Questions about switching

Give Appleworks a chance

Tell your Dad to trash Microsoft Word. I've always used Appleworks and think its very underrated. I used Appleworks exclusively to write my papers during 4 years of college. Not one Professor questioned what app I used. They assume everyone uses Word. Sociology Professors live by strict standards when it comes to writing. Appleworks worked great for me.

I think MS Word is fine. I'm very comfortable with it, and have only get stressed with the margins and "auto" features, where Word thinks it's smarter than you and does things that it thinks you want to be done, but actually do not. I love Word, but I guess it depends on who you are.

I went to find Office at the Apple Store for you in order to give you a link, but got nothing. That's odd, isn't it?

Anyway, here's another: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/officex/officex.aspx?pid=officex

It doesn't list Access. Sorry.

forget access, whata joke. you need to get filemaker pro, which is made by apple. its a great application which can be very powerful.

iJon

I agree, but from a "switcher" standpoint, its pretty weak. If his father already has his info in Access, I'm sure he would rather just move it over to his Mac and not try to find ways to move his information over to Filemaker Pro.

Again, Access isn't a program on the Website link I provided, so the answer is "no". Sorry.

But I'm sure your dad would still love the Mac.

Originally posted by iJon
forget access, whata joke. you need to get filemaker pro, which is made by apple. its a great application which can be very powerful.

Click to expand...

Wow i didn't know FileMaker was a subsidiary of Apple
anyway, it's much better than Access and if your dad really needs it he can get VirtualPC to use Access. However, FileMaker Pro is also available for Windows, so why don't you start using it now

Originally posted by übergeek
Wow i didn't know FileMaker was a subsidiary of Apple
anyway, it's much better than Access and if your dad really needs it he can get VirtualPC to use Access. However, FileMaker Pro is also available for Windows, so why don't you start using it now

Click to expand...

wow, you kids... i remember when FileMaker was one of Apple's flagship products. It started as an Apple product but was spun-off in ... 1995 or 1996 if memory serves...

anyhoo... obviously his dad is looking for something to directly access MS Access files. Sometimes you can't switch formats, especially if he's accessing a large Access (this paragraph would be so much less redundant if they named it something other than "access") database that's shared among many people. So in answer to the original Switching question... No, there's no front-end application for Access. However, since Access isn't the most processor intensive application, VirtualPC would certainly run this program at acceptable speeds, if he doesn't use it frequently.

[edit] If you can find a way to import Access databases into Filemaker, definitely switch to that software-- it is indeed better than Access. I can't find any way to directly access Access databases, but perhaps they can be exported into a format Filemaker can read, hopefully someone more familiar with databasing can elaborate.

I think they've answered most of your other questions. No, don't switch to Appleworks, well probably don't... MS Word is more powerful and full-featured, until Apple releases a Pro Suite. He'll most likely be looking for features that don't exist, tho AW is certainly a hundred times easier to use. And Photoshop should only be run on a Mac. Period.


pnw

I don't think I saw any comments about AOL.

AOL on a Mac is a nightmare, and the AOL tech support doesn't know anything about how to use Mac.

But then again, AOL is a nightmare itself and I will tell that to anyone who will listen.

They made unauthorized charges to my credit card, I had to get the BBB involved. Illegal stuff, that's not cool.

Back to the point, your Dad probably won't like AOL on a Mac, but now is a good time to switch him over to Earthlink

Good luck to you.

Originally posted by KrazyKidd
thanks for all the replies. If my dad switches, he'll probably want to get a dual proc g5 with a 23" display. My dad loves to spend money when it comes to getting new technology stuff. He'd rather spend a lot now and not upgrade for a while even if he wont use the main features of the g5.

not really related to this but i just configured a Ti 15" powerbook for $1960 (1ghz, combo-drive, 512mb, airport card, 40gb) based on educational discount. I am also looking at a sager that is a P4 3.06 ghz, 512mb, 40 gb, combo-drive, win XP ;[, and 9600 pro mobile ;] thats about $2000 as well. I really like how apple is competing price wise with the competition. VERRY atrractive prices.

i just cant look past the Ti paint issue and the non-ddr memory on the powerbook.

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to tell you the truth, unless you are playing games i would get the powerbook. the pc is nice, much powerful, but will get much less battery life, chances are if weighs more and with xp doesnt really have anything fun to do with it. get the pc if you play games, or get the powerbook if you dont mind waiting 6 months for some games and t hem not playing that well.

iJon

Originally posted by KrazyKidd
thanks for all the replies. If my dad switches, he'll probably want to get a dual proc g5 with a 23" display. My dad loves to spend money when it comes to getting new technology stuff. He'd rather spend a lot now and not upgrade for a while even if he wont use the main features of the g5.

not really related to this but i just configured a Ti 15" powerbook for $1960 (1ghz, combo-drive, 512mb, airport card, 40gb) based on educational discount. I am also looking at a sager that is a P4 3.06 ghz, 512mb, 40 gb, combo-drive, win XP ;[, and 9600 pro mobile ;] thats about $2000 as well. I really like how apple is competing price wise with the competition. VERRY atrractive prices.

i just cant look past the Ti paint issue and the non-ddr memory on the powerbook.

Click to expand...

Apple is expected to update the 15" powerbooks soon... Considering that's the most attractive option for people, one would think they'd be hurrying. Try getting your dad to chip in for a 17" If you can put it off a few weeks, wait as long as you can for the new 15" PBs... you'll be very happy with one of those (especially if it includes the high-end extras like illuminated keyboard)...

and as was posted above... AOL is just a nightmare. If you're not familiar with other options, I suggest you try them out, while there are a few things (messageboards, etc) that are specific only to AOL's "community", most everything else is available with other ISP's... often cheaper and much more reliable...

pnw

Can you not take your Access database information and export it as a text document or something, and then import it to a Windows version of Filemaker? If you can do this and import and save the text file as a Filemaker Pro file, you can simply take this file and put it on your Mac........I think.

Okay, I just made this up from thin air.