The Mac and PC versions of Microsoft Office are 100% backwards compatible with each other. Microsoft did a really good job of making both versions work seamlessly without any trouble what so ever.
So for example:
If you make something on the PC version of Office in Word and make it bold red Times New Roman text and then save it, and email it to someone using a Mac. The person using the Mac can open it up on the Mac version of Office in Word and it will look EXACTLY the same as it does on the PC side.
Then say they make the text green Arial, bold italic, save it, and then send it back to the person using the PC. They can open that right up in Word and it will look EXACTLY as it was left on the Mac version of Office.
So if thats all you need Virtual PC for, then spend the money on Microsoft Office for OS X instead.
Here is the link to Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac OS X:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/
Macs and PCs can be networked together easily. On the Mac, if you go to System Preferences, then to the Sharing System Preference, check the box that says Windows File Sharing. That enables the SMB protocol which makes it possible for the PC and the Mac to access each other. Its actually easier to access the Mac from the PC than it is to access the PC from the Mac because its a pain in the butt setting up the PC to make it work correctly. On the PC side just right click on My Computer and select Map Network Drive. Then put in //ipaddressofmac/username and it should ask you for a username and password. Use the username and password of the Mac, not the PC for the user you're logging into on the Mac side.
Example: //192.168.2.2/joeuser
You can also put in the name of the Mac instead of the IP address.
Example: //computername/joeuser
On the Mac you change the computer name in the Sharing System Preference which, again, is inside System Preferences. I just use iMac for my iMac and iBook for my iBook. Keep it short and simple.
