Forgive the dumb question, but...I have used Macs for years, and currently use a Mac Mini, at home for personal stuff. I am about to change careers to do freelance writing for corporate clients. Will there be any readability or compatability issues between the documents I create (mostly in Office) on my Mac and all those PC users out there who will be reading them, returning them for rewrites, etc? Is there anything I need to know, or adjustments i need to make? Is there any reason I would have to own a PC as a second unit?
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Using my Mac in a PC world - question
- Thread starter GanChan
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If you have Word:Mac, and the other end has Word you should be fine. BUT, if the other end has a cheap-o word processor or MS Works it will NOT work. both ends need to have word.
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/migrate/
Most of the files you will be using should be universal, iirc, so you have nothing to worry about.
Microsoft Office will be.
At worst you'll have to get the Mac version of Office. It's 100% compatible with the Windows version. I know from experience too. Even all the templates are there.
I've had a few occasions where I needed to save in RTF. My professors prefer that format too. I've had to convert .doc files to .rtf due to some file saving problems in Office 2004. The .rtf file held over ALL of the embedded images/formulas and formatting.trainguy77 said:
What you can't do in office you can do in pages, as it does save in multiple formats
I believe only wordperfect documents are hard to convert to mac, but honestly m$ has taken over the wordpro market so you may not have to worry...
openoffice documents also translate weird sometimes
I believe only wordperfect documents are hard to convert to mac, but honestly m$ has taken over the wordpro market so you may not have to worry...
openoffice documents also translate weird sometimes
This program can also help if you run into someone who can't open files It may be worth it. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/1140
I've found even MS Office to be incompatible with itself on Windows, so don't expect Mac->PC to be any better. (different versions of fonts, and printer drivers, usually turn WYSIWYG to WTF). Just recently I ran into an issue where Arial Narrow seems a bit narrower on the Mac than on my Windows XP box at work so some text got cut off in the process.
Remember, PDF is your friend and is built in to everything on the Mac. As long as they don't need to make major edits (i.e. clients not collaborators) you can generally send them a PDF for approval and be more guaranteed they'll see what you see. You can also send them the .DOC or .PPT, but don't assume it'll look the same as yours.
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Remember, PDF is your friend and is built in to everything on the Mac. As long as they don't need to make major edits (i.e. clients not collaborators) you can generally send them a PDF for approval and be more guaranteed they'll see what you see. You can also send them the .DOC or .PPT, but don't assume it'll look the same as yours.
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Acutally, I have come upon one issue in my Mac .doc when they transfer onto Windows...balamw said:
All the symbols I so lovingly entered (like mathy/scientific symbols; like something raised to the nth power and whatnot) show up as strange winding type symbols in Windows vs. Mac OS X.
I've used Word/Excel/PowerPoint on a PC for years, but never had to buy them on a Mac. I just did several months ago and was disappointed about two things...
1) No after-market service
If you have problems, forget about customer support if you order from the online Apple Store. They kept telling me they know nothing about this product and giving me phone numbers to call Microsoft. Over at Microsoft, they acted as if they never heard of a Mac-compatable version of Office. They kept telling me that Apple is their competitor -- I swear. Neither company would help me -- kept sending me to the other one. My problem ended up being something stupid. Since the test-drive version of Office was pre-installed, I kept telling me I had 30 days to purchase it -- even after I installed the new CD.
2) Shortcuts different
All the helpful time-saving shortcuts I've always used are just not the same -- like F4 to repeat a keystroke. On Macs you have to hold down two keys usually and I just can't get used to learning them all over again. I have a list printed out for them, but when I'm out of the office with my iBook, I can't remember them. Would it have been so hard to make them the same?
Aside from these two things, I've never had any compatability issues between PC and Mac. I'm working in Word docs all day, sharing them between two computers (PC and Mac) and sending them to clients, integrating comments, etc. Never had one problem.
1) No after-market service
If you have problems, forget about customer support if you order from the online Apple Store. They kept telling me they know nothing about this product and giving me phone numbers to call Microsoft. Over at Microsoft, they acted as if they never heard of a Mac-compatable version of Office. They kept telling me that Apple is their competitor -- I swear. Neither company would help me -- kept sending me to the other one. My problem ended up being something stupid. Since the test-drive version of Office was pre-installed, I kept telling me I had 30 days to purchase it -- even after I installed the new CD.
2) Shortcuts different
All the helpful time-saving shortcuts I've always used are just not the same -- like F4 to repeat a keystroke. On Macs you have to hold down two keys usually and I just can't get used to learning them all over again. I have a list printed out for them, but when I'm out of the office with my iBook, I can't remember them. Would it have been so hard to make them the same?
Aside from these two things, I've never had any compatability issues between PC and Mac. I'm working in Word docs all day, sharing them between two computers (PC and Mac) and sending them to clients, integrating comments, etc. Never had one problem.
Yeah, you're supposed to remove ALL of the Office 2004 Trial files before you install the full version of Office 2004. I've heard many problems that the full version believes it's the Trial.rebhaf said:
Eidorian said:
well, maybe 98% compatible anyway......I've also experienced minor problems passing documents back and forth between Mac and Windows versions of Word. If the orginal poster is only worried about the clients being able to open and read the documents then all should be fine......but if the final graphic layout of the document is important then PDFs are indeed "your friend"