MS Office and CS3 to Mac?

Hi everyone,

I've used Microsoft based PC's all my life but am leaning towards getting my first Mac. The main thing holding me back is that I've recently purchased MS Office Ultimate 2007 and CS3 for my HP laptop.

I'm loathe to re-purchase them. Is there a way to transfer/use these two programs on a MBP?

Thank you kindly in advance.

Yes, that would make the switch very expensive and, frankly, I'm not sure I'd recommend the switch, unless you have access to a copy of Windows that you could install on your Mac.

IF you do have a copy of Windows, you can very easily just use those programs on your Mac running Windows, either via Apple's own Boot Camp, or with Parallels.

Also, there *may* be "crossgrades" for owners of those programs who switch platforms, but I don't know first-hand.

jroller said:

Also, there *may* be "crossgrades" for owners of those programs who switch platforms, but I don't know first-hand.

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Adobe does offer a cross-grade for their products. I don't believe Microsoft does, however.

With that said, if you're just a casual user of Office apps, you might want to look into the OpenOffice-based NeoOffice, which is completely free and compatible with just about every MS Office document I've ever thrown at it.

That definitely throws a wrench in things. Even with Boot Camp and VMWare, it would be a pain to have to load Windows just to type something in Word or Excel. However, those are viable options for you. I'd be hard pressed to ignore the cost of those recent purchases as well.

I don't have a copy of Windows to install. I can purchase XP for about $100 if need be.

If I do purchase XP, the rest of my MS software can transfer over and be used easily?

Adobe will let you

Adobe will allow you to perform a cross-grade, or cross-platform upgrade, of your Adobe product, assuming it meets the upgrade qualifications and provided you send them a signed Letter of Software Destruction. The Letter of Destruction states that you agree to delete all copies of the product you are exchanging and also that you will not "sell, transfer, give away, donate, or otherwise distribute the exchanged Adobe product or copies to anyone else."

You will still need to pay the upgrade cost, and you will need to conduct the purchase via telephone by calling Adobe Sales at 1-800-833-6687 (see Adobe.com for international numbers). The Letter of Software Destruction may be faxed, e-mailed, or snail-mailed to Adobe.

thermal said:

I don't have a copy of Windows to install. I can purchase XP for about $100 if need be.

If I do purchase XP, the rest of my MS software can transfer over and be used easily?

Click to expand...

Yes, if you install Windows on a separate partition (Boot Camp) or in a VM (VMWare Fusion), then you are running Windows just like on any PC. The software will install like normal. (Or you can run your Boot Camp partition in Fusion, either way you want to.)