Help: New MacBook (Extra software needed to open Word,Publisher,Contacts, etc.)?

[acoustictones]

I am on the verge of pulling the tringer on the NEW and/or updated MacBook that was announced today, and this would be my FIRST Mac.

and in case it makes a difference, I do plan on also getting iWorks on my new system.

The main programs that I depend on for my job are as follow:

-Publisher (all of our materials are done and preformated in Publisher, so it's not about learning a new system, it's about being able to open and edit our existing Publisher files)

-Word (Can I both open my old Word files with what is already on the Mac, and can other Windows based system open a file I create with my new Mac)

-Adobe (Must be able to merge multiple PDF files from PDF files that I have created from Word, Publisher and other PDF files that have been downloaded from our different web sites...So a simple ability to read or just open PDF's would not be enough)

-Outlook (I'm not all that sure that I want to keep Outlook if my new Mac has something that can do much of what I do with out look which is simple calander and contact management, BUT can I easily transfer ALL of my contacts and calander from my current Outlook to whatever is ALREADY on a MAC, or do I need to buy something in addition to do this)

**So I guess my main question is which of these are going to work well on my new MacBook with iWorks without HAVING to buy MS Office for Mac, or having to do something in BootCamp.

And I appologize up front if these all sound soooo basic or obvious to any of you. The only thing I have ever used on a Mac is Final Cut Pro, and have NO idea how to use the basic for my actual living (I do video projects on the side, but my primary job DEPENDS on the programs listed above, and all I know is Windows based systems).

Thanks ahead of time for any and all help. I would love to see all of this work with just my MacBook and iWork, but I'm afraid that it may not. So your answers and help with be greatly appreciated.

 

[mediaguru]

You will not regret switching to the Mac. To answer some of your questions:

- Pages (part of iWork) can import and export Word DOC and DOCX files, but the conversion is not always perfect. For mostly text documents, it is acceptable. I have experienced quirks with tables.

- Unfortunately, there is no Publisher support for the Mac. Microsoft has decided not to support Publisher outside of Windows, and there are no apps that I am aware of that are able to import PUB files (perhaps someone else has an idea for importing these files into another app). You might consider moving to a more universally-supported solution (for Printing companies as well) such as the cross-platform Adobe InDesign. You could save your existing Publisher files as Postscript or PDF files under Windows and open and print them in Mac applications, though. Pages will provide much of the same functionality as Publisher as far as page layout.

- Mac OS itself uses PDF natively. You can save PDF files from most any application, and the Preview application can also perform basic edits to PDF files. Of course, Adobe Acrobat is also available for the Mac if you need it.

- Outlook is not available for the Mac, but Apple's own Mail, Address Book, and iCal apps work fine for many. There is a $10 app called Outlook2Mac that will convert Outlook PST data into a format that the Apple apps can use.

Hope that helps; let us know if you need more specific info. It seems Publisher is really the only sticky problem you will face. You might also want to consider Office for the Mac, though, if your business depends on near-perfect Office document transfers across Windows and Mac.

 

[aneftp]

I will add a couple more points.

Just download openoffice for mac. You can open all of your old Word files. Maybe not the newer stupid .docx files (which everyone hates!) But Micro$oft is intent on pushing this new format and nothing is stopping them.

I used to use Outlook (they have a program called Entourage for Office) but I find Apple Mail (which is free) works much better and faster.

Publisher is Microsoft and they will only support windows.

PDF works much better in Mac's than Windows.

If you are truly worried about 100% windows compability, you can always buy a version of windows and use bootcamp.

I have parallel's installed with Windows XP but I only use it for Internet Explorer to access one website that requires IE (http://www.channelsurfing.net) where I can watch FREE sports programs including all of my nba and nfl games.

Switch to Apple, you will never regret it. Everything "works" much better and faster. I'm an advanced computer user absolutely hate windows (especially Vista) but keep a copy around because I'm tech support for all my friends and family. Those people are too cheap to pay the extra for a Mac.

 

[acoustictones]

Thanks...looks like bootcamp is a must for me

First and foremost, thanks for the replies.

It looks as though my best option would be just to simply move forward on bootcamp for two reasons:

1) Publisher. I don't disagree that Mac does have an equal or better solution, but we have A LOT of preformated publisher files that we use as our templates, and add and change things A LOT. So we would need to really start from scratch on that to go ALL Mac. And based on time and money that is just not an option. So we'll be sticking with Publisher on that account.

2) And the 2nd thing is one I had forgotten about. The back end of our web site doesn't support FireFox or Safari. I need IE to do ALL of our mait. and updates (kind of like you said that a few of your sites require you to use IE...well, same here, and it's based on our business, so it's pretty important to us...totally forgot about that).

So it looks as though BootCamp is something that I will really need to use for a few of my business apps. Just didn't want to have to spend money on getting some of the extras like a Windows OS disc, convertors for things like my Outlook contacts and calanders, etc.

But I guess it just has to be done

Thanks again.

 

[Highpockets]

Thanks so much for the information in these answers. I got on this site to try to find a program to replace my Publisher after I switched to a Mac about 2 months ago. The learning curve is still in effect for me with the Mac. However there are some things that I have found to be very nice. One is the time it takes to boot up from my HP which takes as much as 5 minutes to get up to speed. I will try to convert some of my Publisher files to PDF format and see what happens if not will try the other ideas. Again thanks

 

[alphaod]

1) Publisher. I don't disagree that Mac does have an equal or better solution, but we have A LOT of preformated publisher files that we use as our templates, and add and change things A LOT. So we would need to really start from scratch on that to go ALL Mac. And based on time and money that is just not an option. So we'll be sticking with Publisher on that account.

Unfortunately this is the best you can do: http://www.markzware.com/pub2id/

It will convert Publisher files into InDesign files.

 

[Tigercat212]

There was a new Macbook confirmed today? It's not on the Apple website. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[sn00pie]

^ What are you talking about? (No pun intended)

 

[mayanka89]

There was a new Macbook confirmed today? It's not on the Apple website. Can anyone confirm this?

If you check the OP date, he's talking about the update from February. This thread was brought back from the dead...