[emzzz]

Hello,

I've decided that I would like to buy the new core duo iMac but I wanted to check if there were any issues when communicating with those on a PC with Windows. For example:
1. Can I chat online to them?
2. Will my emails be in the correct format etc?
3. Is it worth getting MS Office if my friends are using it or do Mac offer something that they can open on their PC?

I've recently brought two Mac magazines, but where do you all go online to find out Mac related stuff, get dowloads, trbleshooting etc? I've never had a problem when looking for PC related things, but my search of google didn't show much for the mac.

Many thanks!!!

[jasong]

1. Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: The "official" MSN client for Mac is not universal, but I would imagine it works fine. If your friends use AOL, the you can either use the AIM client (also not universal) or iChat universal. iChat can also use Jabber gateways, so if you google on how to use iChat to connect to MSN, you can use that as well (this is what I do). The same applies for Yahoo! and google chat.

2. Yes, plain text and HTML email will be compatible across platform with no extra effort. There is a checkbox in Mail when attaching a document to send it in a "Windows Friendly Format." I don't know why you would uncheck that as it doesn't seem to cause any harm to a non-windows recipient.

3. If you will be doing work in Office, then yes it is worth it. There are some full-featured alternatives, but you will need to make compromises to use them. Two suggestions are Think Free Office and OpenOffice (I don't use either). Apple also sells iWork '06 which has Keynote (think PowerPoint) and Pages (think Word), you can try the trial that comes with your new Mac to see if you like them and if they meet your requirements.

As for where to go, MacNN is good, as is Macintouch. Macosxhints is another useful site. For downloads, Macupdate and versiontracker are both good.

Good luck with your switch!

[CharlesS]

If Macs couldn't use the Internet and communicate with other computers on it, Apple would have been out of business a long time ago.

It'll work fine.

[production_coordinator]

You will find PRO level help on this forum. The moderators are somewhat reasonable, and if you can tolerate a few oddballs (myself included), you will be satisfied.

Remember: for every one post you see regarding a problem on this forum, there are usually hundreds NOT having that problem.

[midwinter]

Originally Posted by emzzz

1. Can I chat online to them?

Yup. There are several applications like Trillian for the Mac. Folks seem to like Adium the most for multi-protocol chat.

2. Will my emails be in the correct format etc?

Yup.

3. Is it worth getting MS Office if my friends are using it or do Mac offer something that they can open on their PC?

It depends upon your needs. Programs like OpenOffice or Abiword are free (but ugly) and will open pretty much any file you throw at them. But Office for Mac is pretty nice, and can usually be had on the cheap.

You should check MacUpdate for software.

Welcome to the fold!

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by emzzz

...
I've recently brought two Mac magazines, but where do you all go online to find out Mac related stuff, get dowloads, trbleshooting etc? I've never had a problem when looking for PC related things, but my search of google didn't show much for the mac.
...

Are you kidding? Type "Macintosh" into Google and tons of good web sites are returned.

[CharlesS]

But a few are:

News and general information: MacNN, Macintouch, Macworld

Downloads: MacUpdate, VersionTracker, Apple Mac OS X Downloads

Troubleshooting: Well, there's the MacNN forums right here. Also: Apple Discussions and MacFixIt are pretty big.

Lastly, a really great site for tips and tricks on how to do stuff in OS X is Mac OS X Hints. There's really a wealth of useful stuff on there.

[emzzz]

Thank you for replying. I'm looking forward to getting the mac next month (sooner if I win some money on the races!) and in the mean time, I will check out the sites.

:-)