General Questions

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
We own a crappy, bargain-priced eMachines computer and use Earthlink dial-up. I plan on purchasing a 17' iMac in the next week or so. My family plans on using it for school reports, online tests, personal digital pictures, online poker, net surfing, e-mail, iTunes, games, and shopping. We also want to switch to high speed internet.



I have some questions?

1) Are Keynote and Pages 2 the Apple equivalent of PowerPoint and Word? Are they interchangeable? My instructors require assignments in MS Word rtf format. Will I have to purchase Office for Apple or will Pages 2 work?



2) Does high speed internet require cable access? We live in a rural area where cable is not an option. What other choices do we have?



3) Can an Apple and an eMachines use the internet at the same time? We plan on keeping the eMachines so we can both work at the same time if necessary.



4) Is Firefox the choice browser for Apple like it is for Windows? Do all websites recognize Apple browsers? We have to do research papers and need access to professional and university sites.



Sorry if these questions have all been asked before. I couldn't find them using the search feature. Thanks in advance.



Bo

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    I'll answer two of the easy ones:



    Yes, Pages and Keynote are like Apple's Word and Powerpoint, and can save to those formats. Pages also saves to rtf. If you just need rtf, even Textedit (comes with the mac, no extra charge), saves in rtf too.



    Most Mac users use Safari, which is Apple's browser, but Firefox is also available. I use it as a backup for Safari. Every once in a while a website will have problems.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    jabohnjabohn Posts: 582member
    1. I would say that Keynote is an equivalent to PowerPoint but Pages is less so since it's more of a desktop publishing/word processor hybrid. Both Keynote and Pages can save to and from Microsoft formats but keep in mind that certain features might not convert properly.



    2. An alternative to high-speed cable is DSL which uses your phone lines - see if your phone company provides that service. Again, distance is an issue - if you're too far away it might not be offered.



    3. Once you have high-speed internet access, buy a router. Plug it into your modem (be it cable or DSL) and then plug each computer via Ethernet into the router. The router allows multiple computers to use one internet connection and acts as a traffic director. Setting up a router is pretty straight-forward - just follow the instructions that come with the router.



    4. Firefox is available for Mac as well. I use Safari as my main browser but I too keep Firefox on hand just in case.
Sign In or Register to comment.