Bye PC, Mac Got Me

If you’re converting from PC to Mac like I have, you may be beginning to look for a new office suite to install. If you’re looking for something familiar, Microsoft Office for Mac is always available, but if you don’t mind spending a little extra time to learn a new interface, there are some very viable alternatives to Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac. Especially when you consider the $349 price tag on Office for Mac, it makes these others look more enticing.

Microsoft Office 2008
Your most familiar option when selecting a new office suite for your new Mac will probably be Microsoft Office 2008. When it comes down to it, Microsoft Office is still the most popular office productivity suite and its document formats are widely used and accepted among almost all companies, organizations and universities.

iWork
If you switched to a Mac for all things Apple, then iWork will probably be the platform for you. It comes with 3 applications Pages (word processor), Keynote (presentations) and Numbers (spreadsheets).

OpenOffice
OpenOffice is a free open source application that is available for all operating system platforms. It offers compatibility for opening and saving all popular Microsoft formats. OpenOffice has a handy autocomplete feature that recognize commonly used words and completes the word for you. With a look and feel very similar to that of Microsoft Office, OpenOffice will be a quick transition for any current Microsoft Office users looking for a quick switch, and best of, OpenOffice is entirely FREE!

NeoOffice
NeoOffice is a port of OpenOffice made specifically for the Mac OSX platform. NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native OSX features, which makes it a great choice for Mac users (new and old). Some of the native OSX features found in NeoOffice are:

1. Media Browser
2. Native Floating Tool Window
3. Magnify and Swipe Trackpad Gestures
4. Menus available when no documents are open
5. Import images from scanners and cameras
6. Cmd + Clicking on the window titlebar
7. OSX Leopard grammar checking support

In terms of functionality, you’re not going to find much in Microsoft Office that isn’t offered in NeoOffice.

Summary
If you’re looking for familiarity and don’t mind forking out $349, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is probably going to be the best choice for you. Or if you love everything about Apple, and the simplicity of all things Mac, iWork is probably the platform you’d like to consider – with a price tag of only $79, it is very fairly priced and will get the job done for you. If you’re looking for a fully functioning office suite on a budget (or on no budget), your choices are simple – OpenOffice or NewOffice. I’ve chosen to go with NeoOffice due to the fact that it was ported from OpenOffice, and it builds upon native functions of Mac OSX.

My choice – NeoOffice.

Download Links:

NeoOffice
OpenOffice
iWork
Microsoft Office

written by Brady \\ tags: iWork, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, NeoOffice, office applications, office suite, OpenOffice, productivity software

For a majority of us, purchasing a new laptop isn’t an everyday thing, and it’s also not typically a small purchase that we just run out and rush into. That’s why it’s important to ask yourself a number of questions prior to purchasing a new computer. In this post, I’ll be helping you answer the question, What will I use this computer for?

I’m a web developer, and I do about 95% of all of my programming and development using Microsoft technologies, on a desktop PC, at my office. The use of my laptop has, and probably will always be more for personal use – pictures, music, videos, responding to emergency situations while out of the office, for checking email while on vacation. Over the years, I never really used my PC laptop to do any real development work. Most often, the only “real work” that I’d do on it was write quotes and proposals for clients. And Mac OSX offers the Microsoft Office Suite which would allow me to create quotes and proposals just as I did with my PC.

Prior to deciding the type of computer that I was going to buy, I put together a list of things that I’d like to use my new laptop for. Your list will probably look different, but this will give you an idea and a starting point of things to consider prior to making your next computer purchase.

• Image editing
• Video editing
• Music management
• Writing quotes and proposals
• Browsing the web
• Email – Personal, work, and other (I’ve got like 500 email addresses)
• Watching movies
• Blogging
• Basic HTML editing
• FTP access
• Remote server access – for my work servers

The above list covers about 90% of my day to day activities that I’d be using my new laptop for. Next, I had to ask myself, what software/features do I need, and how much power do I need to accomplish all of these tasks. Mac OSX comes with iLife and iTunes which takes care of a large portion of the above list, but for advanced photo editing and video editing, I’ll be using Adobe products such as Photoshop, After Effects and Premier. These programs typically require strong processors, and a large amount of RAM. I was never really worried about storage space because I typically will store all of my music, pictures and videos on my home PC server and/or on an external hard drive. The only time videos, music and images will take up space on my laptop hard drive is when I am working on them directly.

My minimal storage space needs, made just about any laptop a perfect fit for me. However, due to the amount of work that I anticipate on doing with digital media (music, pictures and videos), my mind was pretty much set on going with Apple and the OSX operating system, due to all of the easy to use tools that it comes with. My need for a fast processor took the MacBook and MacBook Air out of the equation, thus leaving me with MacBook Pro as my final option. So, now there was only one question left – 15 inch or 17 inch. And I think we all know the answer to that one!

written by Brady \\ tags: email, FTP, image editing, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, video editing