Help me Please!!!!!

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Hello Everyone
I hope I will find some solace after hopefully I get a reply to this post, a reply that I would want to hear.

I have been a PC user for over 2 decades. Recently my compaq crashed and this was not the first time and so I started looking at the Macs. I liked the pro and was considering buying it soon. Then yesterday the compaq crashed 3 times due to which I ended up spending an arm and a leg and my first child to get the Mac Book Pro.

Now I work in an office where all users use the normal windows based desktops and email exchanges happen and excel files, word documents, ppts etc are all sent back and forth. And I use SQL server which I know doesnt work on mac. So I called the store I purchased my mac from and he suggested I install Windows 7 using the boot camp option.

Now that I spent an arm and a leg and my first child I decided to sell my second one also and got the Windows 7. But before I opened the CD it dawned on me that i can ask for help, so here I am.

My questions are these.
1. If I install windows and use the mac book, then isnt the purpose of security of a mac defeated?
2. Do I have to install an Anti Virus software?
3. If I have to, then again isnt the purpose of a secure system defeated?
4. Or, can I buy iWork and get away from installing windows?
5. If I can do that then do the files created in Windows when sent to me by email in outlook, open up in iWork?
6. I live in outlook. So I will have to buy Ms Office for Mac I guess. And the tech support guy when I called says that if I buy Ms office for Mac, I cannot edit the excel, word, ppt files sent to me from a windows based system? Is that correct?
7. My outlook is about 3 GB, so you can imagine how much I live in it. If I do get MS office for Mac, can I move this outlook pst to the outlook in Mac?

My God, I am frustrated, upset for hurrying up to buy a mac pro. The main reason I am frustrated is when I called Tech support of Mac and after asking him all these questions, I asked if I made a mistake getting a Pro and he says "YEAH" and that still is resounding in my ears. And when I asked him if he really meant it he hung up and after that I could never get through the line.

So, gurus, I am on my knees begging for answers with a hope that the answers you give me will not make me spend more money.

The one thing I can sacrifice is using SQL Server. And if I do that, can an office for mac solve my problems?

Anticipating a positive reply. Thanks so much

Sunny
 
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OMG, 154 views and not a single reply? I hope I am not on the losing end.....:-(
 
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OMG, 154 views and not a single reply? I hope I am not on the losing end.....:-(

And these 154views could well of been 154 visitors and not a member of the forum, which makes it hard for them to post.
Patience will go a long way as 1hr 20mins after your OP your expecting answers from people that volunteer there time :)

Now to the questions ~

My questions are these.
1. If I install windows and use the mac book, then isnt the purpose of security of a mac defeated?

No as Windows is still Windows and the Mac OS is still the Mac OS. At this point in time there is no viruses in the wild that will do harm to OS X, but in some dodgy copies of certain Apps there is some sort of malware.

2. Do I have to install an Anti Virus software?

On Mac OS ~ Not needed
On Windows OS on a Mac ~ Yes

3. If I have to, then again isnt the purpose of a secure system defeated?

See answer to both questions above.
4. Or, can I buy iWork and get away from installing windows?

You most certainly can if you wish to go this way.

5. If I can do that then do the files created in Windows when sent to me by email in outlook, open up in iWork?
6. I live in outlook. So I will have to buy Ms Office for Mac I guess. And the tech support guy when I called says that if I buy Ms office for Mac, I cannot edit the excel, word, ppt files sent to me from a windows based system? Is that correct?
7. My outlook is about 3 GB, so you can imagine how much I live in it. If I do get MS office for Mac, can I move this outlook pst to the outlook in Mac?

Ill let someone with this working to answer these couple. I will say though about not being able to edit a Windows MS Office in MS Office on a Mac to not sound true. I could be totally wrong but with the work they have done with the MS Office over the years it is a bit hard to swallow.

My God, I am frustrated, upset for hurrying up to buy a mac pro. The main reason I am frustrated is when I called Tech support of Mac and after asking him all these questions, I asked if I made a mistake getting a Pro and he says "YEAH" and that still is resounding in my ears. And when I asked him if he really meant it he hung up and after that I could never get through the line.

Sorry to hear that you had such a negative experience with this  guy as 100% of experiences with  i hear about are positive. You do get your bad apples in any job though. Dont let it dampen your enthusiasm for wanting to make the switch.

HTH

And just again, remember the members that give up there time to post here and help out give it up for free so just for future reference usually after 8-12hrs you can give the thread a bump and see if it brings anymore responses. Getting upset because no-one has replied won't help your cause and atm the side of the world that has 90% of the membership is in darkness and people are asleep.
Just saying.

Cheers
 
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Hey bud, thanks for the reply. I guess I was getting a bit too tensed because of the investment I made and someone from Mac telling me that I made a mistake just increased the tension. I did not know that it is volunteers that answer, so my apologies from coming across as upset at not getting a reply. It was more of upset because of the situation I am in. I will see what best I can do. Thanks so much
Sunny
 
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To add to TattooedMac's post on question 4 ...
You can use iWorks to open/edit MS Office files, but you can also expect a few compatibility issues if you share your modified files with people using MS Office.
So my suggestion is for you to buy MS Office for Mac.

My 2 cents are that you made life complicated for yourself by doubling the number of changes in your life. Your Compaq broke down, so get a new laptop, but at the same time you went for a Mac, which will take you through a learning curve.
You could have waited a few hours and ask these questions prior to buying.

