First off, I would like to say thanks to all those that have helped me out and answered all my questions regarding the PowerBooks. I have decided to order the base 12" model without super drive (I figure if I ever need one I can get an external for about the same price which is much faster). The total comes to 1482.94 with tax. I plan on upgrading the RAM to 768 from crucial, and am getting an AE card when my friend pays me the money he owes. I was just wondering what kind of software the laptop comes with before I make the purchase. Does it come with any word processing software so I can type papers? I read somewhere that it comes with a trial for office X. Can anyone confirm this? If so how long is the trial? Is there any other software that I should probably get? I am a little short on cash for extra software, but if there is something that is a must have then I can probably squeeze it in. Anything else that would be of use or just stuff to make me feel good about my purchase is welcome. I will be sure to write a review of the PB as soon as I get it. I will try to include pictures as well. Thanks in advance for your help.
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Buying PowerBook In A Few Hours, Had A Few Questions Though???
- Thread starter jumpman25
- Start date
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From the Apple site, included software is:
So no word processing SW except for the Office trial. BTW, OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner are cool - esp. Graffle.
FWIW, iBooks come with:
which does include AppleWorks, which is pretty decent for a free add-in.
You can get an educational version of Office for $150, so, while expensive, isn't killer. There are other options (like buying AppleWorks for $80), but, of course, Word is the de facto standard.
Best of luck with your purchase - whatever you get, you'll love it!
Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime, iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD[4]), iSync, iCal, DVD Player, Classic environment, Art Directors Toolkit, EarthLink TotalAccess 2003 (includes 30 days of free service), FileMaker Pro 6 Trial, GraphicConverter, Microsoft Office v. X Test Drive, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, QuickBooks for Mac New User Edition, Zinio Reader, Developer Tools, and Apple Hardware Test
So no word processing SW except for the Office trial. BTW, OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner are cool - esp. Graffle.
FWIW, iBooks come with:
All models include Mail, Safari, iChat AV, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime, iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie), iSync, iCal, DVD Player, AppleWorks, Mac OS X Chess, and Classic environment; Microsoft Internet Explorer, AOL, Quicken 2004 Deluxe, World Book 2003 Edition, Microsoft Office 4.X Test Drive, Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4, Deimos Rising, Sound Studio, and Zinio Reader; Apple Hardware Test.
which does include AppleWorks, which is pretty decent for a free add-in.
You can get an educational version of Office for $150, so, while expensive, isn't killer. There are other options (like buying AppleWorks for $80), but, of course, Word is the de facto standard.
Best of luck with your purchase - whatever you get, you'll love it!
And, seriously, you're going to love this thing when you get it. My brother's got one. It's just stunningly cool.
Not sure if you can airport extreme installed afterwards...best you check that but I think thats the deal.
You get iLife but not Appleworks with the Power range.
Appleworks has the basic word processor and excel copy etc Should be good enough for most stuff. It shouldn't be too expensive and they might cut you a discount
Seriously think about getting Applecare now or later...or take you chances down the track after 90 days...you can get it after you buy the PB.
Hard drive is pretty cheap to upgrade now $50 for another 20 gig! If you have lost of video or music or photos planned for this machine, then that would help.
Ask them what other things they have on special or special to be packaged with a computer/indeed a powerbook purchase. There could be some nice cheap software offers about you might be tempted by.
You get iLife but not Appleworks with the Power range.
Appleworks has the basic word processor and excel copy etc Should be good enough for most stuff. It shouldn't be too expensive and they might cut you a discount
Seriously think about getting Applecare now or later...or take you chances down the track after 90 days...you can get it after you buy the PB.
Hard drive is pretty cheap to upgrade now $50 for another 20 gig! If you have lost of video or music or photos planned for this machine, then that would help.
Ask them what other things they have on special or special to be packaged with a computer/indeed a powerbook purchase. There could be some nice cheap software offers about you might be tempted by.
Thanks jsw, thats exactly what I was looking for. Don't know why I never thought to look on the apple website for the software??? Anyway, that 30 day office trial should hold me over until I get the cash to buy office X. I'm going to hit the apple site right now and make the purchase. I have been a long time PC user and just got sick of the same old thing. I also like the aqua interface.
aswitcher said:
Yes, it can be added later by the end user.
Also, have you considered just using Text Edit? I find that for most stuff, in rich text mode, TextEdit is enough with built in spell checking. Its also compatible with word docs... so you can even open those.
aswitcher said:Not sure if you can airport extreme installed afterwards...best you check that but I think thats the deal.
You get iLife but not Appleworks with the Power range.
Appleworks has the basic word processor and excel copy etc Should be good enough for most stuff. It shouldn't be too expensive and they might cut you a discount
Seriously think about getting Applecare now or later...or take you chances down the track after 90 days...you can get it after you buy the PB.
