Which windows files will work on an iMac?

[Slrman]

After six years away from Macs and using a PC, I have a ton of files I have created there. Now, I am awaiting delivery of a new 2.6 GHz iMac with 2 GB of RAM, OSX Leopard, and a 320GB HD. My question is, are any of my Win documents (not applications) going to not display on the iMac? Specifically, I am concerned aboout .wmv, .avi, .mpeg2-4, .jpg, .gif, .wav, .mp3, as well as the usual .doc. .pps, etc. files. I have all of these on an external USB HD, so connecting I don't think will be a problem, but I would hate to lose my videos that I have made. A lot are of family events and my wife would be "slightly irritated" (married men know what I mean) if I lost those.

I know a lot of improvements have been made on Macs the 6 years I have been here in Brazil, but sometimes "progress" is not all we would like it to be.

 

[Tallest Skil]

PowerPoint files will not work without Keynote or PowerPoint to back them up.

EXE will not work... ever.

WMV needs a plugin for QuickTime.

 

[Slrman]

PowerPoint files will not work without Keynote or PowerPoint to back them up.

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I have OpenOffice for the Mac, will the Win Powerpoint files open then?

 

[mcavjame]

At the worst, you could dual boot your iMac with bootcamp. I have a couple legacy apps that I have to have that are Windows only. I have bootcamp and parallels so that I can access the apps and associated files quickly.

Bootcamp is integrated into Leopard and found in the application>utilities folder.
Windows you'll have to purchase and must be service pack 2 if using XP.

My wife just went through this process last summer. As she uses the Macbook more and more, she is using XP less. She mentioned the other day that she had not launched Parallels in a couple of months.

 

[mcavjame]

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I have OpenOffice for the Mac, will the Win Powerpoint files open then?

There are always formatting issues, but generally they will open.