Prolly Gonna buy my 1st Mac next week, but I have a few questions...

First I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this post, if you do choose to.

My debate is between getting the Apple White 2.16 and the Apple Black 2.16-(same as the White except 40 more GB Storage, black color and 200 more dollars).

Questions:
1. How well the Mac Office documents convert and work with Windows office? More specifically, do I have to save the documents and convert them all the time like Open Office users?

2. Is Leopard's/New Macbook's October release worth waiting for? Do you think Leopard would be easy to load onto my Mac if I bought one now?

3. Prolly the only reason I'd buy a Black Mac would be that I've heard and seen the white ones dirty extremely fast. From what I've read, Mac is offering to replace the hand rest area for free for now, but I don't know if they're gonna do that forever. Many people have to be having the same problem so I'm guessing that someone will address it permanently, but I was just wondering if you knew anything about it or had any thoughts about it?

Thank you again for your help.

 

I'm sure it will install easily. If you are a student, you can get it for $69.

They changed the plastic to a different type, they don't discolor anymore. The white one does have a glossy exterior, but since it's white, it's hard to see the fingerprints versuses the black one. It does scratch VERY easy, but they are hard to see. I just got mine about 2 weeks ago, and I love it.

 

Office for Mac and Windows are fully compatible with each other. It's sorta the other way around. The new XML file format which is incorporated into Office 2007 for Windows is not yet in the current version of Office for Mac. Good news is Microsoft has a free download of the XML files for Word for the Mac. OS X's built-in text editor called TextEdit will read and write the Word XML format.
The real question about waiting would be should you wait for the new version of Office for the Mac which is scheduled to be released later this year. I would say wait. You can use NeoOffice (openoffice for Mac) until Microsoft's version is released.

Leopard's October release is still quite a ways from now. You said in your title that you were buying your Mac next week. I would just buy it if you need it now. You can buy and install Leopard later for $129.00. Apple's OS X upgrades work in legacy machines from nearly 10 years back. Don't worry, it will work fine with your machine.
I'll clear this up for you now. The GPU, the processor, HDD and current memory configuration will operate Leopard beautifully. 1GB ram is included however 2GB is always best.
I've seen Leopard running on an old iBook G4 so your new Macbook will be good with Leopard. OS X upgrades are painless. It won't be like the same upgrade issues in Windows Vista.

 

thank you hldan and cycloneguy.

 

It's all good, no prollem.

 

I have a macbook 2.0ghz and I love it.

Leopard I don't think is worth waiting for. Tiger is amazing and you can always upgrade later for around 100 dollars. That's what I'll do IF it even comes out at that time.

 

Hi, If you want a macbook, my personal opinion is instead of getting a macbook, you can get a macbook pro for $700 more if you are a student. It is much better than the macbook,especially the screen size. So sad that both macbook and macbook pro(15.4 inch model) has only 2 usb Ports.
I watch the WWDC07 and found that leopard is really worth waiting. With leopard, you never need to worry about losing data. I think that property can attract a lot of business person. Also you can restore your single file any time. Notice that you do not need to restore the whole system.
I do not think that anybody is willing to pay 129 to get a new OS if you can get it with your mac on October

 

fan of laptop, I am actually interested in the 2.16 MB which is "only" $600 more. Besides 2 inches of screen size, little faster processor, and a graphics card, I don't see much reason to pony up 50% more than what I was going to pay in the first place. I don't play many games. Will MBP better my internet surfing experience by that much?

 

I have to say, Office sucks in OS X. I find Word almost unusable. It seems to want to add blank pages randomly into my documents, and when I delete them, it screws my other ages up. It also acts like headers are part of the normal page some times.
There are also slight differences between the rendering of the same doc files in OS X and XP versions of Word. A friend of mine was looking at my resume, and said stuff was laying on top of each other. Didn't look like that on mine.

IMHO the black macbooks look like ass. It's a matte black, not a nice, shiny black.

 

Wow, are you using Office 2004 for Mac? If so then it sounds like you should completely remove it, restart and re-install. Office 2004 for Mac is by far the best version of Office to date. Not to compare it to the 2007 version for Windows because the 2008 version for Mac has not been released.

I have an insurance business and our business is run on Macs and our corporate office runs Windows. We create documents on our Macs everyday and they read perfectly on the Windows version of Office. Microsoft doesn't make a crappy version of Office for Mac because they make a ton of cash from Mac users.
MS Word doesn't perform on any my Macs like you're experiencing. Also one note, MS Word has been on Macs long before it came out on Windows. Microsoft's been very dedicated to the Mac platform at least in this area.

 

no. if you dont game or do any graphically intense programs i would just get the MB. unless you feel you desperately need the black, i would say buy the white and use some of the $200 you save to buy a new HD. i have a link with a great way to upgrade HD's if you feel uncomfrtable doing it. and back to not geting the MBP- if you think you need a bigger screen then take the $600-700 you save and buy an external screen.

 

I think that if you can use latex for mac if you know how to use it. Another choice is the open office.