Originally posted by jevel
I was thinking about getting the MS Office for Mac, but does anyone know if there's a big difference between Wintel Office 2003 and the current Mac Office? I've totally fallen in love with Outlook 2003, and I would hate to lose it.
Office V.x for mac includes Entourage, which is the Mac equivalent of Outlook. It's the same thing, and in many cases, much more useful than the PC version I was using before switching. You won't miss a thing, and you'll be amazed at how well it works.
Also I don't know how advanced my use is? I take loads of pictures and batch them with filters and conversion, I merge some to create illustrations, and I make small videos on how to do things. (Simple stuff, basically just taking parts, adding them together and adding onscreen caption.)
From what you describe, iMovie and Final Cut Express should be perfect for you. iMovie will come free with the computer, and when you buy the new Mac, you have the option of buying Final Cut Express for $99 (regularly sells for $299). It doesn't sound like you'd need Final Cut Pro, which is a very incredible, but quite complicated, app. Express is awesome, and you can do much of what you can in Pro, but without the steep learning curve.
I simply started using Adobe since the company I worked for had licenses, and I kinda stuck with it as they've upgraded... As I'm now changing platform, I'd be open for a change in apps as well, if someone could give me a little background on why I should do it. (E.g. what's better with other apps?)
Yeah, I don't think you'll miss Adobe products in video editing too much if you use Final Cut Express and iMovie. Also, Adobe recently discontinued developing video apps for the Mac, because there's no need for it. With Final Cut Pro/Express and iMovie, Adobe Premiere has no advantages.
I suddenly remember that I need a good CD burning app as well? Or is that included in the bundle? (Buying a SuperDrive version...)
Well, if you just want to burn music onto a CD, nothing beats the simplicity of iTunes. Select a playlist, insert a blank CD-R, press one button, and that's pretty much it. I've also heard that Roxio Toast Titanium is great, but I've never used it myself. For burning DVDs, your mac will come with iDVD, which is as easy as DVD burning can get, with very classy results, too.
Other apps that I find a necessity are: Adobe Photoshop (you can use Photoshop Elements which is almost the same thing except for some features that Pro designers and printers need), Soundtrack (If you need music for your videos, there's no easier way of getting pro-sounding results), and all the iApps that come with your Mac for free. Then there's all the games you could get, but that's another story...
Hope this helps!
