Buying advice for a potential mac convert

[benfilan]

My friend is thinking about switching from her Hp laptop (boo!) to a mac laptop. she wants to use it for everything you would use a laptop for...mail, internet, but also desktop publishing. is pages a good substitute for MS publisher?
also Video editing: iMovie or final cut pro? I'm pretty sure shes not aiming to be the next Coppola, but which program is the simplest to use?

lots of questions, I just want to give her a comprehensive answer, rather than my "ILOVEMACOMIGOD" speil.

help much appreciated!!

 

[mad jew]

Pages is different to Publisher, but I personally find it much easier to use and much more powerful in the sense it has more features. Of course, I'm used to the Mac way of doing things though...

I imagine iMovie would be a good place to start since it comes with iLife and is pre-installed on new Macs. Final Cut Pro and even Final Cut Express are aimed at the professional movie maker. As great as they are, I think iMovie would probably be more suitable. If it isn't she can buy Final Cut down the track, and keep iMovie alongside.

 

[jayeskreezy]

My friend is thinking about switching from her Hp laptop (boo!) to a mac laptop. she wants to use it for everything you would use a laptop for...mail, internet, but also desktop publishing. is pages a good substitute for MS publisher?
also Video editing: iMovie or final cut pro? I'm pretty sure shes not aiming to be the next Coppola, but which program is the simplest to use?

lots of questions, I just want to give her a comprehensive answer, rather than my "ILOVEMACOMIGOD" speil.

help much appreciated!!

I personally think publisher is more widely used and lightyears ahead of pages...as for movie stuff FCE is good...just sign up for apple procare and get some training in it

 

[killerrobot]

iMovie is a great basic starter program. If she's looking for a little extra the Final Cut Express does just about everything Pro does. But as jayeskreezy points out, there is a learning curve.

 

[Igantius]

re: editing - defintely iMovie. Really user-friendly, free and you can produce some really neat stuff.

As the other posters have said, FCP and FCE have a much steeper learning curve - your friend would be better off learning the principles of edting first.

 

[teflon]

Remember, any software that you can't find a substitute for on mac, can be used in Parallel. So if she already has a copy of MS Publisher, she can just run that in Parallel or Bootcamp. Just like the others suggested, iMovie's perfect for any home movies and alike. However, if she's really into movie editing, Final Cut Express might be good, especially if Apple's still doing their promo of getting FCE for $200 with a new mac.

 

[WizardHunt]

iMovie is a great basic starter program. If she's looking for a little extra the Final Cut Express does just about everything Pro does. But as jayeskreezy points out, there is a learning curve.

How much of a learning curve? Is it really that hard if a person is used to working with other video editing programs? I have never used Final Cut Express or Pro so that is why I am asking.

 

[j26]

ILOVEMACOMIGOD




Pages is very easy to use for creating newsletters, flyers etc. I've used it a bit and it's simple to use once you get used to the Inspector.

 

[Igantius]

How much of a learning curve? Is it really that hard if a person is used to working with other video editing programs? I have never used Final Cut Express or Pro so that is why I am asking.

Well, if they/you have been using other apps to edit, I assume that you know the principles of editing. In which case, the learning curve is largely down to learning the FC interface - you might be muddling through trying to work out how to do something, but at least you know what that thing is.

If someone has gone from iMovie to FC, the amount of extra options, more complicated interface can be bewilderingly - if you're trying to learn how to edit well at the same time how to use the app, it can be daunting.

In one recent thread someone bought a MBP and FCE (against their parents' advice) and after two days was ready to thrown in the towel. I'm not saying they would be the first and only person to do this, but they blamed their failure at a shoddy interface although they hadn't appreciated that it would take a while to learn - I advised just plugging away.

There're quite a few good books for picking up the basics - although it's quite old I liked Editing Techniques with Final Cut Pro by Michael Wohl (who was on the FCP team - I think even before Macromedia sold the fledging software to Apple).

 

[Father Jack]

Pages and iMovie will do the job satisfactorily and they are easy to use ..

Mac's Rule O.K.

 

[seany916]

Pages & iMovie are great for simple projects, simple learning curve, and non-professional applications.


Publisher & FCP have steeper learning curves and are much more applicable toward pro applications. Unless she really wants to spend a few months learning how to use the programs, she'd be better off with Pages & iMovie.

I don't know anyone that would be able to efficiently use FCP in only 2 weeks time.

 

[SugarMice]

Hey guys. I don't know if i'm in the right thread but I figured you'd answer my questions since they are related to buying a MB.
OK, the thing is that I'm plan to buy a MB next week and I was wondering if later on I can go to an apple store and add an extra 1Gb of RAM. I wanted to add the RAM right now but my budget is really tight and for the moment I can't. Considering that I'd probably upgrade to Leopard by the end of the year, I want to be sure that my MB is capable of running it smoothly, that's the main reason for putting the extra gig. Anyways, if you guys know what the system reqs. are for Leopard it'll be a big help. Thanks and sorry if I made any mistakes writing this(im from venezuela )

 

[j26]

Hey guys. I don't know if i'm in the right thread but I figured you'd answer my questions since they are related to buying a MB.
OK, the thing is that I'm plan to buy a MB next week and I was wondering if later on I can go to an apple store and add an extra 1Gb of RAM. I wanted to add the RAM right now but my budget is really tight and for the moment I can't. Considering that I'd probably upgrade to Leopard by the end of the year, I want to be sure that my MB is capable of running it smoothly, that's the main reason for putting the extra gig. Anyways, if you guys know what the system reqs. are for Leopard it'll be a big help. Thanks and sorry if I made any mistakes writing this(im from venezuela )

You'd be mad to get ram from Apple - you can buy it far cheaper on the internet and installing it yourself is very, very easy. There are online guides how to do it, and it doesn't invalidate the warranty. I upgraded one of my ram slots and it took all of 2-3 minutes. All you need is a small screwdriver.

As for Leopard, I believe Leopard will run on a G4. Since the Intels knock the socks off the G4, so you need have no worries about the MacBook not being capable.

 

[SugarMice]

J26

Hey man thanks!, i did notice that apple was charging me around 160 bucks for the extra RAM and thought it was a bit expensive. Anyway, i'll take your advice and do some research on how to upgrade the ram myself, I know how to get around hardware, though it's the first time I'll open a laptop. Well, thanks again mate