Looking at first Mac buy, have dumb questions

[ElWardo]

Hello,

I'm taking the Apple plunge after years of mounting PC frustration, and buying a 20" 2.66 ghz imac.

What are the compatability issues with Windows based peripherals? I know my printer will work with it because the manual says so. I am keeping my 2 year old Dell laptop. Will my home network and Netgear wireless router work with the imac and the Dell?

What happens to all my documents written in Word that I need to keep? Can I transfer documents between the two operating systems? I'd like to get iworks just because everyone talks it up so, but will it convert Word documents or do I need to get Word for Mac? I know there's a program called Parallels that runs Windows on a Mac but I don't want to install Windows.

Is it possible to live in a two-operating system household or am I fretting needlessly?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[nick9191]

iWork is better however there is limited compatibility so I'd just get Office for Mac which is 100% compatible.

Other than that, all great.

 

[marbles]

NeoOffice is free and works great also , there is a 60 day free trial for iWork when you buy a new Mac so you can try that out too but I found Neo just fine ...

 

[iHadaStiff1]

Your router shouldn't have any issues with airport, or running a windows and a mac on the same router for that matter.

 

[cmac101]

your network will work just fine, as i have multiple macs and windows PCs on my network.

iWork is fully compatible with Office. it will open all your word documents and such, and has the ability to export to word and powerpoint for backwards compatibility

 

[Consultant]

95% of windows based peripherals would work on OSX. By comparison much fewer windows XP compatible peripherals work in Vista.

Most documents that are cross-platform compatible (such as word and office documents) works fine on a Mac. No need for translation, Office documents work fine with iWork or NeoOffice.

Once you stop using your old computer, you can transfer the XP license to your mac, so that you don't have to pay for another copy of windows. You can use bootcamp or VMWare to run windows if you want.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

I honestly would recommend NeoOffice or Office '08 (or even 04). I have both (iWork and Microsoft Office) and I really only use the Keynote part of iWork because of its effects and layout ease, as for Pages, idn, not my favorite. And most people that use Excel are going to need excel, with all that said, you have an option in supporting Microsoft or not.

 

[ElWardo]

Looking at first Mac buy, have dumb questions

Wow, that was fast. Just like a Mac, right?

Thanks all for the speedy replies and good advice.