Hello! First MacBook Pro

Hey,

I recently dumped my Toshiba Satellite and picked up a MacBook Pro (13" 2.4) with some extra funds that I had. I also own an iPhone, and I think using that on a daily basis turned me on to the idea of owning a laptop with Apples OS. So far I am loving it! I am a grad student so my Mac will be used mostly for school type things. I recently downloaded the free trial of Microsoft Office as I am still undecided as to whether I want to use Pages or Office (I will search this forum for threads on the subject).

Anyways, I just wanted to briefly introduce myself and say that I am looking forward to the information that I can learn from this site!

Thanks.

Welcome aboard...You have come to the right place to learn about your new Mac. This is the place I started learning 4 years ago and it is still an invaluable tool for info.

I think you'll be loving your new Mac soon enough, especially if you've enjoyed using your iPhone in the past.

As for your decision between using Microsoft Office or iWork, personally I can say I prefer using iWork applications rather than Office. They just seem much cleaner and easier to work with. Since you mentioned you're in grad school, a primary concern would be compatibility in file types with what your fellow students and professors wold be using, which s mos likely Office. Fortunately, iWork applications have an export feature which will allow you to create documents, spreadsheets, etc from your iwork files that others can use with Office.

I'm also a relatively new Mac user and have used MS office for the past 10 years on my Windows machines. I figured I would try Pages and then Keynote since it was a relatively low monetary investment. I can honestly say that there isn't a thing I miss about Office. Pages was a cinch to pick up. Apple has a 5 minute video tutorial on their site that showed me everything I needed to know.

Thanks for the responses and welcomes! Also, thanks nyc for mentioning the tutorial. I will check that out.

I have had my MBP for a week now. All i can say is I should have gotten one a LONG time ago. You will love it more and more everyday

It's hard to go wrong with either Pages or Office. To my mind it's more a question of what you think you'll be comfortable with. If you're up for something new and different (and you probably wouldn't have bought a Mac if you weren't), then you might well like Pages and Keynote better than Word and Powerpoint. Numbers vs. Excel ... well ... I prefer Numbers, but I am most definitely an atypical spreadsheet user (I hate the bloody things), so Numbers' wildly different and more layout-oriented style appealed to me. I would think most Excel users would find it a challenge, and just plain inadequate if they are using the advanced stuff.