MS Office on Mac OSX - windows compatibility?

bionic_dad

Hi all

I'm thinking about buying a Macbook for bionic mum she's a busy teacher and dependent on Office apps
We havent gone down the Mac route before and i wondered if anyone knew how compatible Office Suite for the Mac was with Windows?
Do I need to run with Boot Camp for full interoperability(?) or will I be able to swap files easily between a Mac and a Windows pc?

Yes I do realise the easy (and cheaper) answer would be a Windows laptop but she's set her heart on a Mac and its a surprise wedding present (if its a viable proposition)

many thanks in advance as always

bionic dad

Marty_J

Yes, it is compatible with the Windows version.

You can get a 50% discount on it when you buy a new Mac:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/promotions/default.mspx

There's always OpenOffice too.

BikerEd

OpenOffice works well with older MS Office documents.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 gives better compatibility with MS Office 2007 for Windows but isn't 100% compatible - some things don't work. Best price I have seen is £73 at Amazon for the Home/Student version which gives you 3 install licences.

isofa

Been using Office on Mac and PC since they were introduced (in fact first on the Mac!), never found any compatibility issues. Remember Access isn't available on the Mac, and Outlook is in a different form in Entourage, which is actually more powerful than Outlook.

If you have Spreadsheets and Word documents using custom macros or specialist VBA code, then 2008 isn't for you, as Microsoft have foolishly removed VBA code in this version of Mac Office, so go for Office 2004 instead.

PhilCo_2

isofa wrote: »

If you have Spreadsheets and Word documents using custom macros or specialist VBA code, then 2008 isn't for you, as Microsoft have foolishly removed VBA code in this version of Mac Office, so go for Office 2004 instead.

That's the main problem with Open Office as well.

bionic_dad

thats brilliant everyone just what I needed to know

many many thanks to you all

only really need Word & Powerpoint fundamentals so it should all be good

cheers

bionic dad