Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

morriso311 · 10:41 AM

so yea...im a converted Windows guy...i found out how much i forgot i loved the Mac OSX and got me a macbook on the way...

so im still in college and im doing a lot of my work on my macbook here and there and most every day i will be taking the macbook with me up to school..but the printers on-campus that are available are all thru the schools pc's ( all thru Windows XP)<<<so here's my dilemma; i will do most of my work on my macbook(word documents,etc.) but i will need to be able to write it on Microsoft Office so that i can print it thru the school computers???

Is it possible...how and how much?...any links!?!

***ALSO just wonderin whats the deal withthe AirProt Extreme base station..?..how does that help my wireless connection??***

uicandrew · Mar 6, 2007, 04:25 AM

can you go back to your post and rewrite the second paragraph in proper english using accurate grammar (just the part after the carrots)? i don't understand your dilemma. i want to help, but you left out words here and there and it just doesn't make sense.

morriso311 · Mar 6, 2007, 10:42 AM

ok can ya check it out now please?...its just asking if i can write on microsoft office on my new macbook so i can print things off on the windows xp printers on-campus??

Nai no Kami · Mar 6, 2007, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by morriso311

ok can ya check it out now please?...its just asking if i can write on microsoft office on my new macbook so i can print things off on the windows xp printers on-campus??

Feeling like a modern Campollion, I'll answer based on what I'm able to decrypt. You can use MS Office on your Mac and even without Office you can generate MS Word documents via TextEdit or Pages (same rule applies for PowerPoint documents generated from Keynote). Whether you can or can't print them out has nothing to do with having Office installed or generating any document format: it has to do with your printer settings.

You should learn the printer settings of the printers you intend to print and then add them accordingly on your Mac.

Finally, this... help... is not for free: I'm now entitled to say that I'm amazed at the fact you are a college student, unless:

a) You are bribing the college authorities.
b) You are not a native English speaker.
c) You have some sort of writing disability.
d) You usually don't write the way reflected on your posts and you do so in order to be eccentric.
e) You have Jedi abilities.

uicandrew · Mar 6, 2007, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by morriso311

ok can ya check it out now please?...its just asking if i can write on microsoft office on my new macbook so i can print things off on the windows xp printers on-campus??

ahhh, much better. You'll get more intelligent responses if you write intelligently. I'm also in my twenties, and english was NOT my 1st language, so if i can take the time/brainpower to type complete sentences, then so can you. izzle. (sorry, i had to throw that in because on 30 Rock, there is a black character who looks up the word in the dictionary and says "here it is! izzle.... a suffix that can be used at the end of anything)

if you're looking for software that guarantees compatibility with Windows XP, then use Microsoft Office for Mac. that is roughly $120 or so.

if you don't mind 3rd party software, check out neooffice or open office. they are free, but they have compatibility with microsoft word. and if you are ONLY printing and not editing, you can choose "pdf" in the print menu and save it as a pdf file. you can't edit them, but they are universal.

morriso311 · Mar 6, 2007, 01:24 PM

ok...well english is actually my first language, and im very atriculate but i really dont care if i spell or use proper grammar (esp on forums)...but moving right along...

so...it is possible to make TextEdit or Mac Word docs into MS Office Word documents??

**mainly i wanna save files on my flash drive as MS Office files so i can put them on the Windows XP pc's here on-campus and then print them...is this possible?...

uicandrew · Mar 6, 2007, 02:02 PM

Mac Word documents are completely compatible with MS office. in fact, there is a "compatibility checker" built into Mac Word that will let you know if there is a problem.

The best way is to save them as pdf because there is no way that a pc can screw up the formatting. a pdf is set in stone. and all university pcs should have adobe reader built-in. it is freeware and very universal.

ps - it is ironic that you misspelled "articulate." Also, using correct (or at least intelligible) grammar is a courtesy to other people so they don't have to decipher what you're trying to say (ie - biting the hand that feeds you)

morriso311 · Mar 6, 2007, 04:26 PM

articulate...whatev im a pre-med major and could care less bout grammar...especially on a forum with a bunch of ppl i dont know...so as long as you get the jist of what im tryin to say thats all i care bout!...you got the idea didnt ya?...must have not been that bad...get off my case and go bout your merry way...why do you care if i speak correctly?

uicandrew · Mar 6, 2007, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by morriso311

articulate...whatev im a pre-med major and could care less bout grammar...especially on a forum with a bunch of ppl i dont know...so as long as you get the jist of what im tryin to say thats all i care bout!...you got the idea didnt ya?...must have not been that bad...get off my case and go bout your merry way...why do you care if i speak correctly?

i don't know why you brought up that you're a pre-med major, but if you're wanting to go that route, coincidentally, I'm in the middle of my 3rd year IN medical school (M3).

