Odd office question + general mac enquiry

James J

James J

James J

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North Lincolnshire
My macbook is on its way too me now but I've got a question regarding the office software which comes as a trial on it. I've got a retail version of the windows home and student on a cd at home and was wondering can I register office on the mac using my CD key from the windows version? Probably a daft question but office is office to me lol, regardless of OS.

Secondly my MBP is for uni work so which programs are deemed as can't live without when it comes to using the macbook?
 
You get a trial version of MS Office with a Mac? I'm guessing you're buying from a third party somewhere because I've never heard of Apple shipping Office.

In fact, I wasn't aware there is such a thing as a trial of Office for the Mac.

But to answer the question, no, your PC key won't work, it's a completely different version. The latest PC version is Office 2007 whereas it's Office 2008 on the Mac and it's significantly different.

When I first got my Mac, I used MS Office (licenced through work) but after upgrading to Snow Leopard I installed the iWork package liked it so much that I'm using it instead of Office. I've found that for my basic word processing and spreadsheet needs, it's just as good as Word and Excel. Keynote is widely accepted to be superior to Powerpoint.

There's a trial of iWork on the Apple site, it might be worth a look.
 
Feek said:
You get a trial version of MS Office with a Mac? I'm guessing you're buying from a third party somewhere because I've never heard of Apple shipping Office.

In fact, I wasn't aware there is such a thing as a trial of Office for the Mac.

But to answer the question, no, your PC key won't work, it's a completely different version. The latest PC version is Office 2007 whereas it's Office 2008 on the Mac and it's significantly different.

When I first got my Mac, I used MS Office (licenced through work) but after upgrading to Snow Leopard I installed the iWork package liked it so much that I'm using it instead of Office. I've found that for my basic word processing and spreadsheet needs, it's just as good as Word and Excel. Keynote is widely accepted to be superior to Powerpoint.

There's a trial of iWork on the Apple site, it might be worth a look.
Click to expand...

What about more advanced forms of word processing? The only reason I need office is for word 2007 which can do complex calculations quite easily on it. Can you do this on iWork?
 
Best way to tell that is if you email me a sample document and I'll open it in Pages and see if it works. Email link via sig.
 
I have both iWork'09 and Office:mac 2008.

Firstly, I remember getting a "test drive" office for the earlier version of Office:mac with my original Tiger install as an optional on one of the discs.

iWork's Pages is a more simplistic word processor and doesn't have the same macro abilities if that's what you're using to do calculations.

Saving Pages documents as MS Word documents - it can work but the conversion is not something I would like to rely on (I've attempted this for CVs with simple formatting and it's failed dismally). In short read "Pages can save as MS Word documents" as a joke.

iWork is great, if you only use it. I use it in preference to Word because of it's speed, simplicity in use but it is missing grammar checking and other aspects.

I would look at the Office:mac 2008 as earlier versions use Rosetta as they're Power PC binaries so the resulting application is slower as well as a bucket load of bugs. The 2008 release has an Intel binary and lots of bug fixes.
 
NickK said:
I have both iWork'09 and Office:mac 2008.

Firstly, I remember getting a "test drive" office for the earlier version of Office:mac with my original Tiger install as an optional on one of the discs.

iWork's Pages is a more simplistic word processor and doesn't have the same macro abilities if that's what you're using to do calculations.

Saving Pages documents as MS Word documents - it can work but the conversion is not something I would like to rely on (I've attempted this for CVs with simple formatting and it's failed dismally). In short read "Pages can save as MS Word documents" as a joke.

iWork is great, if you only use it. I use it in preference to Word because of it's speed, simplicity in use but it is missing grammar checking and other aspects.

I would look at the Office:mac 2008 as earlier versions use Rosetta as they're Power PC binaries so the resulting application is slower as well as a bucket load of bugs. The 2008 release has an Intel binary and lots of bug fixes.
Click to expand...

Noted, I might need to look abit deeper into this to choose between the programs.

I have another mac question! I understand you get a free trial for 60 days for something which gives you webspace and direct access to it? Is it worth subscribing to as I quite like the idea of the blog and website being all merged into the actual OS without having to add other programs into the mix. Also how do I get access to the iDisk service and do you have to be on a mac OS to access the files on it?
 
Google dropbox if you want a unified 2gig of cloud space. Nice little app which syncs the 2 gig between all computers automatically.

This completely depends on your needs though, so an idea of what you plan to use it for, how many people accessing, how many different OS's involved etc etc.
 
MobileMe is the service you're suggesting. It integrates and provides an iDisc (a cloud 'disc in the sky').

I've not used it. I've had my own space and own my own domains so switching to MobileMe isn't something I want todo.
 
Whats the cheapest place to get the office for mac program for? Paying £110 for it seems really expensive compared to the windows version!
 
I think the NHS discount thing still applies so I'll ask my dad to check for me and see if office for mac 2008 is covered with it
 
I purchased Office for Mac 2008 along with my MacBook about a year ago. As I was purchasing it at the same time as the laptop I got a discount, I think I paid £40 for it. That was from a department store with the initials J.L.
 
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