Questions about Mac Mini

[gadgetgirl85]

Mum needs a new computer she has a screen and keyboard so I'm thinking a mac mini for her. All she does is play backgammon, use word, thats about it. Would a mac mini suit her? Does she have to go out and buy MS word specifically for Mac or is there a program on there already to do word documents? and would her online games work?

Thanks

 

[razzmatazz]

Mum needs a new computer she has a screen and keyboard so I'm thinking a mac mini for her. All she does is play backgammon, use word, thats about it. Would a mac mini suit her? Does she have to go out and buy MS word specifically for Mac or is there a program on there already to do word documents? and would her online games work?

Thanks

Yes a Mac Mini would suit her just fine. Well there is iWorks for word documents too. Yes her online games would work.

 

[JOD8FY]

The Mac Mini would suit her needs perfectly. Microsoft Word does not come pre-installed on new Macs, so you will have to go out and buy a copy. Assuming you go to school (which therefore means you are a student) you are eligible to buy Microsoft Office Student Teacher Edition which includes full versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The price is normally $150 but I believe there is a sale right now that if you buy a new Mac, Office is $50 cheaper. OS X comes with a free word processor, TextEdit, which is adequate for many tasks, but nothing compared to Word.

As for backgammon, Apple has a page on their website that lists many games for OS X and chances are you'll be able to find a free backgammon game. The page can be found here:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/

I hope this helps. Good luck with the Mac Mini.

Best wishes,
JOD8FY

 

[xfiftyfour]

The Mac Mini would suit her needs perfectly. Microsoft Word does not come pre-installed on new Macs, so you will have to go out and buy a copy. Assuming you go to school (which therefore means you are a student) you are eligible to buy Microsoft Office Student Teacher Edition which includes full versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The price is normally $150 but I believe there is a sale right now that if you buy a new Mac, Office is $50 cheaper. OS X comes with a free word processor, TextEdit, which is adequate for many tasks, but nothing compared to Word.

There are free alternatives though, such as NeoOffice and OpenOffice. Might be worth having her try these out first before dishing out the extra cash for Microsoft Office.

 

[x704]

I thought AppleWorks comes with all macs? I use the word processing part of it and it works good for me. AppleWorks as far as I know is free with every mac and includes paint, word processing, Database/spreadsheet, and I think something like microsoft publisher.

 

[xfiftyfour]

I thought AppleWorks comes with all macs? I use the word processing part of it and it works good for me. AppleWorks as far as I know is free with every mac and includes paint, word processing, Database/spreadsheet, and I think something like microsoft publisher.

Not for quite a while now. It was replaced by iWorks, and doesn't come free with all macs.

 

[x704]

Hmm, when I got my iBook about a year ago (a month or two after 10.4 came out) AppleWorks came with mine. However it came preinstalled with 10.3 and a DVD with 10.4, so they got rid of Appleworks with 10.4?

 

[baby duck monge]

Hmm, when I got my iBook about a year ago (a month or two after 10.4 came out) AppleWorks came with mine. However it came preinstalled with 10.3 and a DVD with 10.4, so they got rid of Appleworks with 10.4?

IIRC, Appleworks only came standard with the more "education" geared computers. iBooks came with it while Powerbooks did not. Don't know if that has changed now or not, and I'm not sure if a Mini would come with it, but a quick trip to Apple.com should answer that question.

<edit>
Since I said it would just take a quick trip, I went ahead and checked Apple's site. Here's what I found:

Universal Software
Mac mini comes with an incredible bundle of Universal applications that run on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs:

* • iLife ’06
* • iWork ’06 30-day trial
* • Front Row
* • Big Bang Board Games
* • Comic Life
* • OmniOutliner

Learn more about
Universal Applications >

More Applications
Mac mini also includes these applications

* • Quicken for Mac 2006
* • Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive

It does not appear to come with any manner of specialized word processing software other than trial versions.
</edit>

 

[dmw007]

A Mac Mini would be a great computer for you mom viccles.

 

[bobber205]

TextWrangler, while geared a little towards coding, is very sutiable for most word processing tasks. I use it for everything but the REALLY important stuff.

 

[gadgetgirl85]

I'm going to ask a stupid question because we haven't had any macs in our home but do I have to obtain a mac version of word? or will a PC version work? Also I have a downloadable backgammon program however its only an .exe file would it work for macs as well? It only gives me one option.

Thanks!