After your revision, i got the gist of what you were trying to say, but before the revision, i couldn't make out what you were asking. I was actually trying to help you, in case you didn't recognize that. if you want to go ahead and post illegible questions and not get any responses, you are free to do so.

and i care that you speak correctly because if other people have the same question, i want them to be able to read it and understand it so they can learn, too. it's all about clear communication, on a FORUM, no less(and to a lesser extent, professionalism).

good luck with school.

Chaoticjoe · Mar 6, 2007, 07:47 PM

Stop bickering about grammar use. As much as it annoys me when people talk like small children with a computer on forums, you can't constantly argue about it. ANYWAY.

You don't need Microsoft Office to save files to be read on a PC. The text files are readable by Microsoft Word on a windows anyway, as said before. Besides, even if they weren't, you could open your files in wordpad or notepad and print them from there.

Duh.

pcryan5 · Mar 6, 2007, 10:56 PM

"pre-med major" LOL - that is what I said in high school worked great for me too!

I have a MAC (well duh!) and XP at work and a mess of word processors in between - never had a problem with printing / formatting etc. The content however - always probelmatic.

morriso311 · Mar 7, 2007, 01:26 AM

i graduate this may...so yea it did work out....good try though

Haddock · Mar 7, 2007, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by morriso311

articulate...whatev im a pre-med major and could care less bout grammar...especially on a forum with a bunch of ppl i dont know...so as long as you get the jist of what im tryin to say thats all i care bout!...you got the idea didnt ya?...must have not been that bad...get off my case and go bout your merry way...why do you care if i speak correctly?

I'm certainly not headed for a career in medicine, but it seems strange, to me, to insult the "ppl" you're asking for help.

I have MS Office for Mac and often use my USB stick to print using the school's XP print stations. Never had a problem, although I print papers with graphics or images on my home printer. Sometimes shadows and shading don't translate to other Office versions very well.
Also, be aware that MS Office runs a little slow (at least until a Universal update, I guess) on a Macbook with only 512mb of ram.

acoustix · Mar 7, 2007, 03:04 AM

Witness the decline of civilization.....

morriso311 · Mar 7, 2007, 11:21 AM

im not insulting anyone...i just find it funny that ppl complain that they cant understand what i read...if youre answering it...it cant be too illegible...i apologize if i offended anyone by my 'bad grammar' but im just used to not having to haveta worry bout grammar and spelling for a change on forums...whatever its all good.

tomzo22 · Mar 7, 2007, 02:07 PM

yaeh poelpe tkae sepllign way to sreisuly on frums.

i love it, this question was answered in one post but the rest is complaints about spelling. as the kid said, if u can make sense of it, why not use shrt hnd? its often quicker and u should be able to read it. Yes English is my first language

when someone ask a question, answer their question. If the guy wanted spelling help, i'm sure he would have asked
ur all weird
oh no please don't attck me cos i spelt attack with out the second "a".

laughable.

morriso311 · Mar 7, 2007, 02:13 PM

HAHA...anyway has anyone read the columbia study anyway??...
if the frsit and lsat lttres are in the porepr pacle tahn yuor biran can sitll dciehper the wrods no mtater how srmbcaled it is...

haha whatever ya choose to whine bout its fine...im just new to macs and i thought i could ask stupid questions without gettin crucified for it...lol

uicandrew · Mar 7, 2007, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by tomzo22

yaeh poelpe tkae sepllign way to sreisuly on frums.

i love it, this question was answered in one post but the rest is complaints about spelling. as the kid said, if u can make sense of it, why not use shrt hnd? its often quicker and u should be able to read it. Yes English is my first language

when someone ask a question, answer their question. If the guy wanted spelling help, i'm sure he would have asked
ur all weird
oh no please don't attck me cos i spelt attack with out the second "a".

laughable.

tomzo22, you are mistaken. please reread the first couple posts in this thread before making erroneous statements. i was pointing out that the original poster's question was intelligible, and i asked him to rephrase/rewrite the question. i don't care if he misspells words. you can guess what people are saying. i DO care if the question is incomprehensible.

