Interchange between Mac and Windows

EdwardTeach · 18 Oct 2016 at 01:10

My wife and I are considering getting a couple of macbooks, primarily for work. We were wondering about how well the interchange between Mac users and Windows is now. We will nearly always be working primarily with Windows users. The concern is around sending Ms office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) between Windows - Mac & vis versa.

Are we ever likely to have any issues opening files?

Will the formatting ever get messed up? (has been an issue in the past)

Is it necessary to use the MSN office suite or will apple's own software be sufficient (and suffer none of the above issues)?

bscott · 18 Oct 2016 at 17:47

I have never had problems with interchange of office files between Mac and Windows when sticking to MS Office applications but have had problems with non-office applications.

tnx · 18 Oct 2016 at 20:36

I have just tested this using Win 10 and macos Sierra, both have Office 2016 on them.

I used a USB which was formatted under Windows using NTFS and my MAC was able to read and write to the USB drive.

I was able to read and edit the Word document on both devices.

EdwardTeach · 18 Oct 2016 at 22:18

Thanks for the replies. So would you say it is necessary to get Ms office for Mac if you do intend to swap files with pc users?

tnx · 19 Oct 2016 at 06:27

EdwardTeach said:
Thanks for the replies. So would you say it is necessary to get Ms office for Mac if you do intend to swap files with pc users?

I would say so, if you are going to only run Mac you would need Office for Mac.

Just like a native Adobe .psd file. These can be opened, edited on either PC or Mac and passed from one worker\person to another regardless of what machine is being used. As long as Photoshop is installed.

If your running a Windows laptop at the mo maybe think of not getting rid of it, then when your on your Mac and some sort of problem accurs with opening a file created on Windows you could still get to it. Just a thought.

ChrisD. · 19 Oct 2016 at 09:02

How many copies of Office would you have? You could get Office 365 for £80 a year, this will give you 5 copies on computers and 3 I think on mobile devices. Then install OneDrive on all machines and use that to sync files. It's how I keep documents in sync across multiple Mac's and PC's and I've never had an issue. You also get 1TB of storage with the subscription which is handy.

bscott · 19 Oct 2016 at 09:07

Dooksy said:
How many copies of Office would you have? You could get Office 365 for £80 a year, this will give you 5 copies on computers and 3 I think on mobile devices. Then install OneDrive on all machines and use that to sync files. It's how I keep documents in sync across multiple Mac's and PC's and I've never had an issue. You also get 1TB of storage with the subscription which is handy.

This is the way to do it.

EdwardTeach · 19 Oct 2016 at 20:38

I terrible issue with onedrive when it first appeared (did it used to be called something else?). I am sure it is ok now, but I am a bit wary.

Spooter · 19 Oct 2016 at 22:47

EdwardTeach said:
I terrible issue with onedrive when it first appeared (did it used to be called something else?). I am sure it is ok now, but I am a bit wary.

One drive works flawlessly these days between Mac and Windows. I use it daily without any issues.

MacRS4 · 19 Oct 2016 at 23:47

OneDrive consumer is fine (old SkyDrive) - OneDrive for business is the biggest pile of buggy balls I've ever had the displeasure of using.

So much so I pay for my E3/365 license and DropBox.

ChrisD. · 20 Oct 2016 at 07:51

EdwardTeach said:
I terrible issue with onedrive when it first appeared (did it used to be called something else?). I am sure it is ok now, but I am a bit wary.

Spooter said:
One drive works flawlessly these days between Mac and Windows. I use it daily without any issues.

As per Spooter, I've been using it for a couple of years without issue.

MacRS4 · 20 Oct 2016 at 09:23

Which are you talking about though? OneDrive for Business - even the new client - is horrid.

ChrisD. · 20 Oct 2016 at 09:27

No, OneDrive personal.

MacRS4 · 20 Oct 2016 at 09:59

Yeah the consumer is fine - used that for an age till they shut down the amount you could have for free. Tried the OD4B and it was beyond terrible, so ended up paying for DropBox.

ChrisD. · 20 Oct 2016 at 14:38

I wasn't keen on Dropbox privacy.

ajf · 20 Oct 2016 at 14:52

tnx said:
I have just tested this using Win 10 and macos Sierra, both have Office 2016 on them.

I used a USB which was formatted under Windows using NTFS and my MAC was able to read and write to the USB drive.

I was able to read and edit the Word document on both devices.

Was it definitely NTFS? As far as I am aware, even in Sierra, MacOS can read NTFS but not right to NTFS.
The only way to do that is using a third party package.

FAT32 works between both without issue for sure though.