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The Big Switch has been foiled: Help!

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inkster218

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 7, 2004
27
0
Hey all, I have been reading the Rumors page for a week or so trying to get myself convinced to make the BIG SWITCH after 15 years of design on PC.

After seeing the depth of this site and the level of support for each other, I made the decision to go MAC baby!

Here's the hitch.

I have been asked to co-partner a marketing company with a design client and help create software titles that we market to the real estate industry. Long story short...I told my new partner of my plans and he almost fell over. He said that I have to work via PC because thew software titles are designed around PC and use the Office products to build many of the marketing materials he sells.

I countered with the old "Yeah, but there is Office for Mac!" but he was pretty freaked. This project takes precedence, so I would stay PC if I had to, but I have the MAC Bug now!!!

I would love your take on my situation! Is Virtual PC able to run ANY and all PC based software on it? Are the end products coming out of MAC Office exactly the same and openable in PC Office? Lots of questions and not sure where to start.

Thanks all...love this site!

Curt
 
S

SolidGun

macrumors 6502
Jul 24, 2004
338
14
Twin Cities
Let me start by stating that Mac is not an acronym, please refrain from MAC (I was told this when I first said it somewhere, so I will pass on the knowledge) ;)
VPC is able to run basic PC software at an acceptable level. I would never use anything complex through VPC (that and it is way too slow for anything that I want to do for PC).
As for MS Office suite intercompatibility, yes you can exchange them freely....but I don't know of other software that offers such compatibility or I just haven't used it yet.
Since this is your job related, I would do the work on PC, but get into Mac now to adapt yourself to Mac environment. I try to coexist with PC and chances are it will remain to be so for as long as Windows and Mac dominate the market.
With the office suites, you will find Mac OS environment to be very stable (which was one of my reasons to try Mac OS).
 
Macmaniac

Macmaniac

macrumors 68040
Jan 6, 2001
3,341
1
A tiny spec in the "Garden State", 1 square mile i
First point 1. Microsoft Office documents between PCs and Macs are seamless, if he is using Office 2004, and you use Mac Office 2004 they are designed to talk to each other without any differences, you can even go to Microsoft.s website to verify this. http://www.microsoft.com/mac
Point 2, as much as we wish VPC could do everything it can't. Unless Microsoft decides to get the latest version out soon VPC is not going to be a viable working product for what you are doing. Here is something you can do, buy a Mac anyway and have a PC you can use as well so your partner does not freak. Get a KVM switch so you can use the two next to each other, and you can try sending Office documents between the two, and if VPC 7 turns out to be fast on a Mac then you can install it on your mac and show your partner that macs mean business.
 
crazzyeddie

crazzyeddie

macrumors 68030
Dec 7, 2002
2,792
1
Florida, USA
See if you can get more specifics from your business partner about what programs you're going to use. If all you're using is M$ Office, almost everyone will agree that the Mac version is superior to the PC version.
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
Edit: I went to make my daughter toast and delayed in submitting this. So... next time I'll have to write faster or let her starve. ;)

OK, before someone jumps in and unloads on you, it's "Mac", as in "Macintosh", not MAC, as in "Media Access Control (address)". Just a warning... ;)

As far as your concerns:

(1) Office for Mac is ~100% compatible with Office of Windows. Not 100%, but very nearly so. All my work-at-home work involving Office stuff, I do on my Mac. It works fine when I get to work with my PCs.

(2) Virtual PC 7 is due out in a couple of months. It should run most stuff fairly well. VPC 6.1 is pretty (er, very) slow, but runs almost anything.

(3) The Mac will make you more creative. Seriously. There's something about it that just makes you think better. Sounds like bunk, but, since getting the G5, I've had 5 patent applications through work. Zero in the five years before that. I just feel more creative.

(4) Macromedia's products work great on Macs.

(5) Macs are dominant in the marketing/design field. Using one will add credibility!
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
Also, FWIW, my realtor is Mac-only with the exception of one PC. 27 Macs. One lone PC. So there's a Mac real-estate market as well.
 
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inkster218

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 7, 2004
27
0
Mac not MAC. I need to get my apple groove on.