Hard drive is pretty cheap to upgrade now $50 for another 20 gig! If you have lost of video or music or photos planned for this machine, then that would help.
Ask them what other things they have on special or special to be packaged with a computer/indeed a powerbook purchase. There could be some nice cheap software offers about you might be tempted by.
Thans Switcher, can anybody confirm this becuase we have a wireless network in our house and to not be able to use AE would be a real bummer. Also, do you know if Appleworks has spell check? Thats a big one for me as I type fast and often miss stuff.
crazzyeddie said:
Ok cool, so I just unscrew a port in the bottom of the PB and it clicks right in right? Also, does anybody know if Apple works is compatable with Word Docs, and does it have spell check. I am assuming that test edit does not have spell check.
jumpman25 said:
Yes, AppleWorks can read Word documents, and it has spell check. In fact, almost every OS X text editor (including TextEdit) has spell check because it is built in to the system.
EDIT: TextEdit can read Word documents as well.
The only other deal you may want to consider is the .Mac account special which is available with new purchases...
Check the Apple website for details. Some pretty cool stuff.
Check the Apple website for details. Some pretty cool stuff.
jumpman25 said:
If you plan to buy the new Office X in June when the new version comes out then I would say save your money unless you are going to be doing signficant amounts of writing the next 3 months...
jumpman25 said:
It depends on what you need. I'd recommend getting your PowerBook and looking at what's there, and then deciding. For basic text editing, TextEdit is useful. It has styled text, different alignments, spacing, tabs, spell check, kerning, colours and more.
AppleWorks has a few more features in its word processor, but it's getting out of date (last major release was either 1999 or 2000). It also contains spreadsheet, database, drawing, painting and presentation tools, but it sounds like word processing is the main thing that you're looking for.
If you're planning on buying Office, then AppleWorks is probably not necessary, as Office can do pretty much everything AppleWorks can do plus more (despite being made by Microsoft
).HexMonkey said:It depends on what you need. I'd recommend getting your PowerBook and looking at what's there, and then deciding. For basic text editing, TextEdit is useful. It has styled text, different alignments, spacing, tabs, spell check, kerning, colours and more.
AppleWorks has a few more features in its word processor, but it's getting out of date (last major release was either 1999 or 2000). It also contains spreadsheet, database, drawing, painting and presentation tools, but it sounds like word processing is the main thing that you're looking for.
If you're planning on buying Office, then AppleWorks is probably not necessary, as Office can do pretty much everything AppleWorks can do plus more (despite being made by Microsoft
Thanks, I am plainning on buying office when it comes out, so I will just use the trial version and TextEdit until the new version of office. All I need is word processing so those should be fine for now.
it doesn't really matter when you buy office because right now microsfot is offering a free upgrade to all users who buy office.x so I mean you can't go wrong... look around ebay for that if your comfortable I think my friend got his for like $70 .... your gonna realize real quick what you need and what you don't and then you'll be set.
Kwyjibo said:
Just a possible warning: I'm not sure that the free upgrade applies to the educational/home version of Office. That version, which I got for the three OS X Macs in the house, works just fine, BTW. But if you can get the new version, the feature set is impressive.
And AppleWorks is pretty much useful if and only if you can't/won't get Office.
Please post when you get your system, or feel free to PM me (or others, I'd imagine) for advice on freeware/shareware/alterations. There's a lot of good free or nearly free software out there, and, unlike PC world, there isn't nearly as much garbage.
Also, you might strongly want to consider getting one of the many OS X hint/tip/explanation books. Not to help you to start using OS X, which is pretty self-explanatory, but to really get some of the joy out of what is buried inside of that Mac you just bought. Two suggestions are:
- "Mac OS X Killer Tips" by Scott Kelby
- "Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition" by David Pogue
You get a lot of cool SW supplied with your PB, but OS X is pretty amazing in and of itself.
Also, there is always OpenOffice.org for a completely FREE office suite. I use it on my Pc (both Windows and Linux) but Haven't used it for the Mac, as I am still waiting to order mine. I actually like it better than Office 2k. It is completely compatable with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. It also has it's own format, that is abotu half the size of MS's, while maintaining all the features. It doesn't have alot of the more annoying 'features' that Word has, like the auto bulleted list's which drive me INSANE whenever I am typing up a .plan...
OOo 1.0.3 for Max X11 is supposedly completely stable and easy to install, but I can't vouch for that personally. (Now that I am thinking about it, I may have to stat another thread to see who is using OOo and what thier comments are). The newest version is 1.1, which supposedly has alot of very nice features and improvements, but isn't supported for OSX yet. There's some sort of Java implementation that works with OSX, but I know nothing about it. (Not a huge fan of Java for performance reasons). Anyways, I have been using 1.0.3 for Linux for awhile, and haven't been compelled to upgrade.
