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new computers
beast5680:
thats interesting david will it run all the office stuff ok and is it as easy to use with online stuff, the wife regularly has to download alot of forms and paperwork from government websites and send stuff the other way as well, i take it if you send something off a mac it is ok for other people to view that recieve it?
we had an issue with one set of information that someone had written on a mac and our pc couldnt read it, do you get round these issues ok?
are mac,s popular? when you talk to people they give you a quizzical look when you mention mac
DoubleTop:
I've been recently impressed with the service from Dell and Novatech. Depending on where you are, try finding a Novatech shop and having a chat with one of the advisors.
with regards to the Mac and cross platform compatibility. Openoffice does convert most now, I have used macs at work for the past two years, and was relieved to be able to go back to windows with my new projects I'm working on. I found myself trying to find ways to use the mac and macosx to make it more like windows to make it easier to use!!
DT.
thermidorthelobster:
--- Quote from: beast5680 on January 25, 2009, 15:22:51 ---thats interesting david will it run all the office stuff ok and is it as easy to use with online stuff, the wife regularly has to download alot of forms and paperwork from government websites and send stuff the other way as well, i take it if you send something off a mac it is ok for other people to view that recieve it?
we had an issue with one set of information that someone had written on a mac and our pc couldnt read it, do you get round these issues ok?
are mac,s popular? when you talk to people they give you a quizzical look when you mention mac
--- End quote ---
MS Office files will be no problem - either use MS Office or OpenOffice. Anything you send / receive is interchangeable. The Mac uses Safari rather than Internet Explorer (you can get IE but only a rubbish old version), but you can also run FireFox if you prefer. OS X also has PDF writing capability built-in which may help with sending files. I'm not sure why you couldn't read Mac files on a PC; if they are written to CD there is the option of making the discs Mac-formatted but IIRC they are PC compatible by default. I've never had any problems moving files between the two, apart from when Windows decides it won't play nicely on the network and I have to use a memory stick instead.
Macs are very popular with those who use them; they have a dedicated fan base. They are not nearly as common as PCs, largely due to inertia and closed minds, but also because they are more expensive to buy in the first place. The market share is growing fairly strongly due to the iPhone / iPod pull-through. In my experience, most people who have used a Mac for any reasonable amount of time never buy a PC again. The only drawback I can think of is that if anything does go wrong, your typical computer geek who uses Windows / Linux won't know what to do, but you have to offset that against the fact that things tend not to go wrong, because the hardware is well-built and the operating system is very stable.
Anybody going from PC to Mac needs to bear in mind that things are done differently, and that's generally for a good reason; if you try to make your Mac like a PC you'll be fighting with it and making life harder. Just go with the flow and you'll find out why Apple chose to do things the way they did. OS X certainly isn't more difficult to use - just different. Anybody who had learned on a Mac would find it far harder to convert to Windows than the other way round.
Example: say I want to email a Word document.
Windows: in Word, save the file. Start up email client. Open up a new email message and go to "Attach". Try to remember where the file is saved. Navigate through several levels of directory tree to find file. Attach file to email. If sending several files, repeat several times. Then type email and send.
Mac: drag the icon in the title bar of the Word document (representing a little document) on to the Mail icon in the dock. Up pops a window with the document already embedded in it. If sending several files just drag and drop them straight into the mail from the application, or from Finder. Type email and send.
I'm pretty handy with keyboard shortcuts, so the Windows version would probably take me 15-20 seconds for 2 attachments in different places. The Mac way takes me about 3-5 seconds. Go figure.
andrew2986:
Just my 2 penneth, I run MAC's and PC's (although the PC's are tablets where I am using them wirelessly to control equipment )
One of my Mac's hardrives broke the other day (it happens, all things can break )! However I took it to the apple store in Lakeside and they fixed it there and then (took them 45 mins) and they also replaced my battery FOC as it was not up to spec. they also helped me out with some I pod syncing issues I was having and all for £130.00... Apple have a great after sale service run by possibly the most helpful staff you could ever want to meet. And I was only without my laptop for 2 hrs !! (that includes driving to the store and having lunch)
Andy
Manicminer:
--- Quote ---Example: say I want to email a Word document.
Windows: in Word, save the file. Start up email client. Open up a new email message and go to "Attach". Try to remember where the file is saved. Navigate through several levels of directory tree to find file. Attach file to email. If sending several files, repeat several times. Then type email and send.
Mac: drag the icon in the title bar of the Word document (representing a little document) on to the Mail icon in the dock. Up pops a window with the document already embedded in it. If sending several files just drag and drop them straight into the mail from the application, or from Finder. Type email and send.
--- End quote ---
In Windows you just click the email icon and it does the same.
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