I have choices of: Linux, Solaris, Windows, Source, etc. I didn't see for OS X?

OK, I found the Download for the OS X Version (OpenOffice 2.0.3) but there is no english download, does this matter for the DL?

dupressdsu said:

OK, I found the Download for the OS X Version (OpenOffice 2.0.3) but there is no english download, does this matter for the DL?

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If you feel like you're in over your head, your best bet would be to go with the Mac version of Office. I'm sure you could find a good deal if money is a problem. Otherwise, check out NeoOffice. It's a Mac-native version of OpenOffice.

http://www.neooffice.org/

OpenOffice is a complete replacement for Microsoft Office. It will read and write the MS Office file formats as well as its own native (and much more compact by the way) formats. It is VERY good - I have used it for a year plus now, but not exactly a speed demon. Your new Mac is Intel, so you may notice this, unless they have a Universal Binary.

NeoOffice is the Mac OS X port of OpenOffice. Probably your best bet, since OpenOffice itself requires that you also install Mac X11. This is available on your install DVDs, but its an extra step.

Re MS Office for the Mac itself, the Student/Teacher edition is ony $149.99, and you can get it for $129.00 if you shop around the net a bit. You don't have to be a student or teacher to buy this - there are no effective controls whatsoever. As a sales guy pointed out to me, unless you are dead, you are learning something new every day. That makes you a student. Perhaps a bit twisted in its logic, but the complete lack of point-of-sale enforcement of academic credentials suggests that this is the basic intention - this is MS Office for the casual user.

Finally, if you are feeling adventurous, Abiword is an excellent MS-Word compatible word processor, with both Mac OS X and Mac X11 versions available. Gnumeric is an excellent MS-Excel compatible spreadsheet - pretty much a clone in my opinion. Like OpenOffice itself, it requires that you install Mac X11. The REAL virtue of Abiword and Gnumeric vs. OpenOffice is that they are blazingly fast. Both have been created with speed in mind. It is like getting MS Office on steroids.

NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 4 has and Intel version here

OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 RC7, which is universal binary, is available in English from here: ftp://ooopackages.good-day.net/pub/OpenOffice.org/MacOSX/2.0.3rc7

There are three English versions (GB, US and ZA) available. That being said, if your office is all Office XP, the most compatible route is Windows XP in Parallels or Bootcamp (probably best parallels) with Windows native MS office. It solves a whole heap of incompatibility problems that are, unfortunately, mostly caused by MS bizarre handling of its own file formats ...

Office for Mac is 99 bucks right now with the $50 rebate.

from reading this entire thready my strong suggestion to you is to purchase MS Office for your mac. im not sure about your computer skills or anything but the ease of using all office products is a lot easier than using openoffice and MS office.

-chris

af3ll said:

Office for Mac is 99 bucks right now with the $50 rebate.

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For the student/teacher (which includes non-teaching staff) version. The other versions don't have the rebate (unless it changed since I bought it last week).

I just installed NeoOffice, we'll see how that goes and if it doesn't accomplish what I want I will install MS Office for Mac.

TY, great ideas and responses from all that helped. I truely appreciate it.