I do want to point out that i asked for clarification and answered the question. I could have easily just ignored the thread. i seriously doubt that anyone would've been sure of what morriso311 was saying in his initial wording of his question.

uicandrew · Mar 7, 2007, 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by morriso311

HAHA...anyway has anyone read the columbia study anyway??...
if the frsit and lsat lttres are in the porepr pacle tahn yuor biran can sitll dciehper the wrods no mtater how srmbcaled it is...

haha whatever ya choose to whine bout its fine...im just new to macs and i thought i could ask stupid questions without gettin crucified for it...lol

My beef was not with spelling, it was the fact that words were missing and the gist of the question was not conveyed. i only pointed out "articulate" because of the irony.

you aren't getting crucified for asking stupid questions, you're getting crucified because you're being an ingrate and not respecting other people.

if you do decide to attend med school, i hope you hold the same respect for online and offline communication. otherwise, misunderstandings with greater consequences may pop up.

morriso311 · Mar 7, 2007, 03:49 PM

ok...well ill let you keep arguing...and ill take my articulate self<< no matter how ironic...out of this very juvenile convo youre continuing...give it up...no one cares...

Haddock · Mar 7, 2007, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by uicandrew

you aren't getting crucified for asking stupid questions, you're getting crucified because you're being an ingrate and not respecting other people.

I concur!

morriso311 · Mar 7, 2007, 04:50 PM

im not being disrespectful

all you had to ask is "hey is there anyway you can rewrite it i couldnt undertstand it, sorry and thanks" something like that ya know??...instead you go into whose first language or all this crap..i said my bad and i corrected it...in no way was i being disrespectful or even sayin anythin until ya'll came after me...i thank everyone for their help but i didnt ask for your thoughts on what my first language was...

ramcosca · 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by morriso311

articulate...whatev im a pre-med major and could care less bout grammar...especially on a forum with a bunch of ppl i dont know...so as long as you get the jist of what im tryin to say thats all i care bout!...you got the idea didnt ya?...must have not been that bad...get off my case and go bout your merry way...why do you care if i speak correctly?

Whoa, boy. Calm down there. No need to be bad-mannered.

Here's my answers to your comments/questions:

It doesn't matter if you are a pre-med major. Anyone studying something other than professional garbage truck worker needs to write important letters, communicate with bosses through just about any writeable means possible including, but not limited to, e-mail, letters, curriculum vitæ (also know as résumé), etc.
You should care about grammar... especially if you are studying what you are. Make errors now and bypass them and you might end up bypassing simple yet important errors when you write something on your professional life.
You don't know the people on the forum... so what? You want to understand people when they ask you something, why can't we understand what you're asking?
We got the "jist" of what you were trying to say... but do notice that it was AFTER you corrected your first post and posted a second one.
We care if you speak correctly because you are the future of the world. I don't want to live in a world where not even a medicinæ doctor can speak or write correctly.

Capisce?

Dammit, I just had to register and do that.

Originally Posted by acoustix

Witness the decline of civilization.....

I know! I'm ashamed of my own generation!

P.S. My primary language is Spanish, not English.

morriso311 · Mar 8, 2007, 01:36 PM

nobody cares if you had to register or something. just because your primary language is not english or english doesn't mean you are intent on typing correctly. I can speak english perfectly well, and I have been my whole life, that doesn't mean i care if i type correctly, because i really don't care if i capitlize, or puncuate correctly...ive already admitted 5 times that the first tme i wrote it it was unreadable so get off of that!...but as far as typing in MLA format or something...forget it...

Haddock · Mar 8, 2007, 04:28 PM

Ok. Everyone's had their say (including myself), maybe we should call this one!

shifuimam · Mar 9, 2007, 10:55 AM

Sigh...the only way to have proper grammar is to practice it. Same goes for spelling things correctly.

