Switch or not switch.

Hi all,

Hope there are someone that can help me with a few questions.

Currently I'm using a PC on a Windows 2003 server system with Exchange server.

Can I switch to an iMac and still connect to the server?
Can I connect to the exchange server without any add-on programs and with the standart OS X mail program?

The iMac will stay inside the LAN, so no need to connect to the server/exchange outside.

Is the standart text editor in OS X able to save documents in .doc format?

And finally is there a cheap (read free) program for mac that is equal to MS Publisher?
and if I want to connect to the server via VPN is that possible too?

Hope someone can help.


Michael

Welcome to the forum Nordstoem!!!

I am not real sure about the server question... I'm sure someone here will get you some answers for that...

As for Textedit.... It will not save in as a .doc... BUT, a trick I use is... type whatever in Textedit... File>>>Save As>>> remove the check from "hide file Extension">>Save.

You now have a file saved (let's say on your desktop) as RIDE.txt... rename it to RIDE.doc.... that file will now open in MS word.

I do it all the time.

Note.. I don't use an extravagant symbols in textedit (only the standard SHIFT+any number)... so I haven't tested the all the ALT symbols... But it works great for me.

You can connect effortlessly to your server with OS X. Apple says so themselves: http://www.apple.com/macosx/overview/compatibility.html

As for the DOC, textedit won't do that, but Ride's idea is good. Note that Word can also open TXT files.

well, there could be a trick to your exchange question, but i'm sure it's possible. all we have here at my company are exchange servers (lots of them), and our advertising and design people use macs. so they must be using exchange.

also, you can use the standard text editor in the way RIDE suggests, or you can download neooffice (neooffice.org) which has equivelent programs to word, excel, and access.

Desktop Publishing - Try Scribus - you can try this on your windows machine first. Should be more powerful than ms publisher

Thank you guys

I will start to test the software to see if it's better the Publisher (it most likely is hehe) and then I will start to spam my boss that I need a mac.

Nordstroem

Thanks for the suggestion of Scribus, bobtomay. I just downloaded the Windows version and it looks rather good. Would it run OK on a Mac Mini? I don't know how much power it needs on a Mac. I am using a Dual Core Athlon with Windows but Windows is always one for taking the power and losing it somewhere!

There is always Open Office. Its free, cross platform and will open and save documents in MS Word format.

Yes, Open Office... I use that on my home PC, but didn't know that also was working on a Mac... Guess I have to study the homepage more before just clicking... hehe Well I think I will set it up with the Scribus for the small desktop publishing job, and then have the OpenOffice as primary word editor, and then paralles for the MS access job since I haven't heard or seen Access for Mac, or am I wrong here too?

Nordstroem

Nordstroem said:

Hi all,

Hope there are someone that can help me with a few questions.

Currently I'm using a PC on a Windows 2003 server system with Exchange server.

Can I switch to an iMac and still connect to the server?
Can I connect to the exchange server without any add-on programs and with the standart OS X mail program?

The iMac will stay inside the LAN, so no need to connect to the server/exchange outside.

Is the standart text editor in OS X able to save documents in .doc format?

And finally is there a cheap (read free) program for mac that is equal to MS Publisher?
and if I want to connect to the server via VPN is that possible too?

Hope someone can help.


Michael

Click to expand...

I am going through a similar switch, so I will share the little bit of knowledge I have gleaned.

You can connect to a Windows file share no problems at least I could with OSX 10.4.

There are several ways to connect to an Exchange server. The easiest way would be through OWA (Outlook Web Access). OWA is a web based front end to the Exchange server. The default address is usually https://<servername>/exchange. Depending on the IT department you may need to use http:// instead of https://. You might also be able to connect via POP3 or IMAP and a small possibility of connecting with webDAV (this requires OWA).

I like the idea of saving a standard text document with the extension of .doc suggestion. MS Word is smart enough to open it and it won't confuse your co worker. Also Open Office is an excellent alternative. I have been trying to convert our company to it for years but we are pretty entrenched with MS SharePoint.

Depending on the type of VPN. Most hardware based VPN solutions have a Mac client.