switcher questions

I have just bought a macBook and installed iwork so that I can create flyers and brochures easily.

I am slowly getting there but it is like learning a new language and I feel pretty dumb.

I used a mac in the late 1990s at uni and loved Claris Works. Now I would like to know several things....

1. If I didn't have iwork what software would I be using to create basic documents?

2. Claris work had a fairly decent drawing package, is there something similar on the mac book or do I have to go and buy something?

3. I would like to edit a j.peg image. Take of the background colour basically. I have learned how to do this in Pages using Instat Alpha but then can't save the image as anyhting but a pages doc., not good for sharing with a PC pal. What can I use for this?

Hope you can help. Thanks
Julie

1) Out of the box? Textedit.

2) There are photo & image editing features that are included, but nothing to draw with. There are a ton of free and paid alternatives though.

3) That is actually quite an advanced capability that not many applications can do that easily. Photoshop / Gimp / Graphic Converter should all be able to handle it, but for casual use it might be easier to just save your entire keynote slide as an image (use the "export" command) and then crop it to your picture.

julie said:

3. I would like to edit a j.peg image. Take of the background colour basically. I have learned how to do this in Pages using Instat Alpha but then can't save the image as anyhting but a pages doc., not good for sharing with a PC pal. What can I use for this?

Click to expand...

It's true you can only save files in Pages as .pages, but you can Export to a larger variety of formats, including one that a PC pal could view. Give that a try.