Cheers ... McBie
 

RavingMac

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Agree with all of the above. Will add two things:

1) You haven't lost anything by buying your MBP. At the very least it is a top quality PC that will run Windows and Windows APPs quite well

2) LibreOffice is a free open source alternative for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Worth looking at
 
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My questions are these.
1. If I install windows and use the mac book, then isnt the purpose of security of a mac defeated?
2. Do I have to install an Anti Virus software?
3. If I have to, then again isnt the purpose of a secure system defeated?
4. Or, can I buy iWork and get away from installing windows?
5. If I can do that then do the files created in Windows when sent to me by email in outlook, open up in iWork?
6. I live in outlook. So I will have to buy Ms Office for Mac I guess. And the tech support guy when I called says that if I buy Ms office for Mac, I cannot edit the excel, word, ppt files sent to me from a windows based system? Is that correct?
7. My outlook is about 3 GB, so you can imagine how much I live in it. If I do get MS office for Mac, can I move this outlook pst to the outlook in Mac?

First of all, relax. I come from an extensive Windows background and took my plunge last May.

1. When you dual boot, you are solely in the OS you are booting to. If you do go this route, I highly recommend Win7, 64-bit. Windows can be just as secure as OSX, it just takes more tweaks.
2. Windows is Windows, as stated above. You will probably want some kind of virus scanner. Win7 has some built-in tools that work with a bit of help. I have installed AVG Free with Windows Security (built-in to Win7) for others and havent heard a peep out of them in concern to getting viruses and malware.
3. Again, Windows is Windows, you are solely in the OS you booted to. OSX features are not in Windows.
4,5,7. I would not recommend iWork if you are in an office of all Windows machines with Microsoft Office. Get Office for Mac 2011 for Small Business. Outlook: do you connect to an Exchange server or are you just using IMAP? Big difference. You can, however, import the data as long as you can see the machine that has the .PST file. There is a lot of info on this already - I am not retyping it.
6. That Tech Support guy should be fired. He was 100% wrong. The latest version of Office for Mac even allows for VBScripting for Applications (VBA). You wont have any issues working with files created on Windows machines any more than they will have issues working with yours.

Overall, you have gotten bad advice all around. The person who sold you the Mac did not listen to your requirements or questions and only wanted the sale, the tech support people just didnt know and pretty much lied even to the point of telling you you made a mistake just so they didnt have to deal with you.

If you are that worried, take the machine back, get a Windows PC.
 
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2) LibreOffice is a free open source alternative for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Worth looking at

I do not recommend this in a true office environment with everyone else being on full Microsoft Office. The other "free" and cheaper alternatives are not really meant to replace Microsoft Office and when it comes down to functionality are little more than viewers in most cases.
 
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I will add to what has already been said by saying you can use MSE for AV on the Windows side it is also free and when you do Windows Update it also grabs the latest definitions.
You can also use Parallels and Fusion if you do not want to reboot each time you switch OS's.
Look at the bright side you can now have the best of both worlds and you would be surprised at how many people are doing this with a few triple booting and using a distro of Linux.
 

RavingMac

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I do not recommend this in a true office environment with everyone else being on full Microsoft Office. The other "free" and cheaper alternatives are not really meant to replace Microsoft Office and when it comes down to functionality are little more than viewers in most cases.

I tend to agree . . . Hence my "worth looking at". It really depends upon your needs. Though I have not (yet) used LibreOffice, I used OpenOffice for years to work at home on MS Office documents from work. My observations were:

Word - No problems at all. I don't do a lot of special formatting. Worked great

Excel - Occaisional glitches in formatting when switching back and forth, but easily corrected

PowerPoint - Works, but significant format errors in the transition. Not great

Bottomline: Since LibreOffice is free, it is definitely worth checking out to see if it fulfills your need. If not, MS Office for Mac (not free) is available
 
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Thank you so much everyone. It really was a great end to my suffering yesterday evening when someone on another forum told me about the openoffice. I did not know it existed. It was such a relief. I sent a word document from PC to Mac and back and it worked fine. A relief to begin with. Now, I dont think I will need to install windows. At least I hope. I may get MS Office for outlook and if I do, then the open office is not needed I guess. Reason for getting the MS OFfice is only for outlook and nothing else. The only question I have is how do I get access. May be for that open office should be retained. Dont know. Just thinking out loud here.

I agree that the mac tech support guy should be fired. He is from India I am sure, as I am an Indian and I have lived in the US for 12 years and I can easily catch an Indian trying to sound like an American or an Englishman. Bad I did not get his name. Anyway, my troubles seems to be coming to an end as I have decided on what to do. Obviously the sooner I get thru the learning curve the better it is for me.

I was surprised that neither the tech guy nor the sales guy talked about open office. And the techguy was the one that suggested i get iWork. Otherwise I did not know that existed and possibly he suggested that to make another sale.

And to answer Deckyon, I use a simple pop email thing. Not an exchange server and dont know what Imap is. The settings are like smtpout.... and pop3...

BUt thanks so much everyone. Yesterday was one heck of a miserable day and today I feel a lot better and proud to be an owner of a Mac Pro. Yeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaw.

Thanks again

Sunny
 
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Hi Sunny,
I just wanted to add my two cents..I'm a low technical level user and not all high tech guru like most of the people who answered your questions. But I have a MBP and run dual os (boot camp) and LOVE having both of them at my finger tips. I use windows for my real estate business (our industry only uses pc but is getting more apple friendly over the last 10 yrs) My second job is in education and this industry only use Mac (and are NOT getting more PC friendly.) Anyhow, I LOVE having both systems as both careers include travel and mobility. I have both systems both set for wireless network which includes my printer/scanner that I take right along with me =) I have a mobile office in my briefcase and can carry it all while in a great pair of heels! yay to technology and versatility!

Laura
 

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