New to Mac, need advice
Hey everyone, i am pleased to say i now am the proud owner of a new Macbook Pro 13" with 160GB of hard drive and 4GB of Ram. What are people's thoughts on this model and set up?
Also, is there any advice you could give me in terms of what i should buy/download for the mac that would make it better and is there a version of MS Office for Mac that looks and runs just like the version for PC? I know there is a mac version, and i'm not too fussy on the changes they have made to it since i have used the pc version for years now and am very experienced with it.
Thanks
Also, is there any advice you could give me in terms of what i should buy/download for the mac that would make it better and is there a version of MS Office for Mac that looks and runs just like the version for PC? I know there is a mac version, and i'm not too fussy on the changes they have made to it since i have used the pc version for years now and am very experienced with it.
Thanks
Comments
Your setup sounds great. Saw your post about apps and replied there...
If you really want Office to look like it does on a PC, get the Windoze version and run it on your Mac using Bootcamp or Parallels.
A couple of apps I really recommend are
Overflow : It helps make the Dock much more useful.
http://stuntsoftware.com/Overflow/
SnapzPro for taking screen snaps and videos.
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
I'll post more later.
Hey everyone, i am pleased to say i now am the proud owner of a new Macbook Pro 13" with 160GB of hard drive and 4GB of Ram. What are people's thoughts on this model and set up?
Also, is there any advice you could give me in terms of what i should buy/download for the mac that would make it better and is there a version of MS Office for Mac that looks and runs just like the version for PC? I know there is a mac version, and i'm not too fussy on the changes they have made to it since i have used the pc version for years now and am very experienced with it.
Thanks
Congrats and welcome to the Mac and AI family!
Hey everyone, i am pleased to say i now am the proud owner of a new Macbook Pro 13" with 160GB of hard drive and 4GB of Ram. What are people's thoughts on this model and set up?
Also, is there any advice you could give me in terms of what i should buy/download for the mac that would make it better and is there a version of MS Office for Mac that looks and runs just like the version for PC? I know there is a mac version, and i'm not too fussy on the changes they have made to it since i have used the pc version for years now and am very experienced with it.
Thanks
First off welcome to the mac fam. I think you have a great set up. As far as MS Office goes, yes there is a version for mac and it works just like the PC version only better. It will look a little different on the mac but for the most part it is the same.
Hey everyone, i am pleased to say i now am the proud owner of a new Macbook Pro 13" with 160GB of hard drive and 4GB of Ram. What are people's thoughts on this model and set up?
Also, is there any advice you could give me in terms of what i should buy/download for the mac that would make it better and is there a version of MS Office for Mac that looks and runs just like the version for PC? I know there is a mac version, and i'm not too fussy on the changes they have made to it since i have used the pc version for years now and am very experienced with it.
Thanks
I have news for you buddy. The MS Office for PC is a piece of shit and the one for Mac is even worse. What you need is to buy iWorks and never look back. Pages, the word processor in iWorks is light-years ahead of MS Word in every way. If somebody bugs you save them a copy as MS Word and tell them to fuck off. You can also open files in MS Word if you are unfortunate enough to need to do this.
In general my advice to you is this: whatever you do don't install Microsoft software of any kind.
This is especially true for Windows. DO NOT install bootcamp, fusion or anything that allows you to run Windows.
...The MS Office for PC is a piece of shit and the one for Mac is even worse..
Wow, that's a lot of hate! Any particular reason, or are you just another MS hater? I agree that the last version of MS Office for Mac I used wasn't much good (very, very slow for one thing), but that was in comparison to MS Office for Windows, which is a fine piece of software, and even using an older edition on a very mundane 'Wintel' PC it embarrassed the Mac version performance-wise.
On comparing the two, my biggest issue with the Mac version was the menu navigation, which is a typical Mac OSX problem anyway, so no fault with MS there.
I haven't used Pages enough to really comment, and certainly not enough to recommend it; presently using NeoOffice, which is okay, if a little buggy at times, but at least it's available free.
Carbon Copy Cloner - used for system backups
FairMount - Used to mount DVD's as a readable volume
Firefox - Browser
MacTheRipper - Change video to different formats, for an iPod or iPhone, or to just rip a DVD to a single file.
NeoOffice - An office productivity suite that can read/write MS formatted files.
VLC - Used to play whatever video you may come across.
Perion - used to augment Quicktime
Google SketchUp - a 3D drawing app
Other software, not free, but I still recommend:
iWork - a Mac native office productivity suite, but it's not free. Reads/writes MS formats
iLife - Mac software that probably came with the system, but I suggest you update when available.
