Quick questions from Future Switcher

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Ok, so I have lurked and searched through a number of different threads, but have not found exactly what I am looking for. (I have found a ton of other great info, though - thanks to all who write such great responses!)

My question concerns the possible back-and-forth use of Office files between a Mac and a PC. My wife needs a new laptop and we both really want it to be a Mac. We cannot afford to get a new laptop AND a new desktop, so it looks like we will have one of each for now.

My question: if both the mac and the PC have Office installed, would it be possible to create a Word document (or Powerpoint, Excel, etc.) on one computer and then use a USB key to transfer the document to the other computer? I have read a number of threads (and some info on the Apple site) about the mac OS and its compatibility over a network, but cannot seem to find anything that directly answers my scenario.

Note: one reason we would do this is that the new printer I recently bought does NOT appear to have Mac drivers available - and I have searched almost everywhere for them. It is a Dell 964 and it does not appear that the drivers exist. Another reason she might need to do this is that her Work uses PCs and if she wants to create or modify a document on her Mac, she may need to eventually run it on her PC. (I suppose she could email it to herself and then open it on the other computer? Is this a solution?)

Thanks in advance for any replies and I apologize if this has been answered elsewhere.
 
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Short answer to your question: Yes it will work.
 
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Thanks for the quick reply. I KNEW it had to be that simple, but could not find it stated anywhere.
 
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No problem, glad you are happy with the answer.
 
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I do it all the time. I have Office on my Mac and Office on my PC, and transfer files back and forth freely. No muss, no fuss.

And by the way, the same Office files from your PC will generally open and run just fine from NeoOffice, the Mac-targetted version of OpenOffice. I do this quite a bit too. NeoOffice reads and writes MS Office format as well as its own Open Document Format (which is MUCH more compact for the same contents).
 
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Thanks for that additional info.

I realized that maybe I should ask one other question: is there a particular OS threshold that I need to meet to make this work as smoothly as described? For example, I am considering buying a slightly older machine that is running Panther. Do I need to have Tiger to make this work? I am guessing that it does not matter, but I wanted to ask.

Thanks in advance again.
 
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No, it doesn't matter. Office still creates the same documents.
 
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infact, office 2004 has a compatibility test you can run to make sure everything will show up the same way.
 
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Yep... Office is Office is Office is Office.
Makes no difference what OS you run it on, its the same suite of programs that make the same file types. If your OS can run Office, then you can read any Office file.
It would make no sense to have Office run on different platforms if it was going to use different file types.
:black:
 
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the trick with your printer is to find what Lexmark cartage it takes as dell uses lexmark engines within there cases. lexmark cartages do work in dell printers as my old dear do's just that.

once you found which cartages it takes then try doing a bit research to what features its got and how close its to another model of lexmark then get drivers for that and it WILL work the same. although dell annouces itself as a dell printer.
 

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