New To Mac's

[bored1089]

Recently my second windows laptop broke and I have decided to go for a Macbook as my next laptop and I would like to know how I would go about this. Just before my laptop broke and was able to make a complete back up and was running Windows Vista Home Premium, when I buy my new mac will I be able to restore all these files and folders etc. Also I have heard that Mac's cannot get virus's, is this true and does it mean I do not have to purchase internet security software etc, finally what applications do Mac's come installed with or is it worth purchasing Microsoft home office for my new Mac. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank-you in advance.

 

[spinnerlys]

Mac OS X can read NTFS formatted drives (the file system Windows uses) so you can copy data off from any NTFS formatted drive.

There are no viruses (not virus's - plurals aren't created with apostrophes) for Mac OS X.

Macs come with iLife.

www.apple.com has official information of what comes with Macs and whatnot.


Also have a look at the following links, as the information presented there might be helpful in your future endeavours into Mac OS X and could clear up initial confusion and may even prevent harm to your system or your files.

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343


And have a look around this forums via MRoogle to find many threads about the questions you have, as those are asked a lot.



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[Habitus]

Recently my second windows laptop broke and I have decided to go for a Macbook as my next laptop and I would like to know how I would go about this. Just before my laptop broke and was able to make a complete back up and was running Windows Vista Home Premium, when I buy my new mac will I be able to restore all these files and folders etc. Also I have heard that Mac's cannot get virus's, is this true and does it mean I do not have to purchase internet security software etc, finally what applications do Mac's come installed with or is it worth purchasing Microsoft home office for my new Mac. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank-you in advance.

Most Apple stores transfer your windows information to your new Mac. You may want to check into this. However, you cannot purchase upgrades in retail stores.

Good luck,

Habitus

 

[Gregg2]

..what applications do Mac's come installed with or is it worth purchasing Microsoft home office for my new Mac.

Just addressing that one type of software...
You can get iWork from Apple for far less than the cost of Office for Mac. iWork includes Pages (think Word) and Numbers (Excel) and Keynote (Powerpoint).

You can also download Open Office or NeoOffice which I believe are both free, and at least have Word and Excel type abilities.

The choice depends on how you use those applications, like whether you share files with others.

 

[ukuleleman]

Windows to Mac!

I got a Mac after using Windows for years.

The real answer to your question is 'It depends'!

It depends on what your files are, if they are 'Word' documents, 'Pages' (Mac's equivalent) can handle them, but you will have to copy and paste them all into
'Pages' if you want a layout similar to the 'Word' layout.

Your pictures/photographs will be fine on a Mac.

Sound recordings? depends how you made them, I used an Adobe studio (Audition) won't work, neither will Cool Edit.

What else won't work? practically everything,

Microsoft Links (best golf game yet invented)
Microsoft Works
Music writing programs such as 'Finale'
Superbike game/Moto GP./Tiger Woods/Scrabble
Photoshop (You can buy it for Mac £500.00)

However, you can run 'Windows' on a Mac, which is something I am about to do as I am tired of having to have two computers, one for the stuff that runs on a Mac and the other for all my Windows programs. so be aware that just about none of your programmes will work when and if you make the initial transfer.

Why do I use a Mac then? because they are built like the proverbial brick
toilet (for want of the original word) Great pieces of engineering and electronic skill (I have a Mac Pro) (Not a Macbook Pro) I get regular, FREE updates of the operating system so that I am always up to date and the system does not have eight variations like for instance Windows XP or Vista

The Mac OS X system, whilst it is not bug free, compared to any windows system that I ever used (apart from maybe Windows 2000 Pro) is rock steady.

Hope this helps with your decision

 

[sonnyh]

I got a Mac after using Windows for years.

The real answer to your question is 'It depends'!

It depends on what your files are, if they are 'Word' documents, 'Pages' (Mac's equivalent) can handle them, but you will have to copy and paste them all into
'Pages' if you want a layout similar to the 'Word' layout.

Your pictures/photographs will be fine on a Mac.

Sound recordings? depends how you made them, I used an Adobe studio (Audition) won't work, neither will Cool Edit.

What else won't work? practically everything,

Microsoft Links (best golf game yet invented)
Microsoft Works
Music writing programs such as 'Finale'
Superbike game/Moto GP./Tiger Woods/Scrabble
Photoshop (You can buy it for Mac £500.00)

However, you can run 'Windows' on a Mac, which is something I am about to do as I am tired of having to have two computers, one for the stuff that runs on a Mac and the other for all my Windows programs. so be aware that just about none of your programmes will work when and if you make the initial transfer.

Why do I use a Mac then? because they are built like the proverbial brick
toilet (for want of the original word) Great pieces of engineering and electronic skill (I have a Mac Pro) (Not a Macbook Pro) I get regular, FREE updates of the operating system so that I am always up to date and the system does not have eight variations like for instance Windows XP or Vista

The Mac OS X system, whilst it is not bug free, compared to any windows system that I ever used (apart from maybe Windows 2000 Pro) is rock steady.

Hope this helps with your decision

Hi,

I'm a bit confused being a newbie to macs with your statement "if they are 'Word' documents, 'Pages' (Mac's equivalent) can handle them, but you will have to copy and paste them all into
'Pages' if you want a layout similar to the 'Word' layout.". If the MS docs when shown in pages don't have all the right formatting aren't you copying a improperly formatted document into a new pages window? I would appreciate it if you could set me straight on this.

Your answer "depends" is right on.

I purchased Iworks and downloaded Neooffice and neither one of them in some instances, convert ms office docs 100% .

I am retired, but occasionally I do some work for my previous employer which involves filling in heavy formatted dot files.

In pages, not all the fields are shown and in Neooffice the docs cannot be edited in areas because they become somehow "read only". If you click on the fill-in area in Neooffice you get an edit box and this works, albeit a bit cumbersome. if I can only disable "read only" it would be great. Also, in Neooffice I haven't found a way to widen the header and footer areas to allow more typing space in the document. As a solution, I recreated the whole doc in Neooffice.

Oh well, keeps the gray matter active.

Cheers,