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Starry Night · Jun 20, 2004, 09:01 PM

G'day,

A friend of mine is considering converting to a Powerbook from windows. He owns a small boating company. The office is, and will remain, entirely PC. He is concerned about how compatible his potential Mac rig will be with the PC's in his office.

The main needs will be for compatibility for MS Office (Word files, Excel, etc) and a yet to be purchased windows based reservation system.

Do the Mac and Windows versions of Office communicate well? I assume the reservation system won't be a particularly cpu intensive program, might it run on the Windows 2000 version of Virtual PC?

Any insight is welcome. Feel free to comment on all or part of the question.

Thanks,
John

justinf77 · Jun 20, 2004, 09:09 PM

MS Office compatibility is wonderful. I am always moving Office files back and forth between Windows and OS X and I have had no issues.

As far as the reservation system goes, I guess that depends on the PowerBook he is purchasing and how often he will be using it. A 15" PowerBook with 1GB+ RAM and Win2000 running really isn't too bad. In fact, I would leave some file-sharing programs in VPC running 24/7 while working on my Mac with not too much slowdown.

Good luck.

Lancer409 · Jun 21, 2004, 02:55 AM

Originally posted by justinf77:
MS Office compatibility is wonderful. I am always moving Office files back and forth between Windows and OS X and I have had no issues.

As far as the reservation system goes, I guess that depends on the PowerBook he is purchasing and how often he will be using it. A 15" PowerBook with 1GB+ RAM and Win2000 running really isn't too bad. In fact, I would leave some file-sharing programs in VPC running 24/7 while working on my Mac with not too much slowdown.

Good luck.

VPC = Virtual PC ... just in case he didnt know =) .. or atleast i hope that's what it stands for .. haha

Super Glitcher · Jun 21, 2004, 05:02 AM

Yeah, I run microsoft office to deal with clients all the time- they are all pc I am mac. No problems....
everything is fine and dandy. You should show him sherlock and really snag him.

Starry Night · Jun 21, 2004, 01:20 PM

Thanks all for the feedback, I shall report back to him

Starry Night · Jun 21, 2004, 02:56 PM

Btw, when was the Powerbook line last upgraded?

sworthy · Jun 21, 2004, 03:06 PM

about two months ago, now is definitely a good time to buy.

check this link for details on all models: macrumors

Starry Night · Jun 21, 2004, 03:47 PM

Originally posted by sworthy:
about two months ago, now is definitely a good time to buy.

check this link for details on all models: macrumors

Thanks!

Beyond the stuff mentioned above, he'll also be using the laptop for video presentations in business meetings, showing what his tour company (catered to tourist) has to offer. For that reason, I thought he would be better off with the 15" or 17" Powerbook.

Does anyone know if the latest line has remedied the corrosive palm rest/ display warp/ white spot issues? If not, perhaps I should suggest the 14" ibook? He's not a power user, but I thought the PB would look more professional in meetings, a bigger wow factor. But I don't want his first taste of Apple to be a, ahem, bitter one

powermacj7 · Jun 21, 2004, 08:29 PM

I am gladly surprised of the compatibility between windows office and Mac Office. I also transfer files between both and have not yet had a problem other than a Omni Graffle insert into word.

My favorite smily

Super Glitcher · Jun 21, 2004, 11:56 PM

yeah, the only problem I have is that I hate the software in the first place.
what the hell is 'font menu optomization' anyway? and why does it take 15 minutes??

the only thing redeeming about it is entourage.

but yeah.. the compatability is great.