SecureFiles to store encrypted files
If you want IPTV features you could try Plex
For FTP I like Filezilla
Flip4Mac for Windows Media files
MakeiPhoneRingtone to make ring tones for free
MetaX, Handbrake, and VLC Player (already mentioned) to rip DVDs
I use Google Apps for my word processing, spreadsheet, email, etc.
Seashore to edit picture files
Wow, that's a lot of hate! Any particular reason, or are you just another MS hater? I agree that the last version of MS Office for Mac I used wasn't much good (very, very slow for one thing), but that was in comparison to MS Office for Windows, which is a fine piece of software, and even using an older edition on a very mundane 'Wintel' PC it embarrassed the Mac version performance-wise.
On comparing the two, my biggest issue with the Mac version was the menu navigation, which is a typical Mac OSX problem anyway, so no fault with MS there.
I haven't used Pages enough to really comment, and certainly not enough to recommend it; presently using NeoOffice, which is okay, if a little buggy at times, but at least it's available free.
1. Word for mac is the only software I have ever used that managed to completely crash my machine.
2. If you have spaces enabled word for mac will make your computer go crazy by placing a command box on one space and the document on another and the menus on yet another. I have found out this is very annoying and very difficult if not impossible to get rid of.
3. Word for mac is cumbersome and slow just like the PC version. I have found that Pages does everything word for mac does but 2-6 times faster.
4. Word for mac is cumbersome and unintuitive. Pages is incredibly intuitive, is much more stable and easier to use.
5. Word for mac and PC has corrupted important files of mine and made me lose data. Pages has never done that.
6. Word for mac will mess up equations and general formatting for no reason. This is an old problem the PC version has too. It has many annoying bugs that will make you fight against the program to make the document look right. Pages just works like a breeze. You never fight with the program and once you setup a few things you can produce better-looking documents in half the time.
There is more but I forget now.
"Free" apps I can recommend:
Carbon Copy Cloner - used for system backups
FairMount - Used to mount DVD's as a readable volume
Firefox - Browser
MacTheRipper - Change video to different formats, for an iPod or iPhone, or to just rip a DVD to a single file.
NeoOffice - An office productivity suite that can read/write MS formatted files.
VLC - Used to play whatever video you may come across.
Perion - used to augment Quicktime
Google SketchUp - a 3D drawing app
Other software, not free, but I still recommend:
iWork - a Mac native office productivity suite, but it's not free. Reads/writes MS formats
iLife - Mac software that probably came with the system, but I suggest you update when available.
Time Machine, which comes free with Leopard, is the best backup software program in history. Sorry but it just is. You don't need anything else.
Safari is way better than firefox.
I would avoid neooffice if I were you. Neooffice is just MS Office written by a bunch of kids in moms basement: it sucks arse just as much as MS Office if you can believe that. If you don't have $80 just get a "free" copy of iWorks.
On Office, there are lots of opinions, but...
- If you just want to do papers, write letters or read office docs, iWork is fine, or even Neo Office
- If you need real compatibility with Word/PPT (i.e. corporate documents), Mac Office is just fine - looks a little nicer than Office 2007. Whatever anyone says about iWork, there are some things it messes up, especially numbered headings, tables and contents.
- If you need 100% comptaibility with Excel, especially macros, you'll need to install MS Office on Windows via a VM or Bootcamp. Sorry...
You'll also have the question of Safari or Firefox. No one will ever agree, but I prefer Firefox (it formats pages far better when using an ad-blocker, i.e. it doesn't leave huge holes on the pages), and you get all the ad-ons. But... Safari is a little faster (especially launching) and has some nice features, I use it 30% of the time.
- If you just want to do papers, write letters or read office docs, iWork is fine, or even Neo Office
- If you need real compatibility with Word/PPT (i.e. corporate documents), Mac Office is just fine - looks a little nicer than Office 2007. Whatever anyone says about iWork, there are some things it messes up, especially numbered headings, tables and contents.
- If you need 100% comptaibility with Excel, especially macros, you'll need to install MS Office on Windows via a VM or Bootcamp. Sorry...
Good points .
Well I also agree with Zoolook,I would also prefer Firefox.Because Firefox is the Best browser and add-ons are responsible for making Firefox much better than any other browser in context of functions and facilities .
IMO Safari is light and fast.But one thing i like in Safari its Graphical interface."A website open in Safari looks Better than any other browser".