New Switcher

[doug2484]

Hey there everyone. My name is douglas. i have been using windows for many years..... well, tolerating, windows for many years. After my severe disappointment with xp, and then vista, and going through many crashes, and many days of formatting, and restoration, i vowed i would eventually take the jump to mac, and try it out. i am big on "if your gonna do it, do it big" so i ordered a MBP with the works (500gig hd@7200, 8gig ram, 15inch), which should be here within the next few days.

I am big on pictures, i have almost 5,000 archived on my 2tb wd drive, and have just recently put all my older pics in there, everything pre-2010, so i only have about 600 on my pc, that i will be moving to my mac immediately.

I am looking to get more into video aswell. i have been told that macs are superior to pc in almost every way, but i have had several people put an emphasis on video editing. it was my understanding that video editing has more to do with your program, than your os, but i am not complaining. i will take a mac users word over a pc user anyday.

My software plan includes Adobe CS4 MC, MS Office 2008, aperture, and of course the standard ilife. i am also going to have crossover, incase i cant find a mac version of a program i may be interested in down the road.

Backups im gonna do with my WD passport elite, 500 gig. gonna give time machine a go, i guess.

Ok, so, i think that covers it? let me know. I want any and all advice, and please, correct me if i seem to have any misconceptions about mac. PLEASE, tell me if you highly reccomend specific programs, as i am not familiar with all the programs available to mac.

 

[cwa107]

Hey there everyone. My name is douglas. i have been using windows for many years..... well, tolerating, windows for many years. After my severe disappointment with xp, and then vista, and going through many crashes, and many days of formatting, and restoration, i vowed i would eventually take the jump to mac, and try it out. i am big on "if your gonna do it, do it big" so i ordered a MBP with the works (500gig hd@7200, 8gig ram, 15inch), which should be here within the next few days.

Welcome and congrats on your purchase.

I am big on pictures, i have almost 5,000 archived on my 2tb wd drive, and have just recently put all my older pics in there, everything pre-2010, so i only have about 600 on my pc, that i will be moving to my mac immediately.

You might want to look into Aperture. iPhoto is pretty cool, but with a library that size, you're probably going to want something more prosumer oriented.

I am looking to get more into video aswell. i have been told that macs are superior to pc in almost every way, but i have had several people put an emphasis on video editing. it was my understanding that video editing has more to do with your program, than your os, but i am not complaining. i will take a mac users word over a pc user anyday.

Well, Macs are pretty much the same as any other x86 machine these days from a hardware standpoint. The big difference is in the OS and the software it runs. I'm hesitant to say superior, lest we start the classic Windows vs. Mac war that has been rehashed many times, so let's just settle for "different", with a number of advantages related to the design of the OS.

Also, iMovie and Final Cut Pro are very solid video editing suites.

My software plan includes Adobe CS4 MC, MS Office 2008, aperture, and of course the standard ilife. i am also going to have crossover, incase i cant find a mac version of a program i may be interested in down the road.

I would hold off on MS Office until you've had a chance to sample OpenOffice and NeoOffice, as well as the trial of iWork preinstalled on your Mac.

MS Office is almost never necessary unless you are a heavy duty user of office apps.

Backups im gonna do with my WD passport elite, 500 gig. gonna give time machine a go, i guess.

Ok, so, i think that covers it? let me know. I want any and all advice, and please, correct me if i seem to have any misconceptions about mac. PLEASE, tell me if you highly reccomend specific programs, as i am not familiar with all the programs available to mac.

Welcome to M-F and do stick around to share your experience with us. We're here to help.

 

[iZach]

Welcome!
I highly recommend iWork over MS office, But like cwa said, you might want to try the trial before buying it.

You might want to look at other applications such as VMware fusion, Parallels, or bootcamp (which comes with your mac) for running windows as well.

If you want to get into video, iMovie is great for beginners and it comes with your mac (part of iLife) but if you ever want to progress in video, check out Final Cut Express

 

[alexsd123]

I know you mentioned photography being a big thing for you.
I suggest trying out an alternative to Photoshop, it's called Pixelmator. There is a trial on their website that you can try out.
It is designed for OSX so it runs more efficiently and incorporates programs such as iPhoto.

I would suggest iWork as your office program over MS Office. I have found iWork to be less glitchy and the word processor, Pages, is a lot more intuitive than Word.

A couple of other programs I would suggest are Caffeine, CapSee, and OnyX.

Welcome to the forums and enjoy your new Mac!

 

[crookedcurve]

Just a heads up chances are your gonna have to re-format your external HDD if you want to use it with Time Machine.

 

[Tbone]

I've got a WD Passport external hd and it is formatted to work with both mac and pc. I know the HP unit I had wasn't though. I think the FAT32(?) works with both

 

[cwa107]

I've got a WD Passport external hd and it is formatted to work with both mac and pc. I know the HP unit I had wasn't though. I think the FAT32(?) works with both

FAT32 does indeed work with both, but I believe Time Machine requires an HFS+ partition. You could always put multiple partitions on one big disk - one for Time Machine and the other for compatibility amongst multiple PCs.

 

[doug2484]

Thanks all.
i will be looking into the programs reccomended.

my external hdd is supposed to be formatted for both pc and mac. so it said before purchase.

pixelmator looks like a nice program, if it is as capable as photoshop, i may purchase. and i have also been interested in mac's aperture.

my biggest question, is on iwork vs. office.

i do alot of group work with others who use office, will the files created in iwork be able to open in office? and vice versa?

again. thanks all.

 

[MYmacROX]

my external hdd is supposed to be formatted for both pc and mac. so it said before purchase.

There's a difference between the way it is formatted right now (both Mac and Windows can read and write to it) and the way Time Machine requires it to be formatted to do its backups. If you plant to use Time Machine (comes with your Mac) to backup your Mac, then you'll have to partition the external and format it to MacOS Extended (Journaled). It has to do with Time Machine. You can leave it as-is if you want to manually backup or copy data to your external without using Time Machine.

 

[joshbrez]

Welcome to M-F Doug! Congrats on the new Mac.

Regarding MS Office and iWork compatibility, the format used by Pages (the word processing component of iWork) is .pages, which is not editable by MS Word. However, you are offered the option during a save in Pages to save a copy as a .doc (Word) file. Numbers (the spreadsheet component of iWork) offers the ability to export your work as an Excel document. Both programs can open documents created by MS Office.

I suggest giving the iWork trial a good test run before you decide to buy Office. While Office may turn out to by the best option, iWork is still a very capable suite.

 

[wirelessmacuser]

I suggest giving the iWork trial a good test run before you decide to buy Office. While Office may turn out to by the best option, iWork is still a very capable suite.

As a long time PC laptop & MS Office user
, I approached iWork with an open mind. My goal was not to put any MS software on my new Unibody MacBook Pro, unless I absolutely had to. I must say that I'm very impressed and happy with iWork. I'm so glad I gave it a fair trial instead of dismissing it simply because I was used to MS Office. This forum has been a joy to participate in and I appreciate the courteous and professional help I have received.