Want To Switch To Mac And A Lot Of Questions On My Mind..

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hello friends,

i just joined this forum today.

i've been using windows for over 10 years - i'm ok with computers but realise i'm a getting a bit slower when trying to get a hang of new things.. But i'd like to move to Mac. From what i've heard and read it seems to be easier - faster and a more enjoyable environment to work on.

I have a tonne of questions - if anybody would be kind to respond to them - would sincerely appreciate. Thank you.

1. I'm using Outlook 2007 - can I transfer :-
A Emails
B Contacts
C Tasks
D Notes
to Mac OS?

* * My emails are in SEVERAL FOLDERS - same thing applies to my contacts - they are in several folders so I wonder how they can be transferred.
* * can all this data go to the Mac email / address book programs directly so do i need to get the Mac version of M/soft Office? E-mail i guess should be alright. But how about contacts and tasks?

2. Contacts in Mac OS - does it work better than Contacts in MS Outlook? Again, i'm getting tired of M/soft and would not want to load "Mac Office" so kindly help. I guess by now, you would be aware that i'm not very familiar with the names of programs and terminology of the Mac world so kindly excuse me for this.

3. I dont use word that much - but very heavy user of Excel. My current excel files
- is there a native program in Mac similar to excel?
- if I email out a mac "excel" file, can it be opened by a windows user?

4. I use voip programs for overseas dialing - can they be used in Mac also?

5. Is there any good program in Mac for storing passwords?

6. I like to frequently update my hardware such as keyboards - mice etc. Is all that stuff compatible to Mac? I usually will use an external monitor / keyboard / mouse for my laptop - does all that work with a Mac laptop?

Sorry if some of the questions seem stupid.

Thanks in advance.
 
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I can answer some of these, having just switched myself. I'd never go back!

You can export all of you Outlook data as CSV and then import into Address Book and Mail. Not too sure about Notes and Tasks though as I don't use them.

Contacts works well in Mac though I wasn't a really heavy Outlook contacts user so can't comment.

1Password will take care of all passwords for you and does this very well.

Skype works just the same (if not better) on Mac.

I've used MS Office on Mac for Excel spreadsheets and it woks fine.
 
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got it- thank you so much.

but .csv i guess would work for address book - but how about emails?

and even in case of address book, i checked and i dont think there are as many fields in mac as there are in outlook - for example, pager - profession etc.... Does that mean that i'll have to check contact by contact and edit /amend? Sorry if this sounds stupid.

U mentioned u would not go back - any particular reason?

I also noticed that mac books are heavier and bulkier - since i travel very frequently that's an issue. Has anybody considered this to be a problem?

Thank you everyone.
 
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Outlook pst files can be transferred by using a little programme called O2M - do a google search for it.

I paid $10 or so, but it was worth it.

iWork will read most if not all your Office files.
 
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I think Rip Vega meant he'll "never go back to PC"

I transferred all my email and contacts from outlook to mac mail and address book. Used O2M

Notes- Use stickies I love using these.

iwork will handle all your current excel/word files. If you need to save them for a PC user you can "save as" excel/word thru iwork.

1password is one of my new favorite programs.

Enjoy your Mac.
 
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thank you so much for your responses - deeply appreciate.

just a few more points :-

1. voip programs (not skype) - programs like voipstunt etc. for long distance calling - do these work on mac?

2. has anybody had issues with the size of the mac laptops - i find them a tad bigger and bulkier ...

3. to rip vega - yes i understand your comments about not going back to the pc - can i know why?

4. i use pop3 a/c for emails and sync my contacts / todo with a blackberry bold - are there any issues with syncing to blackberry?

this is an extremely helpful forum and thank you all for your guidance.
 
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2. has anybody had issues with the size of the mac laptops - i find them a tad bigger and bulkier ...

Bigger and bulkier compared to what? I owned a Dell Inspirion laptop before I had my white MacBook, and when I compare the two, there's now question which one is bulkier. In fact, the MacBook's total thickness when closed was about the same as bottom half of the Inspirion.
 
