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Girl With Her Very First Mac - and software questions

ansella

ansella

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 6, 2008
32
0
Hello folks,

I just bought my very first Mac.
I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

I purchased it through apple.ca the 2.5 GHZ MBP with the 7200 rpm hard drive upgrade. Didn't think the 2.6 Ghz was worth the extra money.

I also got Apple Care. Was that a smart move? Is it worth the money?

Does anyone have any suggestions for a first time Mac owner?

What software do you suggest?

I also ordered Iwork but don't know if I can send those files to someone with a PC. Should I have gotten the Mac version of Office instead?

We do lots of video and photo editing. Would like to get the new Panasonic High Def SD camcorder. Will IMovie be enough? We also do lots of photo editing. If I have Photoshop CS3 should I buy Aperture?
 
Congrats on ordering your Mac. You will enjoy the mac experience.

Pages 08 which is part of iWork can export documents in Word format, but some people (myself included) find that sometimes Word has trouble opening these files. I ended up buying Office 2008 (students edition)

You may find iMovie 08 a bit limiting for video work, I can recommend Final Cut Express V4.
Regarding Photoshop CS3, no you don't really need Aperture as well.
 
If you are just sending your stuff from iWork for viewing and not for editing, you should just save it as a PDF. Those will open anywhere. But if you're doing it for editing, you can save as a word doc.
 
Well, for recommended software, check my sig - especially Butler, amazing stuff! And if you use the PC option then BootPicker is excellent too.
 
ansella said:
Hello folks,
I also ordered Iwork but don't know if I can send those files to someone with a PC. Should I have gotten the Mac version of Office instead?

We also do lots of photo editing. If I have Photoshop CS3 should I buy Aperture?
Click to expand...

If you want better Word compatibility than iWork provides, take a look at NeoOffice or Nisus Writer Pro. Either one can exchange files reliably with MS Word without some of Office:Mac's nastier bugs. I use NeoOffice (which is freeware) at work on a daily basis to exchange files with Windows Office users - never had a problem. Nisus is the better WP, but isn't free.

With regard to photo editing, I'm a very heavy user of both Photoshop and Aperture - they complement each other very well. Aperture handles my photo library and is superb for 'digital darkroom' type use, correcting exposure and generally making the best of a straight photo. if I need to make more major changes, then I move over to Photoshop - the two apps really don't overlap as much as you'd think.
 
Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the cult of Mac.

I believe the Apple Care is a worthwhile purchase, especially for a first time user. A couple hundred bucks will prove a very worthy investment for a $2500+ tool. It essentially gives you piece of mind for three years for pretty much everything but theft or you dropping it.

As for iWork v. Office, I have both on my Mac. I use office when I need some compatibility with work files (PCs at work sadly) or am exchanging docs with a non-Mac user. For everything I do for me, my family, friends who are Mac users or presentations I use my own computer for, it is iWork for me. If you don't want to buy Office, but still need compatibility with it, you could also download NeoOffice for free. It is the OSX native version of OpenOffice and I have yet to have compatibility issues with it and Office docs (though I have mostly used it with MS Word docs, there should be good compatibility all around).
 
jshbckr said:
If you are just sending your stuff from iWork for viewing and not for editing, you should just save it as a PDF. Those will open anywhere. But if you're doing it for editing, you can save as a word doc.
Click to expand...

Good point! Thanks!

Achiever said:
Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the cult of Mac.

I believe the Apple Care is a worthwhile purchase, especially for a first time user. A couple hundred bucks will prove a very worthy investment for a $2500+ tool. It essentially gives you piece of mind for three years for pretty much everything but theft or you dropping it.

As for iWork v. Office, I have both on my Mac. I use office when I need some compatibility with work files (PCs at work sadly) or am exchanging docs with a non-Mac user. For everything I do for me, my family, friends who are Mac users or presentations I use my own computer for, it is iWork for me. If you don't want to buy Office, but still need compatibility with it, you could also download NeoOffice for free. It is the OSX native version of OpenOffice and I have yet to have compatibility issues with it and Office docs (though I have mostly used it with MS Word docs, there should be good compatibility all around).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I will look into that!

neil321 said:
Lots of usefull stuff

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=571489

http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2008/01/top-100-essential-mac-applications.html
Click to expand...

Cool!
 
I have iWork and Office 2008 and use both. One thing about student and teachers edition of Office 2008 is that it comes with 3 serial numbers, so you can install it on 3 machines (didn't know that when I bought it and it was a really nice surprise).

Also, for all video files, I like using VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

It plays all, including Windows media files.

I hope this was useful a bit.
 
Thanks!

Thanks everyone! All this software advice is great! Keep it coming. Anything bad in the Macs I should be aware of?
 
ansella said:
Hello folks,

I just bought my very first Mac.
I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

I purchased it through apple.ca the 2.5 GHZ MBP with the 7200 rpm hard drive upgrade. Didn't think the 2.6 Ghz was worth the extra money.

I also got Apple Care. Was that a smart move? Is it worth the money?

Does anyone have any suggestions for a first time Mac owner?

What software do you suggest?

I also ordered Iwork but don't know if I can send those files to someone with a PC. Should I have gotten the Mac version of Office instead?

We do lots of video and photo editing. Would like to get the new Panasonic High Def SD camcorder. Will IMovie be enough? We also do lots of photo editing. If I have Photoshop CS3 should I buy Aperture?
Click to expand...

mac office 08 is much better than iwork if you need cross-compatibility with windows

iwork can save and read office files..but its not perfect at it


adium is also better than ichat for IM
 
Some apps I like:

Adium - great multi IM client, I use it for text chat on AIM, MSN, Yahoo and GTalk. Of course, it doesn't do audio/video for any medium, and it's file transfer support can be spotty (so I keep iChat, Skype, and aMSN around for those duties).