The only thing that bothers some people, from what I hear, is that because it's an X11 app, it doesn't have the Aqua look and feel to it. Although, I was lead to believe you could configure your X11 apps to look however you wanted, including looking like OSX?
Anyways, it's worth a look, imho. Oh, did I mention it was completely FREE?
Rob
PS For open source word proccessors, there is also AbiWord, which I have used in Linux, and is supposedly compatable with OSX's X11 implementation, tho I have never tried it. It's listed on Fink's package list, so I s'pose it must be. Add that to Gnumeric (a free X11-based spreadsheet which is also listed under Fink) and Thuderbird (Mozilla's stand alone email app) and all your missing is a presentation package. Just something else to look at if you don't like OOo.
OOo 1.0.3 for Max X11 is supposedly completely stable and easy to install, but I can't vouch for that personally. (Now that I am thinking about it, I may have to stat another thread to see who is using OOo and what thier comments are). The newest version is 1.1, which supposedly has alot of very nice features and improvements, but isn't supported for OSX yet. There's some sort of Java implementation that works with OSX, but I know nothing about it. (Not a huge fan of Java for performance reasons). Anyways, I have been using 1.0.3 for Linux for awhile, and haven't been compelled to upgrade.
The only thing that bothers some people, from what I hear, is that because it's an X11 app, it doesn't have the Aqua look and feel to it. Although, I was lead to believe you could configure your X11 apps to look however you wanted, including looking like OSX?
Anyways, it's worth a look, imho. Oh, did I mention it was completely FREE?
Rob
PS For open source word proccessors, there is also AbiWord, which I have used in Linux, and is supposedly compatable with OSX's X11 implementation, tho I have never tried it. It's listed on Fink's package list, so I s'pose it must be. Add that to Gnumeric (a free X11-based spreadsheet which is also listed under Fink) and Thuderbird (Mozilla's stand alone email app) and all your missing is a presentation package. Just something else to look at if you don't like OOo.
Yes, Teacher and Student edition is good for the free upgrade offer.
Acquire the following Office v. X products
Office v. X Student and Teacher Edition English (731-00765)
and receive the following Office 2004 product
Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition
for this price*
Free
Plus shipping and handling.
Taken from this
pdf file.
Acquire the following Office v. X products
Office v. X Student and Teacher Edition English (731-00765)
and receive the following Office 2004 product
Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition
for this price*
Free
Plus shipping and handling.
Taken from this
pdf file.
jsw said:
Thanks, I did get the Pogue Missing Manual for Panther, it has tons of info in it. It has a chart in the back for all the shortcuts plus it has pictures.
I also will be asking for any other software that I should download when I post my review. I don't know that much about the software available so it would be nice to know what kinds of things are out ther.
mrgreen4242 said:Also, there is always OpenOffice.org for a completely FREE office suite. I use it on my Pc (both Windows and Linux) but Haven't used it for the Mac, as I am still waiting to order mine. I actually like it better than Office 2k. It is completely compatable with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. It also has it's own format, that is abotu half the size of MS's, while maintaining all the features. It doesn't have alot of the more annoying 'features' that Word has, like the auto bulleted list's which drive me INSANE whenever I am typing up a .plan...
OOo 1.0.3 for Max X11 is supposedly completely stable and easy to install, but I can't vouch for that personally. (Now that I am thinking about it, I may have to stat another thread to see who is using OOo and what thier comments are). The newest version is 1.1, which supposedly has alot of very nice features and improvements, but isn't supported for OSX yet. There's some sort of Java implementation that works with OSX, but I know nothing about it. (Not a huge fan of Java for performance reasons). Anyways, I have been using 1.0.3 for Linux for awhile, and haven't been compelled to upgrade.
The only thing that bothers some people, from what I hear, is that because it's an X11 app, it doesn't have the Aqua look and feel to it. Although, I was lead to believe you could configure your X11 apps to look however you wanted, including looking like OSX?
Anyways, it's worth a look, imho. Oh, did I mention it was completely FREE?
Rob
PS For open source word proccessors, there is also AbiWord, which I have used in Linux, and is supposedly compatable with OSX's X11 implementation, tho I have never tried it. It's listed on Fink's package list, so I s'pose it must be. Add that to Gnumeric (a free X11-based spreadsheet which is also listed under Fink) and Thuderbird (Mozilla's stand alone email app) and all your missing is a presentation package. Just something else to look at if you don't like OOo.
I'll have to check those out. I'm a little short on cash right now after purchasing the PowerBook, so the free stuff would be nice. I should have enough money for Office after the 30 day trial is over, but I am going to give those a try.