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They are great you will love it...they take a little getting used to obviously but honestly they are much faster more secure and run very smooth. You won't be disappointed.
 
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To : J.Fo - sorry - my mistake - i should have specified - i've been using fujitsu and thinkpad ultraportable models. I work a lot during flights and i felt their size to be quite decent to work in an economy class cabin.

To :- jstew132 - noted with thanks.
 

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For any specific software that you are fond of, (at this point you've only really mentioned an individual voip app) you'll need to check the developer's site to see if they offer a Mac version or they are only developing for Windows. There are tons of developers that only develop for Windows and deny the existence of OS X and Linux. And just because you may favor one app on the Windows side, even if they do have a version for the Mac, it could be a piece of junk (Quickbooks is a good example of this). Not all apps are created equally on different OS's.

For specific hardware (your blackberry) you may get lucky and find another Mac owner that hangs out here and can give you advice pertaining to it. But, quite often, the best help will be from the manufacturers own site and forums. Sometimes with technical questions, it can't hurt asking in a couple of different places.

You must also realize there is a learning curve. Not a big one, but there is one. Especially, since you will apparently be using this for business. For anyone that has never even tried Linux, there has to be a realization that this is not Windows. You will need a mindset of learning how to do things on your Mac and not bring your Windows ways with you. If you do, you'll end up very frustrated. You're going to find Windows does some things better and OS X does other things better. (Better being a relative term about which I could say more.)

There are a ton of Windows folks around here that have changed over to the Mac in the last 2+ years, at least for their personal machines (this site has more than tripled in membership during that time) and there's plenty of friendly and knowledgeable help.
 
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thank you so much bobtomay - understand and appreciate the help.

i was in the apple store today - i must admit i loved the feel of the programs - mail / ical ... one of the things that draws me to macs is the kind of aura they have created. i've moved from vaio to ibm to fujitsu - then back to sony and finally thinkpad now. asthetics kept changing but i guess i kept moving over looking for speed and a better interface.

and here i have something that's drawing me to it ... but its SCARING ME NUTS. i'm good with windows - i know what i need to do when i get stuck. and i'm scared of not being able to find my way out with a mac - especially 'cause i'm living in hongkong and have no idea how the tech support out here is.

i would love to take my notes about all the shortcuts / commands available - and then sit down with a mac for 3 or 4 hours. can i do that in a mac store? i'm going to go down this weekend and give it a try.

i hear a lot of people here talk about "loving" their machines - i've never felt anything for any machine i've ever owned. lol... i want to understand whether the fault likes with windows or me.

but i want to express my deepest gratitude for everyone who has taken the trouble to reply my post. thank you all and i'll get back to you next week if i could get my hands on a mac for a few hours.
 

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You should be able to sit down with a Mac at an Apple Store for as long as you like (assuming you can find a spot in front of one).

Additionally, you can set up a "personal shopper" appointment with the store and they will spend an hour with you going through the different Mac models and answering any questions you might have.
 

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And that hour can be great depending on whom you sit down with. My personal hour is what convinced me to go ahead with the purchase.
 
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You can always install Windows. I installed Windows on my MacBook Pro Unibody just for the add-ins in Excel. My college class requires us to run simulations in Excel and the Office 2008 Excel doesn't do this. The only time I use Windows is when running a simulation. I use Office 2008 Excel for everything else.

You will not regret going to Mac.
 
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to smcgil9899 - i'm a very heavy user of outlook 07 and excel 07.

As i'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the switch, i realise that although i'm a "heavy" user of both these applications, the "heaviness" is from the fact that i use a lot of keyboard shortcuts rather than the mouse - which speeds up a lot of my work. My work in Excel is SIMPLE but very detailed spreadsheets with a lot of BASIC formulas like sum / average etc. but moving between such long sheets is quite a task..

My work in Outlook is again SIMPLE - i use the categories / tasks / notes / contacts extensively and switch from one to another with a lot of keyboard shortcuts which enables me to handle a decent amount of emails / todos everyday.

