Mac book and laptop questions

[DebiTheScot]

I need a new computer of some sort and am thinking about getting a Mac. I currently have a work laptop (an hp tablet) and a desktop that I hardly ever use because it's in the loft room and is getting old and slow. The work laptop is driving me mad as it's soooooooooo slow and I can't install anything on it so I'm thinking I need something new.

No point in getting a desktop as only place for it really is in the loft so I need a laptop.

I like the look of the Mac mainly because of people telling me it doesn't get slow ever. I hate the way laptops get so slow relatively quickly. I also hear it's good for things like photo editing.

Cost is a slight issue but if I can be convinced that spending £300 more on a Mac will give me an extra couple of years use I'd be happy with that. I'd spend about £500 on a laptop as I'd want one with a duel core that should cope with running as fast as I'd like it.

But I still have a couple of questions so can any of you answer them?

1. I've heard Office for the Mac isn't great, is it really bad or does it still do everything I'll need it to? I have to have office if I want to do work stuff on it but I don't do anything complicated in Word or Powerpoint, I use Excel spreadsheets with macros and complicated formulae.

1. Is Office the same as Office 2007? ie will I be able to open files someone else has saved in 2007 and will other people be able to open files made on a Mac?

1. Can I use a portable hard drive with a Mac and my work laptop to save all the work stuff on?

1. AFAIK Excel works fine on a Mac. I have massive, massive problems with Word on a Mac. It just does what it wants. iWork is the equivalent 'suite' for the Mac and the WP, Pages, is absolutely great. I make documents and send them as pdfs, no problems at all. I don't know about Powerpoint, but I think dh uses it to make slides for talks.

1. (Sorry, don't know!)

1. You can indeed.

Think about buying second-hand, too, if you can find someone you trust who's selling.

1. The current version of Mac Office doesn't support Macros, that is to say Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) support was taken out of Mac Office 2008. Mac Office 2010 will, allegedly, bring it back.

I'll give a thumbs up for iWork and also point you in the direction of the various free Office suites you can get (e.g. OpenOffice).

2. There are meant to be some quirks and differences when it comes to having Office Documents be portable from Mac to PC (bear in mind though that even Microsoft won't guarantee that they'll work from PC to PC, Office Documents are very nasty and complicated things). There are some things that flat out won't work, such as Macros or certain table styles, but how serious that is in practice I couldn't say.

3. A second yes, I do that a lot to move big files from a Mac to a PC.

Sorry, Mac Office 2011 brings VBA Macro support back, there isn't a Mac Office 2011.

Word being bad isn't sounding good. I have to access and use documents other people use. And no macros is also bad.

I'm a teacher and we have huge spreadsheets for all the data for students in science. It's all on a virtual learning environment that I can (and have to) access at home. I only work 3 days a week and don't get any time at school after school so can't rely on being able to get everything done at school.

I also use OneNote so that'd have to be compatible too.

Office is one of the things that runs ridiculously slowly on my laptop (esp at home) so I want to be able to get away with not using my work laptop at all at home.

Sounds like I might need a 'normal' laptop.

bumping for the evening geeks

OneNote is going to be the dealbreaker. It doesn't come on mac Office so your screwed.

The only way to do it would be to use Parallels in which case you may as well just get a normal laptop.

To be honest I think for your needs there'd be too many compromises on a mac.

If you want a laptop not to slow down, uninstall all the crapware they come with, install a lightweight antivirus scanner then be ruthless installing about new apps. Don't do it unless absolutely necessary.

Don't let the kids play bloody games on it as they'll install all sorts of crap on it.

Oh and get yourself a decent laptop with 4GB RAM & a decent CPU and it should fly.

Thanks for all the comments. I think you're right Niceguy2, I think having to do all my onenote stuff on the work laptop would be too much of a pain. Esp as OneNote runs extermely slowly at home. There are too many compromises.

And so I think I'll just go for a normal laptop. I'm happy to spend money to get a decent RAM and was thinking of going for duel core processor (not that I know too much about how much faster it'd be compared to a single core one but it is isn't it?) so it should be fine.
Only problem with normal laptops is too much choice!

Yeah i know what you mean about laptop choice.

Basically I always advise people of the following:

1. Processor speed is not so important nowadays. Get a decent dual core, avoid the word Celeron. i3/i5/i7 is the latest generation of CPU. The bigger the number the better but its not vastly important unless you play games

2. Size....have a look at PCWorld. Think what size you want. 17" means a big screen but its darned heavy if you are putting it on your lap. Not so bad if you are mainly working on a desk. 12" is ultraportable but then screen is too small. Usually i find most people like 14-15"

3. Battery. Bigger the better.

4. RAM. You can't have too much At least 2GB. If you get 4GB or more, ensure Windows is 64bit (your salesman should tell you)

5. Hard disk. Doesn't really matter. Unless you are a true geek, you'll never fill it.

6. Windows. Make sure its Windows 7 Home Premium. Avoid Vista like its the plague unless the price is too good to refuse. Then use the savings and spend £60 to get Windows 7!

7. MS Office. If you have a child of school age, or work in education then go to www.software4students.co.uk/ and bag yourself a dirt cheap copy of MS Office. Your new laptop will NOT come with it. If it does then its just a trial. If you don't have an eligible child, borrow a nephew/niece, kid down the street, whatever.

8. For gods sake after spending £hundreds getting a new laptop, spend £50 and get a decent USB portable hard drive to back up with. Your friendly geek will be no use when you spill coffee on it and 2 years of work & photos go to digital heaven!

9. In general...Sony/Dell/Acer/Toshiba/Asus/HP are all decent enough brands. Avoid Packard Bell & Advent like the plague!

I have a mac... two macs.. love them and would never go back. However I agree Office for Mac is annoying ..I'd use iwork or open office (if there is a onenote equivilent..I don't use it so wouldn't know)

For photo editing you can't beat macs.. and the no virus scenario... and 'windows in looking for the driver' plug and play hell...

I'd be tempted to go mac and install bootcamp for the Onenote...

However if you need to stay with Windows , at the mo I'd avoid Toshibas .. have had to return two to PC World in the space of a month..both brand new.. one HD failure after the other:( . Apparently there is a 'known issue' !!

Thanks for that list niceguy2 Very, very helpful (I love mn!)

Mmm cheapest i3 processor on Tesco direct (1st place I've looked) is a Toshiba, you've thrown a spanner in there medusa!

Samsung??

Thanks again niceguy, have just ordered an HP with an i3 processor. Got it for £400 using a employee discount through dh's work. It was £460 on Amazon.
Ordered an external hard drive and Office too. Can't believe how cheap Office was on that site (can't believe anyone ever pays £400 for it either). I'm a teacher so didn't even have to steal a child to get the price!