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typical05 · Dec 28, 2004, 11:03 AM

I was looking into getting a Mac for law school, however I need to have a computer that is Microsoft Word and Wordperfect compatible. I have no idea about Macs, so I was wondering if anyone could tell me if Wordperfect and/or Word will work on a Mac if people send me things, if I can open the documents, and if I send others documents if they can open them as well.

Thanks.

Millennium · Dec 28, 2004, 11:21 AM

There is a version of Word for Macs, so you won't have any problems as far as that goes.

WordPerfect, I'm afraid, is another story. Although WordPerfect was available for Macs many moons ago, Corel stopped offering it well before the release of OSX. That said, the old version can be made to run under Classic, where it apparently still works quite well. Corel even offers the old version as a free download, though finding it and getting it to run on OSX is not a simple task. This page can help you with that, if you want to try. Although the last version of WordPerfect/Mac was numbered 3.5e, keep in mind that it used a different numbering system than its Windows counterpart, and so it's not actually that far behind the PC version.

As an alternative to this, I can recommend Nisus Writer Express. Aside from being a competent word processor on its own, its Word and WordPerfect import capabilities are also very good. It can save files in both of these formats as well. It's not free, but they offer a free demo, so you can try it out on some sample files before committing to the purchase.

hudson1 · 12:33 PM

AbiWord (freeware, multiplatform) claims to be able to be able to read and write WordPerfect documents in addition to MS Word documents.

http://www.abisource.com/

typical05 · Dec 28, 2004, 01:21 PM

Thanks Millenium and Hudson1 for your help. It has helped me a lot in trying to determine which computer to get.

Thanks again.

SimeyTheLimey · Dec 28, 2004, 03:14 PM

You shouldn't need WordPerfect for law school. Word should be just fine. Most PC users don't have WordPerfect either.

Whether you would be able to use a Mac laptop for exams is a different question.

cpac · Dec 28, 2004, 08:40 PM

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
You shouldn't need WordPerfect for law school. Word should be just fine. Most PC users don't have WordPerfect either.

Whether you would be able to use a Mac laptop for exams is a different question.

There's definitely an exam issue (but it's often better to use a lab machine for those if available as any hardware problems are the school's fault and not your own).

On the Wordperfect front however, I will say that many schools (at mine, the journals) still require things to be in WordPerfect format. If they use anything very modern, the classic version of WordPerfect will not work - you'll need to go with AbiWord or one of the other options that can export.

[that said, I used a mac for my law school years, and it was a not-too-mac friendly environment. The existence of OmniOutliner and the fact that all my classmates who had a dell or hp machine had at least one complete (data losing) melt-down, made any mac-unfriendliness well worth bearing]

SimeyTheLimey · Dec 29, 2004, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by cpac:
There's definitely an exam issue (but it's often better to use a lab machine for those if available as any hardware problems are the school's fault and not your own).

On the Wordperfect front however, I will say that many schools (at mine, the journals) still require things to be in WordPerfect format. If they use anything very modern, the classic version of WordPerfect will not work - you'll need to go with AbiWord or one of the other options that can export.

[that said, I used a mac for my law school years, and it was a not-too-mac friendly environment. The existence of OmniOutliner and the fact that all my classmates who had a dell or hp machine had at least one complete (data losing) melt-down, made any mac-unfriendliness well worth bearing]

Of course, this could vary from school to school. Mine went to word several years ago when the industry in general switched. I think the issue of WordPerfect has come up maybe three times in as many years. Each time it was because one particular dean sent out a broadcast memo to the students in WP format. Each time someone e-mailed back and the memo was re-sent in Word format. Most students have Word, few have WordPerfect.

As far as I know, exams on Examsoft are taken in Word format. But I am a hand writer so I am not sure. Anyway, my school recently dropped examsoft. Also, you can't use a lab computer for exams unless you have a take home final. Otherwise, it is bring a laptop or write by hand. Obviously, in class notes could be on anything. I see as many people tapping into Palms as I do Mac users.

On my journal we received bluebooking assignments in Word format. Assignments were returned in paper form. I don't think my journal even had WordPerfect. Presumably the school has saved on licenses by standardizing on the same program most of the students use on their PCs.

Actually, for me a bigger issue has been getting the school to do web broadcasts in something Quicktime can open. I think that is a bigger issue for an incoming law student today than WordPerfect.

wataru · Dec 29, 2004, 01:18 PM

NeoOffice/J is also worth a look. It's free, and is compatible with Word files. I don't know about Wordperfect though.

hudson1 · Dec 29, 2004, 04:18 PM

I don't believe NeoOffice/J has any capability of opening WordPerfect files. It's not mentioned on their website and OpenOffice.org (which NeoOffice/J is primarily based on) can't open them either. They plan to have that capability in OOo version 2 and that may mean that it could also be brought to NeoOffice/J. Actually, the Windows version of OOo can open them through a special Windows conversion program (there's a convoluted Linux app for this, too) but that is of no value to NeoOffice/J users.

Give AbiWord a try.