Switching - but need to use Office. Best solution?

[spiff101]

I'm going to buy a 2Ghz macbook this christmas, making the switch from PC.
2 questions:

1) I need to be absolutely sure I can transfer and work on Word documents and Powerpoint presentations both on my work PC and my macbook with full compatibility. Should I get the MS OS version of Office or use Bootcamp? I guess setting up a whole other OS would take up a lot of system resources?

2) There seem to be quite a few Mac for Office sellers on eBay, mostly 2nd-hand. What issues are there for product keys and so on - what do I need to ask the seller so I can be sure it'll run ok?

cheers

spiff

[geese]

Mac Office runs fine under Rosetta, assuming you've got plenty of RAM. Not worth the hassle of running Bootcamp, why bother switching in the first place.

As for buying second hand, make sure they are legit and have their serial numbers. Or if you are a student, get the academic version for cheap.

[Caezar]

I run Office for Mac on a 20-inch Core Duo iMac with 1.5 megs of RAM. I find it very very sluggish. I think you would be better off running Office under Parallels or wait for the next Office version.

Caezar

[R.Youden]

I use Neo Office which I like and is free but I am not 100% sure about compatability. I am sure some people who use it more can provide more info.

[Flyinace2000]

I used to use Entourage all the time, but it always felt "slow" and not all there. I had Parallels installed, so i install Office Outlook. I hate to say it, but the PC version of Outlook is far superior to the mac version.

[thebeephaha]

I run Office for Mac on a 20-inch Core Duo iMac with 1.5 megs of RAM. I find it very very sluggish. I think you would be better off running Office under Parallels or wait for the next Office version.

Caezar

YEA. You would with 1.5 megs..... I think you mean gigs... But I agree, you really need 2GB before things in rosetta run happy.

[blackstone]

I use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint (from Mac Office 2004) very frequently on my Macbook with 1.25 gigs of RAM. They're a bit sluggish on startup, but they work perfectly fine once they finish loading. I also like the interface of the Mac version of Word better than the Windows version -- it's prettier, and the tool palette floating on the side uses screen space much better than the horizontal toolbar in the Windows version.

As for compatibility, you can transfer documents back and forth between the Mac and Windows versions without any loss of data -- although there are sometimes quirks where the Mac version can read embedded graphics formats that the Windows version can't, and the Windows version can read embedded sound file formats that the Mac version can't. (Note, though, that this merely affects your ability to see/hear the embedded files in a given version -- the data itself remains intact).

[ero87]

you really need 2GB before things in rosetta run happy.

oh lord, this is getting out of hand!

you don't need that much memory just for freakin' word documents. 1 GB is fine - it might take 10 seconds to start up, but after that nothing should be sluggish.

[R.Youden]

As for compatibility, you can transfer documents back and forth between the Mac and Windows versions without any loss of data -- although there are sometimes quirks where the Mac version can read embedded graphics formats that the Windows version can't, and the Windows version can read embedded sound file formats that the Mac version can't. (Note, though, that this merely affects your ability to see/hear the embedded files in a given version -- the data itself remains intact).

Office 2004 comes with a compatability checker so you know what wont work on what version of Office. (The small red toolbox at the top right in the photo below)

[breakfastcrew]

use neo office until office 07 comes out.

[timnosenzo]

oh lord, this is getting out of hand!

you don't need that much memory just for freakin' word documents. 1 GB is fine - it might take 10 seconds to start up, but after that nothing should be sluggish.
Agreed. I use Office all the time on my MBP. It works fine. And I often have to open/edit/email Windows versions of docs. No problems.

[Chone]

Ever since I got Office 2007 I can´t stand using Office 2004 OSX or Office 2003 WinXP so now I use Parallels, the speed is decent enough and Office 2007 is worth the speed penalty (which is not even much if you have plenty of RAM).

[spiff101]

hey, thanks all. So if I go with Office for Mac (off ebay, as it's way too expensive otherwise), I just need to make sure I get a serial number with it, and it should run?

spiff