Grammar and spelling should not be something you have to work at - it should come naturally, and if it doesn't, you have a problem that needs to be remedied.

To your original question: you don't need Microsoft Office to print to networked printers on campus. You do, however, need to know if the printers are setup to allow mapping to them from computers that are not controlled and owned by the school. If you can get the printer's network name, you can map to it in Windows or OS X. If it's been locked down, you won't be able to map it, so start using that network share the school likely has provided to you, suck it up, and print from computers in the labs and library. It's not that terrible a thing.

Also:

The Airport Extreme base station is nothing but a glorified $180 wireless draft-N router. If you live on campus, it is very, very likely that routers are not allowed under any circumstances in dorm rooms. Bringing your own router to school allows people to connect to the school's network who may not have permission to do so, which is a huge, giant security hole in the campus network. Not only that, but if you connect it incorrectly to the campus network, like the nob who did so twice with his Airport router at my alma mater, you'll end up breaking whatever subnet or vlan your router is connected to.

If you live off-campus, save some money and buy a Netgear, Belkin, or Linksys router - whichever one is on sale when you go shopping. The Airport Extreme has two benefits over other brands - it's pretty and it has a USB port for networked printing. However, the aforementioned brands also have routers with built-in USB ports for attaching a printer to your network, so it's really not worth the inflated price of Apple's hardware.

morriso311 · Mar 9, 2007, 11:49 AM

GIVE IT UP!!!...everyones over the grammar thing...drop it omg...but other than the 93784 time of commenting on grammar, thanks for your explanation; very thorough and thanks again!

FastAMX79 · Mar 9, 2007, 01:38 PM

i think a mod needs to lock this topic up. 99% of it is bitching about grammar and spelling, which has NOTHING to do with the topic.

If I were a PC user reading this, I too would think mac users are 'know it all smug people'

I'm ashamed of this.

shifuimam · Mar 9, 2007, 02:55 PM

LOL...to the OP...

I just want to really stress that if you live on-campus, you need to make sure you're allowed to have an Airport Extreme base station (or any wireless router) in your dorm, suite, apartment, townhome, whatever. I used to do residence hall IT support for IU, and they have extremely strict rules about that. Anyone caught more than once violating a security policy like that has their network access revoked for the semester or the entire year. Just something to consider.

earthlings · Mar 9, 2007, 03:49 PM

His spelling seems to change more after some people criticize his writing. So he was writing in giberish more after the criticism came.

morriso311 · Mar 9, 2007, 04:03 PM

like fast said above, this topic has nothing to do with spelling and grammar! I already apologized for the original post, so let it go. I thought this was a Mac Forum, not an anally-retensive spelling & grammar forum!

earthlings · Mar 9, 2007, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by morriso311

like fast said above, this topic has nothing to do with spelling and grammar! I already apologized for the original post, so let it go. I thought this was a Mac Forum, not an anally-retensive spelling & grammar forum!

I didn't really notice the bad grammar in the first post, I just noticed the posts after your first post. Good luck on finding your answer.

morriso311 · Mar 9, 2007, 05:04 PM

i edited the first post but whatever....

Chaoticjoe · Mar 9, 2007, 09:22 PM

Can we close this now?

morriso311 · Mar 9, 2007, 11:14 PM

i tried to end it well up in the post...but everyone thought they needed to put their 2 cents in...im done with this thread, as far as im concerned; as long as they dont correct e for not using apostrophes or something.

aristotles · Mar 12, 2007, 04:43 PM

Will you grammar nazis please leave macnn? Or better yet, switch to windows. Rude people like you are what so often turn people off switching to the mac.

I have a theory about the grammar nazis here on macnn are one of the following:
1. They are really windows zealots masquerading as mac users to give us a bad name.
2. They own macs but they switched from linux and brought their asperger's syndrome with them.
3. They are really one of the last few remaining rabid Amigans trying to make everyone else look bad by pretending to be either mac or PC users with asperger's syndrome.

A certain Intel hating member of macnn seems to fit this last scenario.

tinkered · Mar 12, 2007, 07:52 PM

I know I am going to regret contributing to this dubious argument but I feel compelled to post.

