Searching within MS Word Documents via Finder?

Hi all!

I'm going to be trying out a Mac here probably the beginning of the year after a lifetime of DOS/Windows PC work. I think I've got just about everything figured out to make the switch go well, but I had one quick question.

I plan, for a bit, to use MS Word 2010 via Parallels until Apple and Microsoft bring out a new version of their office applications and see which I would want to spend money on. However, without Pages or Word for Mac installed, will Finder be able to search the text of normal .DOC files (not the newer DOCX, I don't make use of that for compatibility reasons at work). Is that something OS X can natively do or do I need to have something else installed for that to work?

Thanks!

Simplicated said:

Both DOC and DOCX are supported by Spotlight out-of-the-box.

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Perfect! I was hoping (and kind of assuming) that was the case, but I wanted to be sure! Thanks!

I'm sure I'll be posting here more with "AHH! HELP!" questions when I actually order the computer

Krazy Bill said:

I use both 2010 for Windows and 2011 for the mac. I've yet to find any incompatibilities when exchanging documents between the two office suites.

I wouldn't hold my breath for a new version of Office for the mac any time soon. As one would expect, MS has better things to do than crank out timely apps for a competing OS.

So, I think it would be safe to just get Office 2011 for the mac and save the trip in/out of Parallels all the time.

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Yeah, the problem is that Word for Mac lacks the ability to deal with Right-to-Left languages (like Hebrew, Arabic, etc.), which is something that I don't need to do too often, but do need to have support for.

That being said, I'll probably nab the trial of Office for Mac and see how it runs compared to Parallels. I'll still need Parallels for Publisher, et al. Part of it is just not wanting to spend money on an office suite when I've already got 2010 Professional for Windows.

While I'm pretty sure I'm switching, the Mac is still an experiment for me, so I don't want to get my feet too deep in the water with things I can't easily recoup money from if it ends up not working out.