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Choice of Office Suite/Software if I Already Have Office 2003 Pro for Windows

T

tanjacob

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 14, 2007
62
0
Hi all,


I searched the threads but I couldn't find an answer to my specific question.

I already have a copy of Office 2003 Pro for Windows that I bought years ago for my PC and I intend to install it on my MBP to use through virtualization as needed. After all, I can install a second copy of it on a portable so I'm not wasting it. Given my situation, which office suite/software is best suited for my needs? I'd like to keep to the Mac platform as much as possible. Generally, I make heavy use of the word processor but my use for spreadsheet and presentations is light. I have an occasional need to work with databases but that's where Office 2003 comes in (my company uses Office 2003).

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
get MSoffice Mac '08, it can give a compatibility check with office '03, etc. '08 is a really good suite of apps. also suggest iWork, but if you need Microsoft....
 
I was running Office 2003 under VMWare, and switched to Office 2008. I mostly use Word.

Office 2008 is far buggier and more unstable than was Windows office 2003 on vmware. Little annoying nits drive me crazy each day, but an update is coming within a week, and hopefully that will solve them.

Overall, 2008 is more similar to 2003 than 2007 is.
 
Have you ever tried iWork '08? Its not as bad as everyone says and can do day-to-day tasks just fine -- especially word processing.
 
cmaier said:
I was running Office 2003 under VMWare, and switched to Office 2008. I mostly use Word.

Office 2008 is far buggier and more unstable than was Windows office 2003 on vmware. Little annoying nits drive me crazy each day, but an update is coming within a week, and hopefully that will solve them.

Overall, 2008 is more similar to 2003 than 2007 is.
Click to expand...

I'm intrigued by the possibility of using 2003 on Fusion on a regular basis. Was it feasible for you? Any reason why you went for 2008?
 
If you mostly need a word processor, I suggest iWork. Its only real weakness is Numbers (spreadsheet) and if you don't need that a lot, when you do, either Numbers should be adequate or you can use Office 2003 if you need. It's also much cheaper than MS Office at only $79. Personally I find Pages a joy to use, and much prefer it to Word. And Keynote blows Powerpoint away, should you need to make a presentation. Also, iWork integrates very well with OS X, which MS Office doesn't (it doesn't play well with Spaces, either). You can, of course, export to Office 2003/4 formats and PDF should you need.

If you want to go free, NeoOffice should suffice, too. I've written plenty of things in it, and it's very functional, if not quite as flashy as iWork or MS Office. It's very similar to Office 2003 interface-wise, with some changes here and there.

Also, I don't use MS Office through Fusion, but I have a stats program I need that's only for Windows. About once or twice a week when I need to get some work done in it, I just fire up Fusion and XP loads from being suspended (don't even have to wait for Windows to start, Fusion just makes it suspend) and I get right back to work from where I left off. Not something I'd want to do every day, but it's fairly easy and feasible. I recommend at very least 2 GB RAM.
 
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