1. I have read the Cambridge study, it says nothing about people easily inferring syntax and grammar, only spelling.
2. I appreciate good grammar because it contributes useful information to the sentence. For example, if one confuses the past perfect with the present participle it is impossible to tell if an event is on going or not, unless it is explicitly declared in the text. I only care about syntax and grammar because they are informative, not because of some sense or decorum or arbitrary need for structure.
3. I do not have Asperger Syndrome, but thank you for assuming.
4. I have always used mac's first and foremost. One of my favorite aspects of the Mac OS is that it very clean and bug free. It has been put through a solid QA process. I appreciate the same interest in good QA in what I read. I don't need it. I can use Windows. But I do appreciate it.

T25 · Mar 12, 2007, 08:35 PM

If the original poster had asked a question, and the correct answer to that question was "press the blue button", but because he was misunderstood got the answer "press the red button"...and then lost all his data...he might change his mind really fast.

pcryan5 · Mar 12, 2007, 10:08 PM

hey everybody - how about them Mets eh?

aristotles · Mar 14, 2007, 07:14 PM

I find the attitude and behaviour of certain forum members to be absolutely disgraceful. I have noticed similar arrogance displayed by people in Canada who are of british stock when dealing with members of the public who are from non-english countries. For some reason, these supposedly intelligent people seem to have trouble understanding people with an accent when I have no problem whatsoever. Perhaps being bilingual and specifically bilingual in a language which is not indo-european provides an advantage for people like me.

To reply to you morriso311, you do not need to have MS Office in order to be compatible. If you stick to common fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman, you should be able to use Open Office, Neo Office or even Pages to work on your documents and then export the final product in .DOC format.

Alternatively, you could save a PDF from your mac's print dialogue/window and print that file out on your school computers assuming they have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. This last option will preserve your intended layout without having to worry about missing fonts.

The airport extreme base station is a wireless router that supports 802.11 a/b/g standards. You do not need buy an Airport base station specifically as you could buy buy a router from D-link and use it with your mac. The Airport extreme base station does offer easier and mac compatible setup tools which other routers may not offer as well as some features that most routers in the same price range do not offer. If your main concern is ease of setup, the Airport extreme base station might be the router for you.

To my fellow forum members, do you see how easy it is to take the time and effort to help someone regardless of their grammar? All this time was wasted on needless bickering when you could have simply tried to answer the questions.

Haddock · Mar 14, 2007, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by aristotles

I find the attitude and behaviour of certain forum members to be absolutely disgraceful. I have noticed similar arrogance displayed by people in Canada who are of british stock when dealing with members of the public who are from non-english countries. For some reason, these supposedly intelligent people seem to have trouble understanding people with an accent when I have no problem whatsoever. Perhaps being bilingual and specifically bilingual in a language which is not indo-european provides an advantage for people like me.

I tried to put out the fire, I really did, but you have got to be kidding! People in Canada who are of British stock? Please, please, tell me you have some kind of study to back that statement up, 'cause this is not a soapbox for bigoted ramblings. In case you didn't realize, we can't hear your accent when you type.

aristotles · 11:39 PM

Originally Posted by Haddock

I tried to put out the fire, I really did, but you have got to be kidding! People in Canada who are of British stock? Please, please, tell me you have some kind of study to back that statement up, 'cause this is not a soapbox for bigoted ramblings. In case you didn't realize, we can't hear your accent when you type.

A study? Please. How about personal experience or rather being there in person while some ignorant public servant treats either a relative or friend of the family like crap?

I am a first generation immigrant from one of the Scandinavian countries and although I no longer have a discernible accent, I know people who have experienced the very real institutionalized racism and cultural bias Canada still has.

I have to laugh whenever I hear someone talk of the two solitudes or the two founding nations. The natives were here long before the English and the French.

Speaking of an example of this arrogant attitude I was talking about, notice how you thought to belittle what I was saying by pointing out something so blatantly obvious that email does not have an accent. No, really? Thanks for pointing out the painfully obvious. I was trying to relate the reaction the OP received here for using informal language without concern for proper grammar or sentence structure with how people with broken English would be received by the aforementioned public servants.

Forums are supposed to be public gathering places where people should feel free to ask questions informally without being shouted down by grammar nazis. We are not exchanging formal letters or emails on a mailing list or holding a symposium. We are supposed to be more tolerant of each other given that this is an informal medium to even a greater degree than corporate email.

