Compatibility w/XP questions

I am looking to buy a laptop for university, and was thinking of getting a 14" iBook G4, with 80gb hard drive and 1g RAM, + the standard stuff...

Anyway, I've never used Macs before and was wondering:

Would I be able to transfer files e.g. .doc, .wma, .xls, from my PC (WinXP) to a Mac, and be able to open them straight away, i.e. would I have to do anything in terms of compatibility?
Is it true that MS Access is not compatible with Macs at all?
Is it worth buying the official Office for Mac software or are there better alternatives?

Sorry if the answers are really obvious, but just want to make sure before I get one

Im a Mac newbie, but I think I can help.

.doc, .xls and .mp3, .jpg all work.. I have had no problems at all.

Even my external hard drive works like a dream even though it was formatted for Windows.. and my Mp3 player too. Just plug it in and it works.

I 'think' Mac doesnt recognise .wma.

Office is pretty good for Mac. Its a little different in terms of layout and stuff, and feels a little different from Office for Windows.. but does that same thing. I just took a while getting used to resizing and positioning the windows.

Office Mac doesnt contain Access.. so I dont think its compatible.

Zingy pretty much answered everthing right. If you need to play WMA files you can download Windows Media Player for OS X. There is no OS X version of access.

i believe there is a windows media player for mac.

mynameis beat me to it.

also if you dont want to pay for office have a look at neo office which is totally free and IMO is more that upto the job

thanks for all the help!

Also for media files a good thing to download is divix player for mac. it allows you to open a ton of video formats. and best of all it runs seamlessly in quicktime player so you wont even know its working.

Yeah like the others said...NeoOffice/J is a great app for .doc and .xls files. And as far as the .wma files i would get VLC Player. It plays .wma files like Windows Media PLayer for mac but is more stable.

What format do iMovie and iDvd use? I haven't gotten around to using them yet and I'm wondering if I need a converter. All of my videos are on my PC and are either in avi or wma

Access is a database program that often uses a sql ODBC connection. Apple (as far as I know I'm still a n00b) cannot run a sql server or support the database that Access tries to run.

Just to reinforce the point that Access isn't going to run on your ibook

Mac N00b said:

What format do iMovie and iDvd use? I haven't gotten around to using them yet and I'm wondering if I need a converter. All of my videos are on my PC and are either in avi or wma

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avi's are supported by iDVD (and iMovie I think) but wmv are only compatible with Windows Media Player, you can not do any editing of wmv on macs

hduk said:

I am looking to buy a laptop for university, Is it worth buying the official Office for Mac software or are there better alternatives?

Sorry if the answers are really obvious, but just want to make sure before I get one

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I am not sure if it is offered at all Universities, however I received my Microsoft Office for mac for free from the University. I think there was actually a 2.00 charge to cover the cost of the disks. Worth checking with your bookstore and information technologies departments.