Questions about Mac software

So, I have more questions. I've had my Mac for about a week now, and I love it. I'm having fun learning how to use OS X. And my 'v' key was broken, but I took it to an Apple store, and they fixed it up for me right there, which was cool. But I'm stuck on a couple things.

First, I haven't installed Vista yet, so no Word right now. But I did download the trial version of iWork to tide me over. Where is the clipboard? I can't find the preference window for it. Right now I can only C&P one thing at a time and it's driving me crazy.

Also, how do I retain the source formatting of a text (is that the right phrase?) from a website when I copy & paste something? I have long documents to read on the web for class, and I don't like having to go back and bold/italicize/ect. words to match the original.

Thanks for reading.

 

You don't need to install Vista to run Word, there's a Mac version. You can download a trial of the 2004 version here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...14-280d-4292-a150-66db5638dcb6&displaylang=en

Could help you if you're more familiar with Word than iWork.

 

I thought OS X included a trial of Office for Mac?
So, instead of iWork just use that, you may even buy it OK, Sam isn't here so I'll give you his links:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304720
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

And some more...
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/
http://guides.macrumors.com/Keyboard_shortcuts
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=161784

I really don't know about the source formatting thing.
-Thomas

 

Thanks for the reply. I should have been clearer, but I did try the Word for Mac, and it kept crashing on me so I uninstalled it. Maybe I should try it again though.

Thanks for the tips. But I can't find any answers to my questions there. Hmmm, my laptop actually didn't come with any trial word processors. Was it supposed to? I have to install Vista for some other apps that are Windows only, so I was just gonna install Word on there and use VMware Fusion. But I guess I'll try the trial version of Word for Mac again.

Thanks for the replies!

 

Yes, your Mac should have a Office 2004 or Office 2008 Test Drive folder under the Applications folder. Try searching "Word" in Spotlight!

 

There is a new version of Office but I'm not sure you could download the trial version of that. Office 2008 is supposed to run faster than Office 2004 on a Intel Mac.

 

I feel stupid, but I can't find it. The only type of word processor that I could find in the Applications folder was TextEdit. Would it be on the Install disks they sent with the laptop?

 

Unfortunately Apple doesn't install Office 2008 (trial) on a new Mac and Microsoft does not offer a trial on their website either.

 

Open source Office Suite for the Mac:

http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

 

I'm not sure what's going on. On my old Macbook (2.2 Ghz), there was a trial of office. On my new one, it was not there, but since I had deleted it on my old one and did a firewire transfer to my new one, I assumed that was the reason it wasn't there. There should be iwork08 on your new machine, though. iWork registration costs less than office and I like it a lot better. Well... Wait a second. Maybe iWork was brought over by my restore as well. Even if there's not a trial on your machine, you should be able to order it online from apple for around $80. You can use neooffice while you're waiting for iwork to arrive.

Let's assume you have nothing. Zilch. Nada for word processing. Textedit is pretty good. It turns out it speaks rtf which handles a LOT of document formatting. But wait, there's more. Go grab neooffice. It's free and it reads and writes all Microsoft formats (that I care about anyway).

Do you have an old office 97 cd lying around? You can run it under crossover (wine). Yep. That's right. Run the windows version of an older MS office suite on mac os without dealing with parallels, boot camp, and without sending any money up to redmond. I believe crossover is shareware, though.

Here is a quick comparison (ranked in decreasing order based on my experience/preference):
iWork08: excellent, many claim it is better than office hands down, affordable.
Neooffice: very very good, reads office docs natively, some issues, FREE.
Office 2008: very good, many claim it is better than office on windows, pricey.
Office 97/2000/2003, etc under Crossover: good, may have some bugs, affordable (crossover shareware).
BootCamp/Parallels/VirtualPC/Fusion Vista, XP, 2000: soso, many like having this option. I have chosen to resist and so far I do not regret my decision. very pricey, you must buy the virtual machine software and secondly you must come up with a non-oem copy of windows to install. The real cost is the drive space you dedicate to windows. Considering the cost of your machine, if half of it is wasted on a windows partition, the cost is very high. I mention win 2000 merely because there is no activation hooey to bother with but it is very old and may not work well.

 

Thank you to everyone that answered! I just re-read my posts, and I'm really sorry if I sounded a little too pissy in my previous posts, I was trying to finish an essay for class, and was just beyond frustrated.

My MBP definitely didn't come with any word processing software, I've searched through the thing several times, but the only thing I could find was textedit. But I did download iWork, and am using the trial version to see if I like it. So far, it's ok, but I still don't like the clipboard, and haven't found a way to change it yet.

Thanks for that tip! I'll have to see if I have an old disk lying around somewhere. And thanks for the summary of all the office apps. Like I said, I like iWork, and if it was just for me I'd probably stick with it, since it is cheaper. But I need 100% compatibility with Windows for school, and I have to install Vista/Fusion for other reasons anyway, so I'll probably end up with Word again. I also need Excel, and while Numbers is good for some stuff, IMO, Excel is still the better program for some of the more complex stuff. But, I think Keynote is way better than Powerpoint.

And as for the formatting issue I was having, it's weird but if I copy&paste off of Safari, the formatting transfers, but not if I try to C&P off of Firefox. I've never had this problem using FF on my PC. Is this a Firefox issue or is there some setting on my Mac that I haven't figured out yet? Cause I just prefer Firefox, I find it to be faster than Safari on my computer.

Once again, thanks to everyone that answered!

 

I wouldn't suggest getting Crossover Mac, because the trial only lasts for 30 days and after that, you'd have to buy the software for $60 or so. Also, Crossover isn't perfect and imo isn't work $60 of your money. In that case buying iWork is better.

iWork is known to be compatible with .doc about 90% of the times. If you want true 100% compatibility, you should get Office 2008.

 

Yeah, I've tested iWork and Office, and it works pretty well most of the time, unless you do really complicated page layouts. Otherwise, it should be fine!

 

Thanks for the input!

But I'm still really confused about copy/pasting from Firefox onto Mac applications. I've been messing around with it a bit more this afternoon, and If I C&P something from Firefox to Google Docs, I keep the source formatting. But I still can't C&P something from FF onto a Mac application, like Pages, Omni, Scrivener, or Circus Ponies' Notebook. (I'm trying out the trials to try to find a replacement for OneNote so they're all on my computer right now.)

Eh, I guess it's time to call it quits. I've spent way to much time trying to figure this out. Having 2 browsers open isn't too big a deal.

 

Ok, I lied, I tried one more thing. Someone recced Camino to me, and I just tried it. Same problem with the C&P thing. Meh. Ok, I'm really gonna stop now.