Colloquy - nice Mac-like IRC client, dunno if you use IRC much, but there it is.

Transmit - The best FTP client for OS X if you ask me. If you need FTP, you need Transmit. Similarly, if you use Usenet newsgroups at all, Panic's "Unison" is probably the best newsreader app on OS X.

Transmission - Mac-native torrent client. Not an ugly, bloated resource hog like Azureus. Woo!

Perian - a great codec (technically set of codecs) for QuickTime, adds support for Xvid/DivX, MKV files, FLV, and a crap-ton of other formats right in QuickTime.

Flip4Mac - similarly, a set of Windows Media codecs for QuickTime so you can view WMV files online.

Quicksilver - a great app launcher, and so much more. Kind of a power user tool, I'd say, but a nice thing to try to start learning to use early on. I rely on it, pretty much to the exclusion of the Dock. Awesome utility.

Well, it'd probably help if I knew more about what sort of utilities you needed. :eek:
 
Congrats!

You'll fall in love with your MBP lol

Here's a list of Top 100 Essential appz. Categorized with direct link to the software site. A lot of them are indeed my favorites on my aged TiBook.

I like this one a lot. iAlertU. Lowjack for your MBP. Pretty cool.
 
ansella said:
Hello folks,

I just bought my very first Mac.
I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

I purchased it through apple.ca the 2.5 GHZ MBP with the 7200 rpm hard drive upgrade. Didn't think the 2.6 Ghz was worth the extra money.

I also got Apple Care. Was that a smart move? Is it worth the money?

Does anyone have any suggestions for a first time Mac owner?

What software do you suggest?

I also ordered Iwork but don't know if I can send those files to someone with a PC. Should I have gotten the Mac version of Office instead?

We do lots of video and photo editing. Would like to get the new Panasonic High Def SD camcorder. Will IMovie be enough? We also do lots of photo editing. If I have Photoshop CS3 should I buy Aperture?
Click to expand...

Mac girls are the bomb...
 
ansella said:
Hello folks,
I just bought my very first Mac.
I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.
Click to expand...

Well congratulations, young lady. ;)

Remember to change your signature when it comes in!

As for your iWork question, you can export your iWork projects to Office-compatible types. There are a myriad of export options. If you find that iWork isn't working for your specific situation, download NeoOffice. It's open source (free) and compatible with the M$ Office suite.
 
killmoms said:
Some apps I like:

Adium - great multi IM client, I use it for text chat on AIM, MSN, Yahoo and GTalk. Of course, it doesn't do audio/video for any medium, and it's file transfer support can be spotty (so I keep iChat, Skype, and aMSN around for those duties).

Colloquy - nice Mac-like IRC client, dunno if you use IRC much, but there it is.

Transmit - The best FTP client for OS X if you ask me. If you need FTP, you need Transmit. Similarly, if you use Usenet newsgroups at all, Panic's "Unison" is probably the best newsreader app on OS X.

Transmission - Mac-native torrent client. Not an ugly, bloated resource hog like Azureus. Woo!

Perian - a great codec (technically set of codecs) for QuickTime, adds support for Xvid/DivX, MKV files, FLV, and a crap-ton of other formats right in QuickTime.

Flip4Mac - similarly, a set of Windows Media codecs for QuickTime so you can view WMV files online.

Quicksilver - a great app launcher, and so much more. Kind of a power user tool, I'd say, but a nice thing to try to start learning to use early on. I rely on it, pretty much to the exclusion of the Dock. Awesome utility.

Well, it'd probably help if I knew more about what sort of utilities you needed. :eek:
Click to expand...

The Flip4Mac suggestion is a great one. If you download video content from the internet, this will be one of the most important programs you get, as it converts files that are posted in Windows Media PLayer format to a Mac. M$ has discontinued their own Mac video player and simply endorse F4M. So if you download and view video (and audio) content, you will absolutely need this app, which is free.
 
Software Developer

killmoms said:
Some apps I like:


Well, it'd probably help if I knew more about what sort of utilities you needed. :eek:
Click to expand...

I am a software Developer and Web Developer so I need a lot of stuff. Also do video and photo editing. I also need itunes tools.
 
Virtual PC

Anyone have a virtual PC suggestion for MAC? Don't want to spend a dime if I don't have to but will if I need to. I have to run several virtuals for work.
 
ansella said:
Anyone have a virtual PC suggestion for MAC? Don't want to spend a dime if I don't have to but will if I need to. I have to run several virtuals for work.
Click to expand...

First of all what type of program you need to run on the Windows side? If those are also graphic intensive and resource demanding programs than virtualization is not going to cut it. You'll be better off Bootcamp it.And Bootcamp is FREE, but not Parallel or Fusion.:D

The advantage of virtual is that it doesn't affect your work flow but the Windows side could be sluggish depends on the type of programs you run.
 
ansella said:
Anyone have a virtual PC suggestion for MAC? Don't want to spend a dime if I don't have to but will if I need to. I have to run several virtuals for work.
Click to expand...

I like Parallels, its integration with MacOSX is very nice.

Either way via BootCamp or emulation to run Windows, you'll need a Windows license, I bought mine XP on craiglist for under $50.

If you want to tripleboot:

toad2016 said:
I did not use bootcamp and the majority of the directions I have seen recommend partitioning the disk in other ways. My macbook pro boots OSX 10.5, Ubuntu, Vista. I looked at several websites for info. try these.

http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Triple_Boot_via_BootCamp#Booting_your_mac_via_rEFIt

http://tripleboot.is2.byuh.edu/

http://www.michaelvkim.net/?p=5

http://macapper.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3428#post3428

Hope this helps if anyone decides to try it.
Click to expand...
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