Ok ok...I got it! Mac not MAC. :)

I don't want to lose my membership to the club before I even get in!

More details...the product is a software title that creates marketing materials for realtors. My job is to design and create the templates for about 2000 marketing pieces and export them into the right formats so my partner can install them into the software. (He is the programmer.)

I think most of it is fear, as well as it should be. He is looking out for the timeline of the product and doesn't want any hiccups. I get it, but MAN I want to make the Mac thing work.

I also get the whole "working on a Mac makes you more creative" thing. My intuition has been poking at me to go Mac for some time...I walk into an Apple store and it feels like I'm in the mothership and it's come to take me home. IF you are creating art, why not create it using a piece of art.

God knows a Dell isn't gonna cut it.

Curt
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
What is the software that you'd use to create the templates? Or, perhaps more importantly, what format do the templates use? Is it something you could create on a Mac and then export to the PC?
 
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inkster218

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 7, 2004
27
0
The PNG's from Corel Draw are really fantastic. Suprisingly better than from AI or PS. Strange. So Corel is an issue right off the bat.

I will be using all of the Office products, even Publisher. (ew.) I have to create .dot (Word template) files for many of the pieces, and an occassional powerpoint template.

That would about cover it.

Thoughts?

Curt
 
jsw

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
I hate to say it - I really hate to say it - but maybe you're best off with a PC. Sounds like you're using a lot of PC-specific software, and VPC will never run those things very quickly.

Maybe a cheap PC and a moderately priced Mac?
 
C

crackpip

macrumors regular
Jul 23, 2002
210
0
Just to let you know, using files between Mac and PC versions of office is not seamless. There are inconveniences that may or may not affect individual projects that you have, but you will often have to tweak documents if you are exchanging them across platforms. Here are a few examples that I've experienced, some are easy to correct others are not:

upper and lower page margins get changed
equation objects don't display properly
inserted images sometimes do not print well on mac, especially vector based pdf images, but on the PC they print fine.

Of course, I've seen some of these occur when using the same version of office on different PC's, which is even more annoying. These and a whole host of other issues and annoyances, while writing a dissertation and later co-authoring a college textbook, led me to abandon office completely. Now I do everything in either LaTeX, and exchange in PDF, or I use rtf.

crackpip
 
Fender2112

Fender2112

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2002
1,135
374
Charlotte, NC
Get a cheap or second hand Mac and give it a shot. Or maybe find a friend or family member that will let you use one for a while. A week or two of using the Mac should give you a feel of if the the set up will work or not.

I think most retailers have at least a 10 to 14 day return policy on hardware. Found out who in you area has the longest return policy. Get an iMac or eMac and try it. If it does not work, take it back and swap it for a PC.
 
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inkster218

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 7, 2004
27
0
The more I read the more I am accepting the fact that I may just have to stay PC. #@$%#$%^@#$.

There's plenty more where that came from.

I guess maybe I could buy my PB and run his stuff on my existing PC system and get a switch.

Thanks for the advice all...hopefully I will be on here in a week or so telling you I bought a Mac!

Keep up the great community!

Curt
 
M

MacAficionado

macrumors 6502
Oct 5, 2002
435
0
An awesome place
Get both!

A lot of PC people boast the fact that you can get a Windows machine for next to nothing.

So my suggestion would be to get one of those discount PC's for work only.

***ALERT***

DO NOT PLUG TO A NETWORK TO AVOID VIRUSES AND OTHER MALICIOUS CODE.

Then get a good Mac for everything else. All the while you can experiment with cross compatibilty for you particular applications.
The only problem I see would be with the .dot files from MS. Go figure!!!

Corel is on the Mac and pretty much any file format for graphics is cross compatible.

When you figure out a way to do everything on the Mac, tell your partner to WAKE UP!!!

You won't regret it.

Hope this helps. :eek:
 
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inkster218

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 7, 2004
27
0
That does help, thanks!

I'm thinking that if I can finish the main product in the next few months, most of the work after that would be design work only, which of course is do-able on a Mac.

Thanks again all...love this forum!
 
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