new Mac user looking for information on creating documents as in Microsoft word

sassa · Mar 29, 2008

Am new to Mac (2 days).Have Leopard OS and wish to know how to create documents like those available in Microsoft Word.Have discovered that if I open text/edit folder I can create a word document but have no options of changing text style or size.Cannot find spreadsheets etc.Do I need to purchase a compatible Microsoft Word or Office program?Be gentle & kind & give simple instructions as I have just got my L plates for the Mac way.

RobertC · Mar 29, 2008

New Macs come with Microsoft Office and Apple iWork trials installed, but these only last for about 30 days. If you don't want to pay for the full product, you should take a look at NeoOffice.

sassa · Mar 29, 2008

RobertC said:
New Macs come with Microsoft Office and Apple iWork trials installed, but these only last for about 30 days. If you don't want to pay for the full product, you should take a look at NeoOffice.

Neither of these programs on computer.

Gbeav · Mar 29, 2008

The trial versions might be on one of the disks you got. I don't have my disks near me to check but someone else might be able to tell you where they are.

You have a few options. First if you really want Microsoft Office you will need to purchase it. The best option for regular users is the Home and student edition Office 2008.

Next you can get iWork which is Apple's suite and you can save documents in office form. This is fairly cheap.

Then you can download openoffice for free and it has all the suite programs you need but isn't as polished as the other two.

It all depends on how intensive your needs are.

sassa · Mar 29, 2008

Gbeav said:
The trial versions might be on one of the disks you got. I don't have my disks near me to check but someone else might be able to tell you where they are.

You have a few options. First if you really want Microsoft Office you will need to purchase it. The best option for regular users is the Home and student edition Office 2008.

Next you can get iWork which is Apple's suite and you can save documents in office form. This is fairly cheap.

Then you can download openoffice for free and it has all the suite programs you need but isn't as polished as the other two.

It all depends on how intensive your needs are.

Thank you for info.

RobertC · Mar 29, 2008

sassa said:
Neither of these programs on computer.

These should be under Macintosh HD - Applications.

dtravis7 · Mar 29, 2008

Is this a brand new Mac? You purchased it new?

JohnTheMacGeek · Mar 29, 2008

sassa said:
Am new to Mac (2 days).Have Leopard OS and wish to know how to create documents like those available in Microsoft Word.Have discovered that if I open text/edit folder I can create a word document but have no options of changing text style or size.Cannot find spreadsheets etc.Do I need to purchase a compatible Microsoft Word or Office program?Be gentle & kind & give simple instructions as I have just got my L plates for the Mac way.

I, too, was faced with choosing an office suite when I bought my Mac a lottle over a month ago. I chose iWork '08 and have not regretted it. It includes Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheet) and Keynote (presentation). It's definitely worth checking out!

sassa · Mar 29, 2008

dtravis7 said:
Is this a brand new Mac? You purchased it new?

Yes.Delivered on Thursday from Apple with extra 1 gb of memory.Airport feature a beauty for connecting to internet.

sassa · Mar 29, 2008

JohnTheMacGeek said:
I, too, was faced with choosing an office suite when I bought my Mac a lottle over a month ago. I chose iWork '08 and have not regretted it. It includes Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheet) and Keynote (presentation). It's definitely worth checking out!

Again,thank you to all who have replied.

technologist · Mar 29, 2008

The very latest Macs do not include any trial software. There is no trial for the latest version of Microsoft Office anywhere.

The iWork trial can be downloaded from Apple's site.

vpkb · Mar 29, 2008

I use neo office (free); it works really well. I just got a copy of Office 2008 Home/Student vers. and it works really well too; it has some great templates for flyers, signs etc.. $90.00 is not a bad price.

Dysfunction · Mar 29, 2008

technologist said:
The very latest Macs do not include any trial software. There is no trial for the latest version of Microsoft Office anywhere.

The iWork trial can be downloaded from Apple's site.

I can confirm that they weren't. I downloaded iworks 08.

Brand new.. penryn custom config'd mbp.. straight from China.

death to trial ware! :Shouting:

dtravis7 · Mar 29, 2008

technologist said:
The very latest Macs do not include any trial software. There is no trial for the latest version of Microsoft Office anywhere.

The iWork trial can be downloaded from Apple's site.

Thanks for that heads up Tech. That is what I was thinking also. Thanks for confirming it.

Noels · Mar 29, 2008

sassa,

I did get the trial version of Microsoft Office on my new Macbook, for a 90 day trial, so I used it for a while but didn't want to pay the price...

I tried OpenOffice, which is free, but it required the X11 platform to run it and I didn't like the way that was structured, so then I downloaded NeoOffice, which is the OpenOffice program running on OS X instead of X11, as I understand it. It's free and it does just about everything Microsoft Office does, as far as I can see. It has a Spread Sheet, Drawing program and some other extras I haven't tried yet.

It's free, give it a try. If you don't like it, you can always buy one of the others suggested.

Noel

sassa · Mar 30, 2008

Noels said:
sassa,

I did get the trial version of Microsoft Office on my new Macbook, for a 90 day trial, so I used it for a while but didn't want to pay the price...

I tried OpenOffice, which is free, but it required the X11 platform to run it and I didn't like the way that was structured, so then I downloaded NeoOffice, which is the OpenOffice program running on OS X instead of X11, as I understand it. It's free and it does just about everything Microsoft Office does, as far as I can see. It has a Spread Sheet, Drawing program and some other extras I haven't tried yet.

It's free, give it a try. If you don't like it, you can always buy one of the others suggested.

Noel

Thanks to all.Will try NeoOffice.Have X11 platform and will try Open if not happy with Neo.Then to Works '08 if both unsatisfactory.Ciao.

Mr-Fussy · Mar 30, 2008

If you really want to share your documents with windows users then MS office is the way otherwise apple iwork. Although iworks can open ms office docs you still need to export as ms office docs if you want to share.

MS office had some bugs which have been ironed out with recent updates and I have found it to work flawlessly.

vpkb · Mar 30, 2008

Mr-Fussy said:
If you really want to share your documents with windows users then MS office is the way otherwise apple iwork. Although iworks can open ms office docs you still need to export as ms office docs if you want to share.

MS office had some bugs which have been ironed out with recent updates and I have found it to work flawlessly.

I 2X this.

MacFanBoy · Mar 30, 2008

Another vote for Neooffice.
Also, if you are going to try OpenOffice then look at the new openoffice 3 alpha, very mac like.

chrisiw · Apr 13, 2008

I use NeoOffice and its good, but there is a lack of good fonts, any ideas on how to get a better selection?