Data from a PC's external drive to MacBookAir (?)

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

That looks great. I have both PC's and Mac's. I move documents and pictures between both all the time.

I admit I do use Office 2011 because I like the familiarity and don't want to have any formatting issues. As long as your friend is only doing the basic documents - no fancy newsletters. borders, inserted pictures, etc, Pages will work.

Photos will take a bit to catch on to because there is nothing like it in Windows.

As for 8GB of memory - definitely get the 8GB and the largest SSD he can afford - that storage will go fast. I recommend at least 250GB.

If your friend has been using a PC there will be a learning curve. When I purchased my first Mac I had many moments of frustration. I recommend pointing him to this forum and telling him to ask a lot of questions.

Lisa

Thanks, Lisa.
I'm psd that my comments are OK.
I should be able to help him with most things but if things get difficult I'll advise him to use this excellent forum.
M

An afterthought: does Migration Assistant work with PC to Mac? Or does it just work from Mac to Mac?
Thanks in advance for comments.
M

There are several ways to move files from the PC to a Mac. This Apple support page gives an overview of the options. It includes a link to information about the Windows Migration Assistant and which files get transferred.

A very helpful link ... thanks.

M

You're welco0me. Glad to help.