Microsoft Office on Macbook?

MusicalLawyer

I have a Macbook Air, after using a Dell for years.

I have heard of people using Microsoft Office on Mac's however I was wondering if I need any other software to be able to run Microsoft Office on my Macbook? Do I just buy Microsoft Office for Macs and that is it?

I have iWorks so I do have word processing etc, but I prefer to use MO as I tend to print my Uni work off in the library, as I have printing credits allocated to me each semester and they're all running Windows / MO.

Any help would be great, Thanks.

Alscaff

That is it basically, just buy the Mac version. It's not quite as good as the Windows version but very capable

MusicalLawyer

Awesome!

Thanks

InsideInsurance

I am not sure why someone would say its not as capable? For the applications they have ported (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) I have to say I cannot notice any significant differences. They unfortunately haven't ported things like Access, Visio or Project onto the Mac OS X.

Unfortunately MS Office doesnt support some of the new features of OS X Lion yet (eg versions) but MS did say that it will be added it in a later service pack (dont think this has been done yet).

There are alternatives like NeoOffice and OpenOffice if you want to be moneysaving but personally I would stick to MS if you're frequently exchanging docs with Windows users running MS Office too

Big_Graeme

Alscaff wrote: »

That is it basically, just buy the Mac version. It's not quite as good as the Windows version but very capable

What part of it is not quite as good?

scottishblondie

Download Open Office instead - it's free. You can save your work in the doc and docx format that MS Word uses to print things in the library, and save yourself the money.

Alscaff

Big_Graeme wrote: »

What part of it is not quite as good?

It has a habit of not formatting documents properly. When younsave them as .doc or .docx and then open them on a PC, quite often they look entirely different.

Alscaff

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I am not sure why someone would say its not as capable? For the applications they have ported (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) I have to say I cannot notice any significant differences. They unfortunately haven't ported things like Access, Visio or Project onto the Mac OS X.

Unfortunately MS Office doesnt support some of the new features of OS X Lion yet (eg versions) but MS did say that it will be added it in a later service pack (dont think this has been done yet).

There are alternatives like NeoOffice and OpenOffice if you want to be moneysaving but personally I would stick to MS if you're frequently exchanging docs with Windows users running MS Office too

Mac OSX has iWork which does loads of projects better than Office

Darksun

scottishblondie wrote: »

Download Open Office instead - it's free. You can save your work in the doc and docx format that MS Word uses to print things in the library, and save yourself the money.

It's be better to get LibreOffice rather than open office. It's basically the same program (LibreOffice is based on the OpenOffice.org code) but LibreOffice is being developed a lot more, and most of the people who worked on Open Office have transferred to LibreOffice

Elle7

I agree with it not formatting documents correctly. It also makes files very big, which can be troublesome if you are uploading things to websites with limits or attaching to emails, and it freezes more regularly on a Mac then on Windows. I've got the latest Macbook Air which doesn't seem to freeze too much, but older versions might freeze more.

I have Office and Iworks, and just use whichever suits my needs best at the time. It's very straight-forward to install and practically the same to use.

Mr_Toad

Darksun wrote: »

It's be better to get LibreOffice rather than open office. It's basically the same program (LibreOffice is based on the OpenOffice.org code) but LibreOffice is being developed a lot more, and most of the people who worked on Open Office have transferred to LibreOffice

No need, the OP has iWork which is the Apple version of Office it does Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations but as they pointed out they prefer MS Office