word for mac. need quick reply

[seahawks237]

i know i have posted a lot lately but this may determine whether or not i get a mac. do the Word documents and powerpoint presentations save in the same format with a mac as the pc version?
my high school uses PC's with Word/Powerpoint and i need to send my papers/presentations from my mac (if i get one), to the PC's. will i be able to do this with a mac?
thanks for any help.:D

[DeaconGraves]

Yes. Same .doc and .ppt format. (I would just make sure to determine whether or not your school uses Office '07 or '03, as that will help you determine whether to save under the Mac '08 format or Mac '04. (i.e. .doc or .docx)

[seahawks237]

i think they have '03.
so would i have to save things differently?

[ace86]

In short, yes.

In long, Microsoft Office recently went through a major change in saving formats on both sides. Before 2007, Word saved as .doc. Word 2007 (PC) and Word 2008 (Mac) both save in docx. 2007 and 2008 can open and save either format. Working with earlier versions becomes more difficult, but there are some patches available, I believe. If you're getting a new mac you'll probably be getting Office 2008 and will be fine.

[dcains]

There are two free alternatives that work very well with MS documents; NeoOffice and OpenOffice. I use NeoOffice regularly under OS X and OpenOffice when I'm forced to use XP.

http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

http://www.openoffice.org/

[seahawks237]

alright i guess ill be fine then. my dad is worried that if i get a mac, things will be incompatible with the pc's at school