A friend who’s always used Windows is planning to get a MacBookAir and has asked me some questions. I’ve tried to respond to the best of my ability but it would be appreciated if someone could cast an eye over my replies. I obviously don’t want to mislead him.
He says:
1. How likely is it that when I try to access Word docs stored on my external drive, they will upload on the Apple pretty well unaltered? Will I need to install Office in order to ensure this?
My reply:
Your Mac will have the Apple Word Processor, “Pages” and the latter will open Word Documents created in the “docx” and the “doc” format. If you have very old Word Documents, “Pages” might not open them. However, your MacBookAir will have something called Text Editor (the equivalent of WordPad on a PC) and this should open the vast majority of word-processed documents. You can then copy and paste them into Pages if you wish. Given that you are retiring, my understanding is that you will not be exchanging lots of documents with people who are using Word and on this basis you will not need to purchase MS Office for Mac 2011. You may lose some minor formatting when you open your Word documents but this will not be significant.
2. Ditto query to (1) re my photo files.
My reply:
The MacBookAir will open these in the application called “Photos” that will come pre-installed on the machine - presumably your pix are in JPG format.
3. Apple also offer to custom build with 8gb rather than the standard 4gb memory for £70. Would this be worthwhile?
My reply:
Yes, I reckon that it would be worthwhile. My Mac Book Pro has 16 GB but that’s more than enough for me. I guess you will not be using the Mac for anything fancy such as video editing and/or gaming.
Thanks very much to MacForum members in advance.
M
He says:
1. How likely is it that when I try to access Word docs stored on my external drive, they will upload on the Apple pretty well unaltered? Will I need to install Office in order to ensure this?
My reply:
Your Mac will have the Apple Word Processor, “Pages” and the latter will open Word Documents created in the “docx” and the “doc” format. If you have very old Word Documents, “Pages” might not open them. However, your MacBookAir will have something called Text Editor (the equivalent of WordPad on a PC) and this should open the vast majority of word-processed documents. You can then copy and paste them into Pages if you wish. Given that you are retiring, my understanding is that you will not be exchanging lots of documents with people who are using Word and on this basis you will not need to purchase MS Office for Mac 2011. You may lose some minor formatting when you open your Word documents but this will not be significant.
2. Ditto query to (1) re my photo files.
My reply:
The MacBookAir will open these in the application called “Photos” that will come pre-installed on the machine - presumably your pix are in JPG format.
3. Apple also offer to custom build with 8gb rather than the standard 4gb memory for £70. Would this be worthwhile?
My reply:
Yes, I reckon that it would be worthwhile. My Mac Book Pro has 16 GB but that’s more than enough for me. I guess you will not be using the Mac for anything fancy such as video editing and/or gaming.
Thanks very much to MacForum members in advance.
M