Opening non Mac files?

Hi Guys,
Budget is getting closer to the new iMac,
As you would imagine, trying to learn as much as I can prior to purchase,

I'm guessing that the best option is to not to load "Office for Mac 2011"?

I'm thinking of taking that off my list, but have a few questions,
1. I'm guessing I will be OK with PDFs as Adobe reader will take care of that?
2. Two other files that I'm concerned about,
a. Word, and
b. Excel

Can a Mac read word?
Can a mac read excel?
I believe that Mac can save a doc as a word doc?

My main interest is that I have a lot of word and PDF info on my old ms machine,
Should I just "bite the bullet" and just get Office for Mac to deal with this or is there another way?

After reading through many volumes of info in the forums here, the general consensus is that it is better not to hang on to the "old" ms way?

Regards,
Gary

I would recommend Office for Mac, but Pages and Numbers together can handle Word and Excel files if you decid to give Office a pass.

You really don't need Adobe Reader. Preview, which comes with your Mac is a very powerful and multiuse APP that handles PDFs very well.

Can a Mac read word?
Can a mac read excel?
I believe that Mac can save a doc as a word doc?

Click to expand...

Yes to both and also Powerpoint. Additionally, your Mac can edit and save Word files using TextEdit.

However, for 100% compatibility (if that's important to you) purchase MS Office 2011 otherwise the previous suggestion to use Pages and Numbers will work.

Office files can also be read by the free office suites OpenOffice and LibreOffice. They may not be perfectly compatible but should get the job done for basic documents.

The odd PDF won't open in Preview and in those cases, Adobe Reader will do the trick. This doesn't happen often however and generally only happens with PDFs that have advanced features not yet implemented by Apple.

Even textedit (the basic wp program included on the Mac) can read and write Word files.

When people ask me whether they should use Pages/Numbers/Keynote or Word/Excel/Powerpoint, I usually ask them a few questions:

1. How adept are you at [Office program's] more advanced features?

2. Do you ever collaborate with PC people on complex Office documents?

3. Which is more important to you: functionality that is as similar as possible to what you are used to, OR making incredibly beautiful, noteworthy documents that will actually be read and enjoyed?

4. How enamored are you of the Apple philosophy of elegance and tasteful design?

5. If I told you there was a free option that wasn't as good, would that price supersede all other considerations?

Answering those five questions usually gives me my answer on what to suggest.

chas_m said:

Even textedit (the basic wp program included on the Mac) can read and write Word files.

When people ask me whether they should use Pages/Numbers/Keynote or Word/Excel/Powerpoint, I usually ask them a few questions:

1. How adept are you at [Office program's] more advanced features?

2. Do you ever collaborate with PC people on complex Office documents?

3. Which is more important to you: functionality that is as similar as possible to what you are used to, OR making incredibly beautiful, noteworthy documents that will actually be read and enjoyed?

4. How enamored are you of the Apple philosophy of elegance and tasteful design?

5. If I told you there was a free option that wasn't as good, would that price supersede all other considerations?

Answering those five questions usually gives me my answer on what to suggest.

Click to expand...

1. Confident but not really that advanced,
2. No
3. Making incredibly beautiful, noteworthy documents that will be actually read and enjoyed occasionally
4.I no nothing about Apple except, all I hear is, "More robust, better for image editing"
5.No, I usually buy the best I can afford, this principal has served me well over many years and possibly saved me money, would have changed to Apple a while back but, until now they were too expensive locally
Regards,
Gary

GLXMAN said:

5.No, I usually buy the best I can afford, this principal has served me well over many years and possibly saved me money, would have changed to Apple a while back but, until now they were too expensive locally
Regards,
Gary

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Now this is the best philosophy you can live by and its what we tell most people that come into the forums and ask, what Mac is best for me.
You can't go wrong by this.

Cheers

Office for Mac 2011 user here. I ran with the free software options for a while and tinkered with Pages and Numbers but the need to swop documents with other users (not even that complex ones either - formatted labels, jpgs that you wanted to remain in the place, tables in Word, that sort of thing) meant that in the end I had to go the Office route. The Office suite may not be as intuitive as 'proper' mac programs (File, Print Area, Set Print Area anyone???) but they get the job done. Besides has anyone used the latest PC versions of Office recently - they are a nightmare!

Tks for the heads-up Sawday,

Much appreciated,
Starting to sound like "Office for Mac 2011" may have to be purchased
Regards,
Gary

If you really wish to purchase Office for Mac 2011, do some shopping around. I've seen it advertised on the web for as low as $90 for the single license version of Home and Business.

Tks for the heads-up,

Office for Mac is around $199 here in Australia
Local business is complaining why so many buy from the USA and China,
Regards,
Gary

Based on your answers I would have said you were a prime candidate for the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) not Office.

Have a look at the tutorials for iWork on Apple's website. I apologise that there's no demo currently available, but I have a suspicion that a new version is coming later this year (possibly quite soon).

Apple - iWork - Find out how to use Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Tks for the heads-up Chas,

Wow, so many choices, had a look over on the web-site,
Very economical option actually,
Can write and read word as well
have not had a look at numbers yet
Regards,
Gary

I use Numbers and work with my financial Excel sheets and so far have had no issues at all. I am told only certain complex formulas will cause issues.

I personally LOVE Numbers and Pages to death.

GLXMAN said:

Office for Mac is around $199 here in Australia
Local business is complaining why so many buy from the USA and China,
Regards,
Gary

Click to expand...

dtravis7 said:

I personally LOVE Numbers and Pages to death.

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I love pages too only just recently purchased it for iPhone and my Mac.

@Gary, mate i here in Aust i paid $10.49 for IOS Pages and $20.99 for Pages through MAS. Very cheap and reasonable i must say.

Tks Dennis,

dtravis7 said:

I use Numbers and work with my financial Excel sheets and so far have had no issues at all. I am told only certain complex formulas will cause issues.

I personally LOVE Numbers and Pages to death.

Click to expand...

I cannot see me doing complex formula any more, (retired),
Regards,
Gary

Tks for that!

TattooedMac said:

I love pages too only just recently purchased it for iPhone and my Mac.

@Gary, mate i here in Aust i paid $10.49 for IOS Pages and $20.99 for Pages through MAS. Very cheap and reasonable i must say.

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Guess it is lucky I'm not rushing into this,
Got me thinking now, must ask what software I get with the iMac,
Regards,
Gary

A big thanks to all who replied here!

Reading through all posts and advice along the way, I've decided to give it a go without ms software,
Reading through the Mac App Store, as suggested, "pages" and "Numbers" apps should do the job, not being familiar with Mac Apps, not sure how easy the change will actually be,
Office for Mac if all else gets too hard
Setting up my email is mast probably the first hurdle
New machine is getting close to budget, just a few more bills to take care of first
Regards,
Gary