In a very general sense, i assume Macs would support and encourage shortcuts right? If anybody who has used excel / outlook 07 could reply this, it would be very helpful.

Finally, i also realise that at the age of 43, its becoming a bit of a personal challenge to try and revamp my way of working. I loved what bobtomay wrote and i quote "You will need a mindset of learning how to do things on your Mac".

i'm hoping i'll live up to my expectations.
 

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If you are the kind of person who is very set in their ways and has a hard time with changing habits and trying something new, the Mac may not be for you.

We get a lot of people who've switched, but just can't get out of the Windows mindset, and find themselves disappointed. So, if you can tolerate Windows and have no other reason to switch other than the hype you've heard, I'd recommend sticking with it.
 
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Wow!!! I spent 2 hours on a mac yesterday ... i guess i could just understand a bit .. just a bit of what its capabilities are and WOW ...!!!

I have been virtually wanted to bash myself up for not opening my eyes earlier... why.. why ... how could i have been so stupid ... and blind.

Everything .. everything about the Mac has been thought of with so much love - care .. and attention. Starting with the electric adaptar.. its do darn small !!! If i started writing, i could fill up 2 pages....

Anyway, i'm going to spend more time on it this weekend to make a list of things that i DONT UNDERSTAND. i'll b back next week with my final list of questions.

Folks, all of you have been extremely helpful - thank you very much for your support and guidance.
 

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43? - pshaw - just a youngster - I was 53 when I got my first Mac.

Sounds like you're the type that still enjoys reading, studying and learning about new things. If so, you'll like it.

My MBP is the 2nd best computer I've ever owned (thanks to OS X). Have a Windows box I built that sits in my office that still ranks as the best computer I've ever owned (thanks to it's hardware), although, it's pretty lonely now. It hasn't been turned on since '07 except to help troubleshoot friend's machines. (Senility setting in and can't seem to recall how to tell them where to go to fix stuff without sitting there and following along with them any longer.:Angry-Tongue: )

For me the best thing with OS X is the no tweaking aspect. On my Win machines, as a hardcore gamer for many years, I spent at least 10-20% of my time on the box keeping the thing running at it's fastest capability. The first couple of months after getting my Mac, I went through tweak withdrawal. Yeah, there are settings to be made to get the machine functioning the way you want. That only took a few days thanks in part to a few of the old timers around here. But, I just sat there thinking there had to be more. But no, I had to learn to start using my computer during that time normally devoted to keeping my machine running at it's peak efficiency.

While there is some maintenance to do on a Mac, there's no more sitting down on Saturday mornings and emptying all my temp folders, internet files, extraneous cookies, checking to see what that new program had installed to begin at startup and putting a stop to it, running a system scan with my anti-virus, then Spybot, then AdAware, and then the defragger before I could get back to using the darn thing. No more re-installing the OS to get it back up to speed because all that just wasn't enough any more either.

Keep in mind, there more than likely will be an issue or two to raise it's ugly head. It is a computer after all. But, it seems that OS X, for the most part, really does just work. And there are still a ton of software and hardware folks out there in denial that OS X is here to stay for awhile.
 
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Hi friends, i'm beginning to get closer to getting my mac - funny thing is that in my quest to read and find out, i discovered a lot of new things about windows that i did'nt know earlier.

1. SYSTEM - vista vs os leopard - i guess mac wins here hands down but windows 7 is on the way (and snow leopard from mac) and from what i read, windows 7 is a huge revamp. Your thoughts on this? Apart from the virus issues, are there still issues that would make a mac user not try windows?

2. SPREADSHEETS - i use excel extensively and i realised that there are many important features / keyboard shortcuts in excel - which are still missing in numbers - so even if i switch, i'll still have to stay with excel.

3. EMAILS (outlook 07 vs mac Mail ) - - i felt Outlook to be more time saving because u can view yr to-dos / calender & mail on one screen. However, i disliked Entourage.
Could anybody who's used outlook 07 let me know his experience - i dont mind to view todo's and mail separately but could someone recommend a good message filer program - so that shortcuts can be used to file messages to folders instead of using the mouse.

