1K down the tubes?

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My new MacBook 10.6.3 seems to be missing any form of document creating functions. Neither will it recognize any external drive connected to it, or most attachments through email. Is this possible, for a thousand buck investment?
Repeated requests for assistance on Mac Forums have not borne fruit. I am about ready to chuck it.

Over50
 
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MacInWin

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In the Applications folder should be a file called "TextEdit." It will allow creation of a document. If you want something closer to MS Word, try LibreOffice (Google for it). It's free and comes with an equivalent of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access, and can read/write in those formats.
 
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Do you have an Office program on it ?
If not there are free ones from Neo Office or Open Office.
By new meaning this year it should have 10.6.8 on it.
Not sure why it will not recognize an external drive ,what brand is it and how is it connected ?
 

dtravis7


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Windows stock out of the box does not come with anything more than a simple text editing program that is far less useful than Textedit on OSX. If you buy some brands of machines, MS Office is included but it's most always a 60 day trial so you still have to purchase it.

The other posters gave you good advice on Productivity apps. Most are free also. As was said, textedit will open most normal Word documents. I personally use iWork but that is $79, but Open Office and Libre Office are free and even more features.

Any external drive should at least mount on the desktop. If it's NTFS, like Linux stock, you can just read but not write but Write support can be enabled from OSX or with some software.

How are the drives formatted? What drives are they? Brand? Interface? Format?

Open Applications and utilities and run Disk Utility. Do the external drives show up there? Let us know.
 
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1K down tubes - closer to understanding

Thanks Lads.

- It was pdf that still produces only an empty dialog box. jpg OK.
- An external drive registers in TextEdit (thank you jakerich), but documents are way out of format and more trouble than they're worth.

I guess I'm having trouble believing Senor Gates would take that much of my money (and presumably that of others) for a less than complete internet-only machine! Thank you all for suggestions on free and affordable programs that will hopefully soon solve my woes.

Over51 at least
 
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Um, I think you mean Senor Jobs don't you?

(though if its giving you trouble, then I agree it must be Bill Gates' fault!) :)

What would really, really be helpful more articulation from you on a) what you want to do and b) what you don't think you're able to do.

Macs are fabulous machines, but it's like getting behind the wheel of a Maserati if all you've ever driven is a VW Beetle -- there's enough differences to be intimidating, at least for a while, and everything is not "where it should be."

A Mac User Group can be a big help with the "getting used to the new house" feeling, or the free classes at your local Apple Store if you have one nearby. Lots of resources out there, and this forum can be a big help -- but being a text-based forum, it's key to be very clear in what exactly the problem is as you perceive it, what you've done to find a solution, and as many details as possible.
 
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Other than PDF you still haven't told us anything useful. What type files are you trying to open? What do you mean by "out of format?" What do you mean by "An external drive registers in TextEdit?" When you attach a drive, it should appear on the desktop as a disk icon. Clicking on it will open in in Finder, or you should be able to go to Finder and open it from there. On the PDF file that opens into the empty dialog box, does the box show any title? Have you tried saving the pdf to the desktop and opening it from there? As chad_m said, what are you trying to do?
 
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You just need to learn the new OS. If your trying to read windows files you just need to get the proper software. I would suggest iwork. It's like you bought a new diesel car and put unleaded gas into it and then complain that the new car is junk because it won't operate on the same gas your old car uses.
 
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I am about ready to chuck it.
You can chuck it my way if you like. PM me for my address. :D :D
 
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Windows stock out of the box does not come with anything more than a simple text editing program that is far less useful than Textedit on OSX. If you buy some brands of machines, MS Office is included but it's most always a 60 day trial so you still have to purchase it.
To clarify, Windows since XP has come with WordPad, which is certainly comparable to TextEdit and can open simple Word .doc files among other things. They even "ribbonized" it for Windows 7 for the 4 people who use WordPad for anything. As for Office Trial, Microsoft is hardly alone here.

I am confused what the poster is creating documents with in Windows beyond WordPad. Windows also has very limited (ie. none) support for PDF natively. It all has to be bolted on later and most people get Adobe Reader which is pretty painful.

Haven't we all switched to cloud-based content creation? Google Docs? Hello? (lol)
 

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Word Pad is no where near Textedit in fact if you really know how to use it. And don't compare the iWork demo to the BLOATWARE on almost ever PC out there.

Cloud computing? All your data and apps in the cloud. Just wait till the server goes down and you can't get to your work someday and then tell me all about it! :D

And remember PDF support built in.
 
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Though it may seem like a waste of money (trust me I know after purchasing a $1,200 machine) I HIGHLY suggest you purchase the latest version of Microsoft Office(One great thing about Windows, and they took out the annoying paper clip! :D At least he hasn't bothered me ;) ) or iWork. They work very well for what you are trying to do.

As for the email I do not really know what you're getting at but one of the greatest things about Macs is their incredible ability to use the drag and drop method almost anywhere. ;) Try just opening whatever attachment you want and dragging it in.
 
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OpenOffice is free and personally I think better than MS Office et al. I use it at work at home and have installed it on as many friends and family comps as possible! Works across all platforms as well. And it's free :)

There are many advantages to having a mac - one is you buy a computer that doesn't come loaded with useless and secretive, processor hungry, progs. Trust me, you've brought right... now you just need the prog. Go with open office :)
 
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I thought PDF's opened in Preview by default which is a stock program so it should load automatically.

External drives are probably windows based and therefore in NTFS format. Best thing to do there would be to transfer all files to a windows machine that are on the external drive. Then format drive as Fat32 (plug external drive into Mac>open disk utility>select external drive>click erase tab>select Fat32 from drop down menu of format types>select erase). This will enable the drive to be recognised on all operating systems with read/write access. However there is one drawback. Fat32 does not support file sizes above 4Gb, so DVD/Blu-Ray rips and other large video and other large file types would not be suitable for Fat32.

On an Office platform I currently run both iWork and Office 2011 Business. I tinkered around with iWork but tended to use Office more because of its universal application. I know iWork can save a copy as office compatible but that never looked the same when opened in Office. The same was true when I used OpenOffice in my Linux days. For true cross platform compatibility you have to use Office because everyone else does. However, after installing Lion I have started using iWork again (taking advantage of versions, etc) and it is truly an amazing program. When using iWork I don't feel like I am making a document, I feel like I am making a piece of art. Does anyone else feel like this?
 

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I am a large fan of iWork and in Lion like you said, it's even nicer.

There are some though that really need Office for 100% compatibility with everything. For most of my work though, iWork is just fine.
 
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OpenOffice is the base program, NeoOffice is a second variant that asks for some payment for the latest version, LibreOffice is a third variant that is free. LibreOffice seems to be gaining the most use/comments these day. All work well and two are free.
 
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I am a large fan of iWork and in Lion like you said, it's even nicer.

There are some though that really need Office for 100% compatibility with everything. For most of my work though, iWork is just fine.

For what I do iWork is all I need.
 

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over the last several months I have written a series of articles discussing some of the things that can be done with the software included on every new Mac.

Here's the link to the article I wrote about TextEdit. At the bottom of that article you'll find links to several several other articles in the series. ATPM 17.07 - How To: Make the Most of TextEdit
 

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