Haddock · Mar 15, 2007, 12:50 AM

Ok Aristotle,
First of all, if you've been mistreated by someone I am truly sorry, but that's no reason to blame all Canadians of British descent. How do you know who has a British background anyway, or was that just an assumption? Secondly, why even bring this up? What's the point? It has no relation to the topic (er, Mac compatibility or grammar) and I don't buy the analogy. You are trying to air grievances and opinions that have no grounds and certainly do not belong in this forum.

blueleaf · Mar 15, 2007, 01:14 AM

true say

morriso311 · Mar 16, 2007, 02:57 AM

let it go people...what are you really trying to prove? I can mail you a spelling bee ribbon if that's what you want?... it's ridiculous tht this thread continued about this sorry subject for soooo long...just grow up people and go on about your obviously uneventful lives, seeing as that you have time to keep this thread going when i havent even been replying for weeks... go get lives and quit giving mac usrs the same bad name that others try to give them as 'anal-rentisive geeks'...

olePigeon · Mar 16, 2007, 03:37 PM

You can purchase a Student & Teacher edition of Microsoft Office for pretty cheap. The Macintosh version of Office should be compatible with the Windows version, except the newly released Office 2007.

Likewise, Apple's own Pages program can also open and save as Office compatible documents.

pcryan5 · Mar 16, 2007, 09:02 PM

<>Apple's own Pages program

Pages - does anyone really use that? (Not being sarcastic - just asking..)
I tried. I actually preferred AppleWorks better!

Sub · Mar 16, 2007, 10:49 PM

I use Pages, it is wonderful, they have a format for everything I could possible need, term papers, resumes, etc. It is very easy to edit in photos and other outside info too.

Oh, and Morriso, these guys didn't bitch about grammar just to pick on you, grammar is taken seriously around here, people will continue to make fun of you, no matter how many spelling bees you've won. No one is picking on you, it is just all about respect, and the people around here, even if they spend hours of their free time in front of the computer, complain that you are wasting their time because they have to decipher what you write.

Get Office Student Teacher Edition, it has special layouts for taking notes with the laptop in class, with text or in-document audio recording. Just make sure you ask your professor first, it is illegal to record someone with audio without their permission. Office offers a great link between Windows and Mac, they can read the almost the same documents, down to the font, regaurdless on which computer it was written on. As ironic as it may be, I don't think I could do very well without Office, because I switched not too long ago too. But if you want a more Windows-like user interface run out quickly and get 2004 while you still can, because I have heard numerious rumors that 2007 has a completely changed graphic user interface, and it takes som getting used to, no matter which side you come from.

frdmfghtr · Mar 17, 2007, 10:23 AM

The operative word in Mac-Windows interoperability regarding Word documents is ALMOST.

I created nearly all my documents on Word for Mac 2004 with equations by MathType for Mac. When I tried to edit them on a Windows machine, the equations caused problems...MANY problems.

Inserted objects caused problems on my Mac even when not going from Mac to PC. The .doc file format, from what I have read, is a bloated monstrosity that needs to die a quick and painful death. It is too easy for a file to be corrupted by inserted objects (equations, spreadsheet charts, etc.) and I have had to recover from backup copies, cut-and-paste into new documents, etc. waaay to often for comfort.

I switched to NeoOffice, and have had zero issues with document corruption. Using the OpenDocument format, I have also seem the size of my files cut at least in half; a Word document that I was sent was 120K, but after converting it to ODF it was only 40K. Heck, NeoOffice has opened Word documents with better luck than Word on a Windows PC!

Regarding the ORIGINAL purpose of this post...

You may be able to get some form of client software for your Mac that will let you print to the print stations. As an undergrad, my campus used Pharaos to control print costs. If you wanted to use your own PC to print, you could install the Pharaos client. It essentially installed a Pharaos "printer" that, when printed to, would transfer your document to the print station of choice where you would then release the print job (and get charged as appropriate).

This was nice, in that it didn't matter what you used to make your documents or what platform you had; the print station was just a printer as far as you were concerned.

Come to think of it, my current campus may have something that would work too...I get 300 pages/semester and have used none over two years. Hmmm...