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Which Spreadsheet do the Apple people use?

K

kestelli

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 27, 2007
3
0
Hello All:

I recently (like 3 days ago) bought a brand new MacBook. I switched to Mac partly because I love Macs, partly because I hate Windows based machines and Linux wasn't even a consideration.

The problem is I am a power excel user. That is I pretty much use all the functionality available.

Unfortunately when I tried to use the Excel:Mac which was preinstalled on my Book, the 18MB file I started opening became unopenable... Yeah you read right. After I opened and saved with the Excel:Mac, the file was not readable. Thank God, I had a copy of the original.

Now that I hate Excel:Mac, I need a close enough substitute. I am currently downloading the NeoOffice everyone is talking about but I wonder whether my excel problem was one-of-a-kind or does everyone suffer from Excel:Mac? Also, I am sure the Apple Corp is using one type of spreadsheet. Even Jobs need to tabulate info. Anyone one what the wiz is using.

Great to be here guys...
 
Until the Intel-native Office:2008 comes out at the end of this year, I'd go with your plan for NeoOffice. They way it's improving you may find you can just skip the Microsoft Tax altogether. I've been using NeoOffice all day and I'm seriously impressed with how far it's come.
 
NeoOffice 2.1 is a HUGE impovement over 2.0.3

If all your macros work (or can be made to work) under NeoOffice, you are better off than in Office '04. Going forward, I can only see MS purposely crippling Office on the Mac so as not to eat into Windows sales, forcing people into bootcamp and a copy of XP or Vista.
 
I feel sorry for you that you are so skilled with such a disgustingly boring program. However, spreadsheets have their uses, and NeoOffice, while ugly, has worked well for me so far. It is the most robust free software I use aside from Blender. That being said, the files for which I use it probably don't even approach 18 KB, let alone 18 MB. Good luck!
 
Whenever these threads pop up, the NeoOffice crowd chimes in.

I use Excel (cross platform-work and home) and couldn't do my job without it. The business world runs on Word and Excel, no matter how much people hate Microsoft. Besides, Excel on Mac is a great app. Word- feh.
 
rdowns said:
Whenever these threads pop up, the NeoOffice crowd chimes in.

I use Excel (cross platform-work and home) and couldn't do my job without it. The business world runs on Word and Excel, no matter how much people hate Microsoft. Besides, Excel on Mac is a great app. Word- feh.
Click to expand...
Right up until yesterday I would have agreed with you. But this new version of NeoOffice is opening my Excel macros just as well as Excel does. It's Intel-native, a damn sight more Mac-like than previous versions, faster, and has Office 2007 translation capabilities that even Office:Mac doesn't have yet.

Seriously, give it a go. This isn't your father's NeoOffice.
 
rdowns said:
Whenever these threads pop up, the NeoOffice crowd chimes in.

I use Excel (cross platform-work and home) and couldn't do my job without it. The business world runs on Word and Excel, no matter how much people hate Microsoft. Besides, Excel on Mac is a great app. Word- feh.
Click to expand...

Don't worry. Next time, just to please you (and Bill), we will stay away. Wouldn't want open discussion and debate in a forum, now would we?
 
With my work laptop about to get Vista and Office 2007, I might have to take a look.

Was pretty funny when the CEO sent out monthly budget spreadsheet done in Office 2007. I immediately d/l the translators and was working. No one else knew what to do. I told them to call IT. :D
 
kestelli said:
The problem is I am a power excel user. That is I pretty much use all the functionality available.
Click to expand...

IMHO you'll be better off running the windows version of excel instead of the Mac version. the file format incompatibilities alone will drive you insane :(

Neooffice is clearly getting better with every newer version, but it still is a much smaller project than OpenOffice.org, ie: with limited resources for QA. if you really want the best spreadsheet software, it's all for Win32.

Try running Excel under VMware and Paralels and see how it goes...
 
I am also an Excel power user and have just recently purchased a MacBook. I currently use both Excel and NeoOffice, but stick with Excel for the following reasons:

1) It's a standalone program. I really dislike having to open the entire NeoOffice suite just to open a spreadsheet.

2) Excel handles output much better. That's kinda a weird way to say it, but for drawing borders, and organizing charts and graphs, etc. Excel is more refined than NeoOffice.

For major work, though, I keep my old Windows desktop around.
-----

That said, does anyone know of a spreadsheet program for the Mac that is standalone?
 
I run Excel, but more and more I tend to use Windows 2007 through Paralells and that "see-through" mode. I don't see windows, just the application, I can copy and paste form it, and it works great for me.
The Mac Excel is what I'v been using for ages before that, and it works fine, but as I've bcome used to 2007 I tend to prefer that. I'm hoping that will change with MacOffice 2008 though, so I can go back to running it natively.

Anyway, Mac Excel is fine, never ruined anything for me, and has been able to do all I have needed.
 
excel here. i'm also exploring office '07 under parallels at the moment.
 
Reply from the original poster

Gee guys:

Thanks a million for your suggestions.

I have downloaded NeoOffice 2.1. Yet I came accross a small glitch: I had two docs open and they both had some dates columns on them. I copied the dates from one doc and pasted to the other and all the dates were changed. i.e. the dates were all March 2007 dates (certain transactions...). When I copied them to the other doc, they became March, Day+1, 2003. Can you believe it.

I have talked to some people in the Apple Store suggesting that I come and use their version of the Excel to see if the same problem arises. They think it may be a fault of the "trial version"
 
kestelli said:
I have talked to some people in the Apple Store suggesting that I come and use their version of the Excel to see if the same problem arises. They think it may be a fault of the "trial version"
Click to expand...

Hi

Neooffice 2.1 is not a trial version nor a Beta version.

try pasting the same dates using "paste special|dates", or "paste special|numbers" then format the cells as "Date" again.

if the problem persists, you could file a bug report with the Neoofice development people.
 
Yeah I use Office for Mac but i find that using windows office in parallels is much faster and more compatible. I prefer the windows Excel interface to the Mac it just feels better.. With Word though i prefer Mac.. its just the speed of emulation that lets it down.
I tried OpenOffice a while ago but the Interface just isnt as nice as Office for Mac and there is still compatability issues if you need Database anyway..
 
u need at least 1G RAM to run office suites (M$ or Neo or Open). in case thats the problem.
 
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