<p>Hello I am thinking of getting the MacBook Pro, 13", Aluminum for my son and hoping that some one who has a Mac can help.
(The prices have fallen and it comes with a free itouch and $100 rebate on a printer)</p>
<p>QUESTION:
1. Do I need to get Office 2008 for the Mac or will Apples iwork be sufficient?
2. Can an office doc (word/excel/power point) be opened on the Mac? Will I need to get special software to open office doc?
3. Has anyone at Columbia faced any issues with incompatibility in general with any of the material/projects not working with a Mac.?
4. Not sure if a 13inch screen is too small. I know its a preference but if any one cares to comment, it may help with my decision.</p>
<p>I’ve never used iWork, but I think there’s a student discount for Microsoft Office. I don’t know what the format is for iWork documents, but having Microsoft Office would be handy, since sometimes you have to email your papers to professors/place them in an online folder, which requires a .doc extension if you want your professor to access it.</p>
<p>All Office documents can be opened on the Mac. I think the 2008 Office has a .docx extension (for Word; .xlsx for Excel, etc), which isn’t compatible with PCs, but you can save your documents as .doc instead (there’s a compatibility option). </p>
<p>The only incompatibility issue I ever faced was the weird extensions for the 2008 Office documents, but I quickly realized what was going on and switched to the regular Office formats. I haven’t had any other problems. </p>
<p>I have a 13" Macbook, and it suits me perfectly. Sometimes I wish I had a slightly bigger screen, but I prefer having the lighter laptop.</p>
<p>I moved to macs in high school and had to figure out all these compatibility issues.</p>
<p>First, the student version of Office and iWork are about the same price. That said, there are always “free” copies floating around out there on the interwebs…</p>
<p>Office works perfectly across operating systems. The only possible problem is a font you use on a mac might not come standard on a PC. You can always get around this by exporting the doc as a pdf. Times New Roman, obviously, is a safe bet always.</p>
<p>I have come to exclusively use iwork. (I would use Excel over Numbers, but I’ve never needed to use either for classes) Pages, iWork’s Word equivalent, is much faster running and has a better interface; especially when compared to the bloated and hideous Word '07. You can save in iWork as a .doc or anything else, but there are sometimes formatting issues. </p>
<p>I don’t know if there is ever an occasion in college to use Powerpoint, but the mac alternative is <b>significantly</b> better - Keynote. </p>
<p>I use to have a 13" black macbook. I loved that computer. When I upgraded this summer to a 15" macbook pro I decided to try something new. It’s been a month and a half now, and the results are mixed. I like the bigger screen, but I hate the bigger footprint. It doesn’t feel as personal or useable as my old macbook. If I had to choose over again I would (save lots of money) and go with the 13" screen.</p>
<p>So my recommendation is this:
if either of you are computer savvy, “acquire” the software and don’t worry about which to buy
Buy iWork first, and if you run into compatibility issues with professors and such then buy Office.<br>
<p>Thank you both for taking the time to reply. Your answers and opinions have been very helpful. I plan on buying the Mac for my son - decided on the 13” and preloading with iWork '09. The software has a student discount ($41)- more than the discount for Office '08 for Mac ($129 - student version). If needed he can get Office later. Do you use a laptop lock to secure your computer in the dorms/class/library?</p>
<p>.docx is just the new extension for the latest version of MSOffice. I can save a .docx on my Office 2008 on my Mac and open it with Office 2007 on Windows. But I would agree and say that use .doc as default instead of using .docx. Many people don’t have the latest version of MSOffice and can’t open these files. Don’t risk it when you have a perfectly capable, backwards-compatible verison.</p>
<p>I would also urge you not to bother with iWork. I know many people who use Macs, and not a single one of them uses iWork. MSOffice is the same, if not better, being the industry standard and all. Plus, there’s hardly any learning curve since your son will probably already be familiar with the interface and nuances having used Office before on Windows.</p>
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<p>My own question: I’m thinking of getting the mid-line 15" Pro or the high-end 13" Pro. I’m also going to be taking a 20" screen with keyboard, etc. Which do you think I should get? Should I sacrifice the dedicated graphics card for more portability? </p>
<p>I originally planned on taking just a laptop, the 15" because of the bigger size, but I was convinced to take my screen as well. There shouldn’t be trouble fitting all this, right? Or should I just go with the 13" + screen combo?</p>
<p>I have had no problems at all.
In fact the majority of students (or most people around me) seem to use the 13-inch mac.
But I find it too small so I had had the 15-inch first and then eventually moved to the 17-inch mbp. Why don’t you let your son choose what he wants?</p>
<p>I think I bought my office through a local Comm. College and it was only 80 bucks. Have your son wait and see if he needs it, and then buy it in the book store. </p>
<p>I simply have to disagree about Office vs. iWork. iWork is much better looking to type on, and is much easier to format on a basic level. Yeah, sure, there is some “learning curve”, but like most Apple software it’s not daunting at all.</p>
<p>@inquiring- if you haven’t already gone out and bought your Macbook, you could take a look at OpenOffice as an alternative to iWork and MS Office- it has pretty much full compatibility with Office 2008/07/etc- and it’s free.</p>
<p>@dococtopi- I’d say get the 13-inch and hook it up to the monitor for watching movies…the 9400m graphics card in that is more than enough for getting decent HD output, plus you’ll have at least an extra hour or two of battery life. Unless you’re a gamer…then I’m guessing you’d be getting a windows laptop, haha. Be sure to try out each size (maybe in an Apple Store or something) to make sure the resolution is to your liking. No use in having more portability when you’re squinting to read stuff on the screen.</p>
<p>rjv - Thank You for your suggestion. Can you tell me what version of Openoffice we should download? If you have the URL to share, it would be great! Thanks again!</p>
<p>Open Office is certainly decent for being free, but don’t be fooled. It lacks capabilities that MOffice has. I would say if your son is a science major, stick with word. (especially if they need to program in excel, for statistics)</p>