Microsoft office for mac

[florencepink]

We have a MacBook that the whole family share at the moment, it's great but we're finding that increasingly the dc's are needing Microsoft office for doing online homework etc. so my question is, has anybody bought this for their mac and is it any good? Any potential problems that I should be aware of? TIA

I'm using MS for Mac 2011 (ver.142.0) - no troubles as yet (installed 6 mths ago).

MS Office I mean :)

I've not used it extensively, but my boyfriend has it and we've had no problem switching documents between the Mac/PC versions. In fact, I prefer the Mac version.

I have office 11 for macs and I much prefer it to the windows version.

If you have kids at school you might be able to get a discounted educational licenced version at somewhere like software4students.co.uk

Just downloading LibreOffice (free) for the Mac, but am still thoroughly disgusted that schools are sucking pupils and their families into using corporate software.

Back in the 80s I was working in higher education and various students seemed to think they couldn't 'do' what they needed if they didn't have the tool they were used to. Back then, as well as Excel, there was QuattroPro and Lotus 1-2-3 (plus other) spreadsheets. Similarly, there was plenty of choice for word processing, but 'Word' now seems 'expected'.

By 'requiring' users to have particular software, it closes their eyes to other options and makes them slaves of the corporates like Microsoft or Apple as they know no other (or rarely attempt to use alternatives, at the very least).

Completely agree with you networkguy. However I don't think we have any choice. Thank you all for your replies I will begrudgingly invest!

It depends on what you want to do IMO, using freeware is great if all you want to do is open, create, save and print on your own computer. But if you need to pass things back and forth between home, school, work and other people then you do really need to have the most common programmes which unfortunately is the dreaded Microsoft.

The lack of compatibility between Microsoft and the freeware versions has gotten much wider over the years. I wish it wasn't so, I am a great advocate of open source products but in the spreadsheet and word processing packages they can't compete with Office.

Yes mrsp unfortunately they do need to submit homework electronically, obviously the school cannot enforce this so dd has been printing out and handing it in but apparently this is embarrassing

Can they not use Google Docs?

Oh WTF! (sorry florencepink for losing my cool)...

Seems like it is time that schools
a) agreed to abandon Powerpoint (if they use it)
b) agreed to standardise on OpenOffice / LibreOffice
c) accepted the fact that not everyone has a Windows PC and is bowing to the altar of Microsoft

it would save LEAs / schools/ academies an absolute fortune, not just as a one-off change, but because Microsoft has a deliberate policy of 3 year 'refresh' (so they get upgrade fees out of millions around the world).

Some German regions decided to use Linux in schools a while back, I think, and even one US State had plans to go that way. Think how much is spent on MS Windows licencing (and then you cannot legally transfer/give the PC away with Windows still usable).

If schools bought systems with NO Operating System and then added linux (or bought in, with Linux pre-installed at minimal cost) it should save 50-100 pounds per PC. Then add on a saving of that much again for not having MS Office, and that in 3 years time, MS would be hinting at getting the next version, and as a nation we could save a major amount.

Good idea tribpot

Only two things I can think of needing MS Office

1. MS Access (database)
2. Powerpoint presentations.

Access is an extra to the 'standard' Office, that pushes price up to the max.

NetworkGuy you speak the truth . I have linux running on my old knackered laptop and it is smooth as anything, was crap and clunky on MS.

OP I was running Libre Office on my Mac but it didn't send my work in well to my tutor so I caved and bought office which runs really well just pisses me off . Can you get student discount which is what I did, saved quite a lot of money so I didn't feel so bad handing over my cash.

Sadly my next course has maths software that won't run on a Mac at all so I have had to cave and buy a cheapy laptop just to run it. Bastards. The OU seems in thrall the the great microsoft too.

I found Google Docs ok but again when sending to a tutor marking using microsoft software some parts wouldn't transfer well. I lost quite a few marks one time as my spreadsheet graphs didn't go with the rest of the document. I ended up c&p'ing them into an email and sending them on later, this was a computing course btw

Google Docs does Powerpoint, NetworkGuy, but of course doesn't have an Access-alike.

Lost, you could partition your Mac to have a Windows install on, which would also enable you to play Star Wars: The Last Republic. Or so I am told

Btw, I do have MS Office on my Mac, but that was mainly because I just bought it instinctively when I got the Mac, now I am less in thrall to Microsoft :) Certainly friends with iPads I've suggested seeing how they get on with Google Docs before parting with cash for the Mac office suite.

No probs but you can save mac files as word docs ( normally 2004 is compatible with schoolwork). And you can't get publisher.

I'm too scared to partition my mac . I love it so much after a lifetime of crap computers I don't want to get anything wrong. I have this shit laptop for games . It might be crap but even a £200 machine makes my old one look like it was hand cranked.

I wouldn't partition mine either :) I would get a cheapy Windows machine just as you have.

I did that needsome but quite often by the time my tutor opened them the spell check had gone awry as well as some of the images/layout, it didn't seem worth losing the marks for in the end.

Oooh tribpot I see you are NHS IT, that's what I want to do soon, I plan to take over my department PACS and rule the world. Well, at least get out of uniform and have a job I can sit down for

LOL LostInWales, I suggest you move your department over to Linux pronto then, and quote NetworkGuy's stuff about breaking the shackles of Microsoft :) Feel free not to mention this was my suggestion I actually haven't worked on PACS but let me know if there's anything I can do to help!

It is true that Google Docs version of Word is not so great for things with heavy formatting in them (perhaps one should say more accurately that MS Word is not rendering them correctly!) but there's no harm in the school being a bit more savvy in how it lays out homework requests, plus you can do all sorts with tables to make stuff go where you want on the page.

No, but be aware that there is sometimes formatting issues when passing Office documents from a Mac to be opened on a PC

I suggested my students to download and install Open Office www.openoffice.org/product/index.html