MAc & Excel

I wonder if anyone can help me out - have tried various searches but no joy.

Basically i use excel heavily for work building financial models etc and am looking for a desktop replacement as we havent got the space at home anymore.

Initially i looked at a Dell laptop, but after reading all the press and having a play with a macbook and reading about running dual systems on leopard im thinking of moving to apple.

Question i have is does anyone here use a macbook or macbook pro heavily for excel - and if you do how does it compare to using a windows machine?

Also looking at screen resolutions - the MBP looks to be much clearer then the MB - is this def the case? The price differential between the 2 is rather large which is wy i want to make sure im doing the right thing here.

Thanks.

 

I have Office 2004 on my MBP and i like it. I like it more than the Office 2003 i had on my Windows computer. Excel is laid out differently on the Macs, i like it that way.

Office 2008 will be out sometime soon. Im not sure what the differences will be between O2004 and O2008.

EDIT: See here on Microsofts website. Maybe you can try the virtual tour.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/excel2004/highlights.aspx

 

Thanks for the feedback and link.

Has anyone used excel on both - and can provide a little guidance on how it appears. My dabbling with it instore suggested it was much sharper on the MBP and the larger screen was very helpful as well.

Just curious if this was due to the settings or that the MBP just has the better screen resolution.

 

Excel is great on the MBP. Functionality is the same as Windows, it's just laid out a little differently. Likewise I prefer the Mac versions of Excel and Word. Sadly I do most of my Office work in the office, on Windows

 

Is there a program other then office for Mac that I can use to open an excel document that was e-mailed to me?

 

You can download NeoOffice for OS X which is free, not sure how it handles VB (Visual Basic) macros however if there are any in your document, or you can buy iWork from Apple, much cheaper than MS Office but it will definitely not handle VB macros and also certain formatting options - I've tried a demo version and it is very nice.

 

Now you don't have to wait for office 2008

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...oa/wa/RSLID?mco=C88A561F&nclm=OfficeAtAGlance

 

If you are going to be working with a lot of spreadsheets i suggest you look at the 17" mbp, you will appreciate the extra screen real state, since it's default resolution is 1680x1050, and you can upgrade it to 1920x1200.

 

00fez - cheers for that ... i was thinking that as well, but that may well blow my meagre budget and force me to speak to Dell instead!

 

As everyone noted, Excel for Mac runs fine, so that would be your number one choice. If you want something cheaper (and not so guaranteed to work well with Windows), then look at NeoOffice (free) and iWork '08 ($79). But if you really want to make sure that you have full compatibility with Excel for Windows, then you'll have to get Microsoft Office for Mac.

Wait for the next version, Office for Mac 2008 (equivalent to Office 2007 for Windows), arriving in January. The current Office for Mac 2004 is outdated and rather slow because it was written for PowerPC Macs and not for Intel Macs.

 

I agree with what Sam said concerning Office 2004. I use both Windows and OS X and I definitely prefer Office 2003/2007 (the Windows versions) over Office 2004 (the Mac version).

Office 2008 looks promising though. Check out the Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 Preview Site.