Using word via Parallels

I have installed Parallels 7 and Windows 7 on my iMac. I had expected that by installing windows 7, I would be able to use the "normal" word version on my Mac, so not "word for Mac" but the same version you would use on a PC (and I am using at the office). However, I cannot seem to find this version. I (still) have word for Mac on my computer, but that is not what I was looking for.

Any help is much appreciated!

Where have you looked? Amazon, PCWorld, any software vendor?

Apologies - I meant I cannot find the normal word version on my mac after installing Windows 7. I assumed that word would be included on the installation disc for Windows 7 - am I wrong?

Word is part ot the Microsoft Office suite, it's never been included in the OS.

Many thanks for enlightening me! But sad to learn that this means yet another purchase...

Is it possible to move the Office software I have on my old pc to my Mac (and use it via parallels)?

Personally, I'd just install Office for Mac, if you're purchasing. Moving Windows applications (without installing from media) is a pain. I really just don't see the point of running a virtual machine to run software that's readily available to run natively.

Have to agree with Mike. I have both Office 2011 (Mac) and Office 2010 (Windows) and other than the slightly different "Ribbon" menus, both versions are identical. Why install Windows just to run a version of Word that you have to purchase when you already have Office for the Mac?

I have to mark up documents that are in our office template styles and want to be absolutely certain that I do not run into any formatting issues when amending documents, In particular as the documents are huge and other people need to work in them as well. Maybe my concerns are not justified but I heard people complain about formatting issues when they worked on a word document on a Mac.

Also, I used to the short cuts (for using bold etc) in office 2010 and they do seem different in office for mac.

I've never seen any weird formatting issues and I used Word a lot. I would suggest that you download the Office 2011 trial from the MS site (here). Open up a few docs and see how it works out for you.

I use Office 11 on my Mac all the time for docs I do markup on. Other than using the cmd key instead of the ctrl key, the shortcuts I use (bold, italicized, underline, etc) are the same.

Now, there can be some formatting issues. In general though, I find these are mostly a font selection sort of thing (you know, some yahoo uses Comic MS Sans for a technical document.. )

Dysfunction said:

(you know, some yahoo uses Comic MS Sans for a technical document.. )

Click to expand...

This person surely isn't a professional...

vansmith said:

This person surely isn't a professional...

Click to expand...

Hence the 'yahoo' term

Of course, to many people fonts simply aren't important. To me, their selection, says a lot. (of course, I see 'alot', 'irregardless', etc in work email too.. drives me 'round the bend.)

Dysfunction said:

Hence the 'yahoo' term

Of course, to many people fonts simply aren't important. To me, their selection, says a lot. (of course, I see 'alot', 'irregardless', etc in work email too.. drives me 'round the bend.)

Click to expand...

You'll enjoy this. Send it to those who say 'alot'.

Many thanks, vansmith. I will try the trial version.

Lodge22, I have a frield who also uses Word as a professional tool, and she uses Parallels so that she can have the exact same version of Word as her compatriots. She tried the OSX version of Word, but it was missing some features (I don't know which) that the Windows version had and that they were using in the collaboration. So if you try the trial version I'd recommend a very thorough trial before you commit. Sadly, MS doesn't keep the Apple version in sync with the Windows version very well.

Many thanks. Even after the trial, I may just ending up buying the windows office software just to be 100% certain. Avoiding the pain that I'll need to through if anything goes wrong with a document when there is under time pressure (as there usually is) is worth a lot.

Sadly, MS doesn't keep the Apple version in sync with the Windows version very well.

Click to expand...

Not true. Like I said above and others have also said, there are practically no differences between the two. Unless you have both versions as I have and have experience with using both, making a statement like that is "stirring the pot".

chscag, maybe you didn't read this in my post: "I have a frield who also uses Word as a professional tool, and she uses Parallels so that she can have the exact same version of Word as her compatriots. She tried the OSX version of Word, but it was missing some features (I don't know which) that the Windows version had and that they were using in the collaboration."

I bolded the section you may have missed. A professional writer, who uses Word in a collaborative project, finds that the Apple version of Word is NOT the same as the Windows version. I helped her install Parallels so that she could avoid all the rework that the difference in versions was causing. I'm not "stirring the pot," as you called it, I'm simply warning the OP to make her test pretty exhaustive of all the features she uses. For her purposes the differences may not matter, but to my friend, they did.

As for your snappy, "not true" comment, any difference is a difference, and may be significant to the user who hits that difference, so ANY difference makes it "true."

As I said, I have both versions and have used them extensively and have exchanged documents back and forth without difficulty. I have found no incompatibilities between the two.

Your statement off the cuff about MS just isn't true. (And I'm not a lover of MS) Maybe your friend ran into difficulties, however, I would like to hear which features were missing.