Office question.

Having had my fill of PCs and rebooting I've decided to try the Mac route.

80% of my work is with photographs and video, so no problem there, however I do some word processing and spreadsheet work as well - is it worth paying £300+ for Microsoft Office, or what's OpenOffice on the Mac like these days? (I ran it under Solaris a few years back and it was OK - not brilliant though.)

Is there another MS Office file compatible product worth looking at? (Bearing in mind I'm a Scotsman living in Yorkshire, so free or cheap would be nice .

heya !

congrats on ur choice to move to mac. you will not regret it.

I run office on my ibook but i think open office is fine for the mac if you are only doing spreadsheet and word processing work on it. When i have tried it i found it fine but im not sure if it has been updated since last year when i tried it.

I think open office is compatible with MS office. but you would have to check that.

let us know what you decide to go for.

cheers

ctm

christm said:

let us know what you decide to go for.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

I guess if a "switcher" is someone who moves from PC to Mac, I'm more of a "flipper"

I started off many years ago with a Kim I, moved to a Commodore PET, then an Apple ][. From there it was IBM PC, Apple Lisa, several PC clones, a Centris, then back to PCs and now I'm going for a 24" iMac.

I finally stepped back and asked myself, "What do I use the computer for?" The answer, as I said in my first post pointed me in the Mac direction.

The last time I had an Apple, I used System 7 and I guess with OS X things have come a long way, but the guys in the local Apple shop have been incredibly helpful.

I will be keeping the PC (because it runs some CCTV cameras) as a file server, but it would be nice to have everything I need on the one box, hence my question.

.Jock said:

Having had my fill of PCs and rebooting I've decided to try the Mac route.

80% of my work is with photographs and video, so no problem there, however I do some word processing and spreadsheet work as well - is it worth paying £300+ for Microsoft Office, or what's OpenOffice on the Mac like these days? (I ran it under Solaris a few years back and it was OK - not brilliant though.)

Is there another MS Office file compatible product worth looking at? (Bearing in mind I'm a Scotsman living in Yorkshire, so free or cheap would be nice .

Click to expand...

Not sure if Apple has the same program in the UK but it is worth checking into... Check this link.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43476

Noe Office works good. I use that one it doenst require you to install x11. I find it annoying to have to open 2 programs to run one. Neo Office has more of the OS X feel. And its free, worth a shot if you ask me.
http://www.neooffice.org/

I have just switched and also bought Microsoft Office Student which is a little under £100 and as far as I can tell is the same as the full version.....I am kind of a student!

I was recently in Mac shop Regent St, London when I asked about this and was told it was exactly the same. I asked about the student thing and was told, and I quote, 'You can buy it, no proof is asked for and we don't check'

neooffice like posted above is really good, it has an aqua theme, and all the programs work really well,, nad best of all, its free

jonezy said:

I have just switched and also bought Microsoft Office Student which is a little under £100 and as far as I can tell is the same as the full version.....I am kind of a student!

I was recently in Mac shop Regent St, London when I asked about this and was told it was exactly the same. I asked about the student thing and was told, and I quote, 'You can buy it, no proof is asked for and we don't check'

Click to expand...

That is the same hear.. and probably everywhere. For example. you can get the student edition in Compusa for I believe $149... But what I mentioned in my earlier post is actually purchasing from your University bookstore, where they will ask for your student ID... You get the Standard Edition or Pro (up to you) which consist of simple the disc in a sleeve (no box, etc) usually label w/ the University logo.. and you pay, Not $399, no not $299, not even $149, not $99 nor $49.. but just... $5 or $10...

(A little "Ronco" humor there for ya"

How compatible is Neo Office with MS Office *.xls and *.doc files?