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kilmer74 · Jun 15, 2007, 09:39 AM

My wife and I are going to buy a new black Macbook 2mb, 160gb, 2.16GHz very soon with the new promotional, but my question to you pros is what do I do about the windows office programs my wife needs to use for school.

Do I get the Office 2004 for Mac or do I do Boot Camp with Vista? Thanks for your help in advance, and we're really excited about the new edition to our home.

peeb · Jun 15, 2007, 09:45 AM

Welcome. Office for Mac. If that's all you need, go for the native version - it's actually pretty good. Also, more informative thread titles are your friend.

Macola · Jun 15, 2007, 11:30 AM

For basic documents, Office for Mac is fine. If you work with complex documents that contain a lot of embedded objects or VB macros, then you will be much happier with the Windows version. Also, consider Parallels or VMware Fusion as an alternative to Boot Camp.

kernelbinary · Jun 15, 2007, 12:21 PM

Wait for a second! Vista with boot camp? No no no. Don't even get Vista for a windows machine. Unless you use Vista already and love it, just stick with XP. Really. Now about Office. If you want to save some money, I'd go with NeoOffice. It's totally free! It opens and saves word documents, can handle excel macros, and probably some other stuff. I'm pretty sure it can do powerpoint stuff too.

peeb · Jun 15, 2007, 12:23 PM

NeoOffice is a contender, but it you have to pass word files back and forth with other people, its converter is not 100% reliable. As an office suite its fine, but if you collaborate with MS Office users, it's not up to scratch.

shinykaro · Jun 16, 2007, 10:23 PM

Add one to the Office for Mac column. It works very well and if that is all you worry about bringing over for Windows, please don't waste your money on buying Vista just to run it. The Mac version is just as comprehensive and usable.

Save the extra dough and use it to max out specs and get a sweet carrying case instead

analogika · Jun 17, 2007, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by Macola

For basic documents, Office for Mac is fine. If you work with complex documents that contain a lot of embedded objects or VB macros, then you will be much happier with the Windows version. Also, consider Parallels or VMware Fusion as an alternative to Boot Camp.

What Macola said.

And if you're going with the Windows version, I'd recommend Parallels or VMware over Boot Camp, as well - you'll be leaving your Mac switched on, just closing it and opening it back up to wake it from sleep, without having to shut down and restart.

Boot Camp means a *complete* break in *everything* you might still have open or be working on.

Parallels just fires up, loads Windows at exactly the point it was when you last quit it, and shoots it down again when you're done with it, all the while keeping your Skype connection open and your final-minute eBay auction countdown browser window active.

ghporter · Jun 17, 2007, 08:58 AM

Another vote for Office for Mac. I've done tons of stuff with Office 2004, and it's been at least as effective as running Office under Windows (Office 2004 is still a PPC build-it is translated by Rosetta on the fly, so there's a small but perceptible performance hit involved in running it). Further, there are no tweaks needed to get the files you save on your Mac to be automatically readable on a PC; Open/NeoOffice do not necessarily install with Microsoft file compatibility selected, and the settings aren't as obvious as I'd like 'em to be.

Vista is pretty. But it's a resource hog of epic proportions-for effects that we already have in Tiger. And it's PRICEY! I run XP through Boot Camp (and Parallels), and it's more than adequate for running those few WIndows-only things I really need, plus I can test issues people post in the Alternative OS forum. I don't think anyone "needs" Vista-ANYONE. But it's certainly NOT the "alternative" OS I'd recommend for a MacBook.

kilmer74 · Jun 20, 2007, 10:50 AM

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm set on office for mac. Thanks again.

Chips G · Jun 22, 2007, 08:10 AM

If you are able to, you might want to wait until the new Office is released that is universal (i.e. will run on Intel Macs without Rosetta)

I use Office exstensively, and if you get into ANY complex Excel files it is easily 5x slower than running the Windows version through Bootcamp.

bluedog · 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by peeb

NeoOffice is a contender, but it you have to pass word files back and forth with other people, its converter is not 100% reliable. As an office suite its fine, but if you collaborate with MS Office users, it's not up to scratch.

Sorry if this was included further down the thread. I can't stand people saying they need the official MS-Office suite because of compatibility. Even between THEIR OWN VERSIONS they have some compatibility issues. Sure it may be good, maybe better for some issues. OpenOffice/NeoOffice actually has a better time converting older office formats than the latest Office. And it supports all I would expect out of Office.

The people you share with should not even notice you are using something other than MS-Office. Your issue of being used to a specific suite of apps, or needing to use the latest office on a PC versus Mac in a shared environment may be a productive point. But now with Office2007 and its 'innovative' ribbon interface, it makes *more* sense to stick with your old version or use the OpenOffice solution since it better mimics what people have been used to for years and I don't believe the ribbon interface is the solution to making an application easier to use.

Cold Warrior · Jun 22, 2007, 10:51 AM

Everyone I need to interact with in a business environment uses Office 2003. When it's a complex file with lots of stuff, I make sure to open, modify, save, and send using Office 2003 in Boot Camp or Parallels. Sorry, but Office 2004 just isn't good enough in times like that. Otherwise, Office 2004 is fine. So I second what Macola and analogika wrote.