4. my biggest issue - blackberry - i use a blackberry bold and so far from what i've been reading, 3rd party softwares to sync yr mac data with blackberry sometimes work and sometimes dont.
Anybody had issues with that.
How do i go about sorting that out.

5. Finally - hardware - i use a thinkpad x200 with a ultrabay dock. I travel v.frequently so when i have to leave, all i have to do is simply remove it from the ultrabay dock and i'm out (i carry an extra adaptor in my bag). No removing the usb cables - no detaching the ethernet cable ... nothing.
Is any such thing possible with a mac?
I tried to search but i could not find any usb hub that could connect ethernet cables - audio speaker wires etc.

Thank you so much for all your help.
 

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Hi friends, i'm beginning to get closer to getting my mac - funny thing is that in my quest to read and find out, i discovered a lot of new things about windows that i did'nt know earlier.

1. SYSTEM - vista vs os leopard - i guess mac wins here hands down but windows 7 is on the way (and snow leopard from mac) and from what i read, windows 7 is a huge revamp. Your thoughts on this? Apart from the virus issues, are there still issues that would make a mac user not try windows?

No doubt about it, Windows 7 looks like a very good effort from Microsoft. I still prefer OS X, but Windows 7 corrects a lot of Vista's faults and adds some nifty new features like a thoroughly revamped Start menu.

2. SPREADSHEETS - i use excel extensively and i realised that there are many important features / keyboard shortcuts in excel - which are still missing in numbers - so even if i switch, i'll still have to stay with excel.

Microsoft Excel for Mac, in its current incarnation has no support for VB macros, so if you need that capability, you might be out of luck (for now, at least - Microsoft has promised to add this back in for the next version of MS Office for Mac). iWork's Numbers is a solid offering, but is not as fully featured and has limited compatibility with Excel spreadsheets.

3. EMAILS (outlook 07 vs mac Mail ) - - i felt Outlook to be more time saving because u can view yr to-dos / calender & mail on one screen. However, i disliked Entourage.
Could anybody who's used outlook 07 let me know his experience - i dont mind to view todo's and mail separately but could someone recommend a good message filer program - so that shortcuts can be used to file messages to folders instead of using the mouse.

Entourage is simply the closest thing to Outlook on the Mac. I haven't found anything that is comparable, period.

4. my biggest issue - blackberry - i use a blackberry bold and so far from what i've been reading, 3rd party softwares to sync yr mac data with blackberry sometimes work and sometimes dont.
Anybody had issues with that.
How do i go about sorting that out.

If I'm not mistaken, Blackberry has sync software for the Mac. There's also "The Missing Sync", a third party program, but I can't offer any insight on that.

5. Finally - hardware - i use a thinkpad x200 with a ultrabay dock. I travel v.frequently so when i have to leave, all i have to do is simply remove it from the ultrabay dock and i'm out (i carry an extra adaptor in my bag). No removing the usb cables - no detaching the ethernet cable ... nothing.
Is any such thing possible with a mac?
I tried to search but i could not find any usb hub that could connect ethernet cables - audio speaker wires etc.

Thank you so much for all your help.

There is a product called "BookEndz" which is a dock for Apple notebooks. I don't know if they have versions out for the latest MacBooks, however.

---

One last thing to add though, and I hope you take this the right way... it sounds as though you are very set in your ways. It sounds like you really like some of the Windows software you're used to, and are going to have difficulty in compromising or adapting to different apps or changing your habits. If that's true, I do think you'd be making a mistake in switching. The Mac *is* different, and it will take some getting used to. You absolutely will have to find and acclimate to new software packages, in addition to a very different operating system (and hardware too!). For many, those changes are fulfilling and in some cases, welcomed - but for others, they can be downright frustrating.

I'd urge you to set up an appointment with a personal shopper at an Apple Store. This way, you can address all of these concerns directly with someone who is trained on helping people switch and decide on what computer is right for them.
 

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