Should I switch

Yeah you should be able to read any office documents on your mac. And what else to buy, uhmmm, I would personally not know, I have a 17 inch iMac, and apart from some speakers I do not have anything extra.

Hope you enjoy the switch

 

Yes, you can use some free alternatives such as NeoOffice or OpenOffice or you can buy Office for Mac. (A new version of Office for mac is being released later in the year to bring it up to Office 2007 for windows.

What software do you currently use and what do you intend on doing with your mac

 

If you buy M$ Office for Mac all of your Word and Xcel files can work.

 

Neo Office could be a little restrictive if you use a lot of functions and formulas. Otherwise it is very good.

Definitely switch.

 

YES - Switch ASAP!

I would totally recommend switching, even though there is no good Personal Finance Manager for the Mac. But as long as you get an Intel Mac you can also run Windows with Parallels Desktop or natively with Boot Camp.

 

Paperport might be a sticky point for your switch. as it seems they do not do a mac version, and i personally do not know of mac software that has the same features. There is always the possibility of running it through parallels or bootcamp.

The 24" iMac can burn cds and dvds without problem.

Scanner should work but search for your specific model and see for mac compatability

Myst looks like it will work in OS X as well. If you play lots of games or have lots of games then bootcamp is probably a must. (Bootcamp requires XP SP2)

 

Switch. If things get rough, you always have Bootcamp or Parallels to switch back to Windows. This way you have best of both worlds.

 

If you're not a hardcore gamer and Vista isn't anything to be impress about then make the switch. If you play a lot of games and Vista look like something for you, then stay with PC.

 

Definitely switch. It doesn't take long to get used to the transition and you'll feel it was worth it. I did 2 years ago and I couldn't be happier.

 

If you just want scan-to-PDF, then Readiris works pretty well. Nuance has OminPage, but it looks expensive.

It looks like something called "Graphic Converter" will read the Paperport files, though I'm not sure if there have been version changes in the format since there was a Mac version. The release notes say:

"possible bug during import of JPEG compressed PaperPort files on Intel Macs fixed "

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/3741-graphic-converter-x-for-mac.html

 

to switch is a no-brainer

i use to work for the very largest pharmaceutical co and was responsible for strategy and architecture ... and which excluded MAC's.

It was back in 1992 that we begun to banish them from the empire. However, with Steve Jobs getting back in charge, I begun to watch them with interest. After all the 'wasted effort and costs: associated with Y2K and fed up with the constant problems associated with viruses, spyware and children "messing up" the configurations of my home PC, I brought an iMAC. I've since retired and subsequently brought 6 MAC's in 3 to 4 years (for the home that is).

I've just brought a MACbook for my wife who has to pass the ECDL (UK) exams.

So the MACbook arrives, I turn it on and with in minutes I have all the software we need to do almost anything.

I then got to work setting up Windows. It took me best part of six hours to configure XP, Office, anti-virus, printers, networks etc.... (and I'm pretty quick at doing that on any machine!)

To me it's a no-brainer.

NeoOffice works great. Also, as a early adopter of paperport in the corporate space, I've actually found that the HP software that comes with those all-on-1 printer/scanners etc. pretty much does what I wanted out of paperport. Haven't tried converting anything, but export will work.

As for file compatibility. No problems these days. Only thing to watch is the file name length, because I'm running a combination of NTFS, Linux EXT3 and apple.

and finally... of course you can run one of Parallels, VMWARE or Q (open source) in order to run those Windows programmes on board MAC OS X. I'll installed all three on my big 24 boy, plus bootcamp. I actually don't run any, and don't need too - which tells the story. Except bootcamp on the macbook for the ECDL training. On VMWARE I'm also running UBUNTU. You can try all these for thirty days free before buying.

one final word which which I think is going to be the nail in the coffin for the redmond boys.... WPA is truining out to be a big pain for those of us who want to 'mess around' with different configurations of hardware and software and is another good reason to switch. Going back 15+ years when we all thought buying h/w components was a great way of playing with the technology, upgrading etc. well today, i doing think very many people do that, except maybe the boys who play games... so as you see from my list of hardware... getting away from the h/w hobby is something MAC users do!
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24" imac, 17" G5 imac, 15" G4 imac, MacBook, 14" G4 ibook, 12" G4 ibook, T40 thinkpad, R50 thinkpad, Toshiba satellite, Linksys NSLU2, Snazio 1350, HP2575, Brother DP117c

 

Never used PaperPort but this looks like it might be a similar program.

Also, it looks like PaperPort has a viewer for Mac, if you need to keep all your current files.