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Converting Dad from Windows - HELP

D

dave9191

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
11
0
Heya,

My dad has been using Windows XP / 7 with Office 2003 for years now and he works from home on that. After seeing everyone around him using Macs he decided he would give it a try.

But I've hit a snag that I can't help him with.

He does a lot of copying and pasting from the web (chrome or firefox) into MS Word creating printable reference files neatly formatted.

But when copying from chrome to say TextEdit or Pages you get the text with no images. Images have to copied separately, and this takes far too long.

Openoffice has some stability issues and clumsy UI, so I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Can anyone recommend a good reliable word processor which will work with copying and pasting text and images from a web browser in a similar fashion to which it works on windows with word?

I've been using Macs for years and during that time I've never had to copy and paste text and images from the web - I'm just really surprised that windows and MS office has such a big upper hand here. Tell me it isn't so.
 
D

dave9191

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
11
0
Thanks guys, been having a play with it and it seems to work. It's a shame that this is what it comes to after his attempt to get away from Microsoft.
 
D

dave9191

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
11
0
No, the latest release has turned into a paid version and I don't want to pay without knowing that it will work first.
 
G51989

G51989

macrumors 68030
Feb 25, 2012
2,530
10
NYC NY/Pittsburgh PA
dave9191 said:
Thanks guys, been having a play with it and it seems to work. It's a shame that this is what it comes to after his attempt to get away from Microsoft.
Click to expand...

If he is using the machine for work, Office is the way to go. I am no huge fan of Microsoft, but Microsoft Office is the standard for schools, business and the home, and unlike other Microsoft products which sometimes can suck, Office is very good.
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
dave9191 said:
Thanks guys, been having a play with it and it seems to work. It's a shame that this is what it comes to after his attempt to get away from Microsoft.
Click to expand...
You do realize MS Office was released for Mac before it was released for Windows, right? There's no need to avoid Office if it's the best tool of its kind available.
 
D

dave9191

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
11
0
Elbert C said:
NeoOffice v3.3 is a free download. I don't know if it does what you want though.
Click to expand...

Thanks, do you know where I can download this from a reputable source? Every site I've tried either has a link to the neoffice site with the current version or a patch. I can't seem to find v3.3 download.
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,348
12,464
[[ But when copying from chrome to say TextEdit or Pages you get the text with no images. Images have to copied separately, and this takes far too long. ]]

I'm going to -guess- that his TextEdit prefs are set so that new files are "plain text".

Ask him to try this:
- Open TextEdit preferences
- Click on "New Document" (actually, should open as the default)
- Under "Format", click the radio button for "Rich Text"
- Close the prefs window, quit TextEdit, and restart.

Then, try to copy some web content (including images) and paste it into a new TextEdit document.

Does this work any better for him?
 
D

dave9191

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
11
0
GGJstudios said:
You do realize MS Office was released for Mac before it was released for Windows, right? There's no need to avoid Office if it's the best tool of its kind available.
Click to expand...

While MS may have released word and excel on the mac 5 years before they did on windows, the Mac version is no longer their primary market, nor where they release the latest versions. They could drop the Mac at any point, and the deal that Steve struck to keep developing office for the Mac expired in 2002. At the same time it is very expensive and 90% of the features aren't actually used. So it seems a shame to dish out so much more money for that.

And for me it seems that copying and pasting images and text seems like a pretty basic requirement and I'm just astounded that it's not a more addresses issue by people.

Textedit actually contains all the features needed minus pasting images and text. To go from textedit to MS Word feels like going from a tiny hammer straight to a bulldozer with nothing in between.

----------
Fishrrman said:
[[ But when copying from chrome to say TextEdit or Pages you get the text with no images. Images have to copied separately, and this takes far too long. ]]

I'm going to -guess- that his TextEdit prefs are set so that new files are "plain text".

Ask him to try this:
- Open TextEdit preferences
- Click on "New Document" (actually, should open as the default)
- Under "Format", click the radio button for "Rich Text"
- Close the prefs window, quit TextEdit, and restart.

Then, try to copy some web content (including images) and paste it into a new TextEdit document.

Does this work any better for him?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I've already tried turning on rich text. While you can paste individual images, when pasting a block of images and text, it ignores the images.
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
dave9191 said:
While MS may have released word and excel on the mac 5 years before they did on windows, the Mac version is no longer their primary market, nor where they release the latest versions. They could drop the Mac at any point, and the deal that Steve struck to keep developing office for the Mac expired in 2002. At the same time it is very expensive and 90% of the features aren't actually used. So it seems a shame to dish out so much more money for that.
Click to expand...
Microsoft is still issuing releases of Office for Mac. They alternate between new releases of Office for Windows. Office 2011 for Mac is very capable and compatible with Office 2013 for Windows. As for what features are or aren't used, that depends on what features a particular user requires, and whether it's expensive or not is also relative. Like many others, I consider Office to be reasonably priced for what it does, and I use more than 90% of its features at one time or another.

While you may not prefer it, there are obviously millions who do. It is extremely doubtful that Microsoft would drop this profitable product line anytime soon.
 
And

And

macrumors 6502
Feb 23, 2009
389
3
92 ft above sea level, UK
If the freebie office suites can't do what you want... I have a demo of Nisus writer pro (http://www.nisus.com iirc) and I think it can do what you want. Probably cheaper than ms office. The express version might work too, but you'd need to try for yourself (trial version also available on their website).
 
D

dave9191

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
11
0
And said:
If the freebie office suites can't do what you want... I have a demo of Nisus writer pro (http://www.nisus.com iirc) and I think it can do what you want. Probably cheaper than ms office. The express version might work too, but you'd need to try for yourself (trial version also available on their website).
Click to expand...


Thanks for this, it looks really promising. A quick check and it seems to work just fine :D
 
E

Elbert C

macrumors 6502a
Mar 23, 2008
528
127
AK, USA
dave9191 said:
I might be missing something very obvious on that link, but I can't see version 3.3. Just 3.4.1, and without paying first I can't download it.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. It's probably only available to customers that paid for NeoOffice then. It does look like you found a working alternative though.
 
D

dave9191

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2007
11
0
Elbert C said:
Hmm.. It's probably only available to customers that paid for NeoOffice then. It does look like you found a working alternative though.
Click to expand...

Would have been good to give neo office a spin too. But at least I've found some solutions.

Thanks guys.
 
phrehdd

phrehdd

macrumors 601
Oct 25, 2008
4,316
1,312
From the Pages help files -

Objects overview

An object is any item you place on a page. Photos, shapes, charts, and text boxes are examples of objects. You can change an object’s appearance using the tools in the Format inspector.

Each object has its own formatting options, which are unique to the properties and characteristics of the object. For example, a line has endpoints, so when a line is selected, the Format inspector displays controls for changing the appearance of the endpoints.

When you add an image or other object to your document, you can anchor it to a location on the page, or anchor it to the text around it. For example, you might want to make sure that a logo always appears at the top of the page, but that a chart showing sales figures stays with its explanatory text.

You can also choose how text flows around an object. If the image or object has irregular outlines, use text wrap to make text follow its contours.
 
M

MacPC

macrumors regular
Sep 25, 2006
213
1
You can copy image and text to TextEdit, as the previous post said, all you need is Rich Text.

Don't get Office for Mac, At my old job, I had to use Office for Mac, it pretty sucks.
 
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