A newbie writes....where's the word processor??

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Sorry to be a complete doughnut, but is there a word processing package on my mac?? I've had a macbook for a week, bought on the way to Japan - typing this from my hotel room now! Never been near a mac before but absolutely loving everything about it. Anyway, I went to open a couple of documents I had on a USB stick and it prompted me to trigger the 30-day trial of Office. Did this short-term, but where's the equivalent of MS Works that's pre-loaded on your average PC? Surely there's a basic wp app somewhere inside my new toy??
 
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Use NeoOffice for the moment. If you realize later that you need it, you can buy MS Office 2004, which is available for the Mac.

NeoOffice is a solid (well, a bit clunky, but no more than MS Office) office suite for the Mac. It's actually a port of OpenOffice, which you may have heard of before. I use it for all of my day-to-day office apps with no complaints.

Oh, and it's free!
 
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You can use (FREE) NeoOffice or (Free) OpenOffice...

If you are going to pay... I would HIGHLY recommend the newly released iWork '08. It is awesome!
 
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iWork ('08)

Pages now has a word processor. It is unreal. Definately worth the $80 or w/e it is.
 

cwa107


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Although it's not a full-fledged, feature rich word processor, Text Edit does a fair job of approximating one - and it's already in your Applications folder.

Aside from that, I'd also put a vote in for NeoOffice, which I find to be even better than MS Office for Mac.
 
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iWork according to me is far superior to any of the office programs I've come across. While open office (neo office?) does a good job at simulating what MS Office does, I find iWork 08's interface far superior and pleasant to work with. I believe there should be a 30 day trial for iWork as well?
 
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How does iWork handle the .doc format? In my opinion, anything short of superb .doc compatibility in the modern world of computing is a show-stopper for any serious word processor. That is, unless you only plan to collaborate with others using the same format, and others only need to read the document, in which case you can use the near-universal .pdf format.
 

cwa107


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How does iWork handle the .doc format? In my opinion, anything short of superb .doc compatibility in the modern world of computing is a show-stopper for any serious word processor. That is, unless you only plan to collaborate with others using the same format, and others only need to read the document, in which case you can use the near-universal .pdf format.

Yes it does. As far as compatibility goes, you can always download the trial and test it. If OpenOffice/NeoOffice can handle .doc files with aplomb, and they are open source, I wouldn't see why Apple couldn't integrate equally capable functionality in Pages.
 
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Yeah, iWork is what you're after. NeoOffice is absolute rubbish.
 
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The new Pages is compatible even with Docx files. But there's one thing. If you create a fancy looking document in Pages, it sometimes gets screwed up when you open it in Word. Even Keynote presentations exported to PPT get muggled as Powerpoint has no effects which make Keynote presentations what they are. However, PPT files open very well in Keynote...with all its cheap animations.
 

cwa107


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Yeah, iWork is what you're after. NeoOffice is absolute rubbish.

Do you have any reasoning behind that statement? NeoOffice is far from "rubbish", especially considering it's free. I've yet to find a lacking feature.
 
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OpenOffice Impress, at least in Linux, has superb compatibility with Powerpoint presentations.
 
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NeoOffice is good. It is what it is however, the lack of collaboration features can be a showstopper. And some of the spreadsheet functions are slow. But, it's free. And free is good. If you're contemplating buying something, try out iWork 08. Or wait for MS Office 08, which should be released 1st quarter next year.
 
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Is Gnumeric available via Fink? From my time in Linux, and also based on what I've read, that's actually the best spreadsheet program out there, especially for precision in calculations.
 
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How does it hande excel files?
 
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Pretty much perfectly, although I never put it through rigorous tests. Certainly quicker than OpenOffice Calc.
 

dtravis7


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Pretty much perfectly, although I never put it through rigorous tests. Certainly quicker than OpenOffice Calc.

Agreed, Very fast and way faster than OO or NeoOffice. I fed it all my financial Excel sheets with Calculations and all worked fine.
 

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