macs and videos

I am thinking about switching from windows to macOS and was wondering what some of the essential apps were for word processing and the day to day stuff.

I also was wondering about video editing software. Is Final Cut the way to go? and should I go FC express or pro

 

Word processing, Macs have TextEdit, a simple word processor. You can get Microsoft Office for Mac if you want more advanced word processing.

Video editing, top of the line is Final Cut. If its not professional editing, you can get Final Cut Express.

 

An alternative office suite worth looking at is NeoOffice, a OS X port of the popular open source office suite, OpenOffice.

For video work, FC (either pro or express) are probably your best options, although I understand that Adobe are re-releasing Premiere for OS X shortly if you're more familiar with that package.

You can find more info on useful apps and utilities listed in the sticky in the Apple sub-forum.

 

Yeah, for word processing, it's best to go ahead and get MS Office. The current version is Office 2004; later this year they will be releasing Office 2008, which will the Mac equivalent of Office 2007 (with the ribbon interface and all that).

Another option is to use CodeWeavers CrossOver for Mac:

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/

It will actually let you install and run MS Office (and some other Windows apps) directly in OS X, without having to run Windows (i.e. by installing Parallels).

Apple also has their own word processing program called Pages, which is part of iWork. There is supposed to be a new version of iWork coming out soon, and people expect some enhancements to Pages. It's pretty different from Word, but depending on what you do it can be nice.

There's also some other third party companies that make word processors, like Mariner Software, who make a product called MarinerWrite:

http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=12

So you can play around with some of the various apps and see what suits your needs, etc.

If you're doing any text editing, take a look at Bare Bones Software's BBEdit, or their free program TextWrangler. Also take a look at TextMate, which is quite cool (these are more like if you're doing HTML coding, etc.).

Yeah, for video editing, as smartsam said, Final Cut is the way to go. You'll want to look at what your needs are and what capabilities you need to decide between Final Cut HD and Final Cut Express, etc.

There's also NeoOffice, which is a Mac specific port of OpenOffice. It's free, so you might want to give it a try.

 

If I design a presentation in MS Office on a mac can I then take and open it up on a PC?

 

Yes, Office 2004 for the Mac is format compatible with Office 2003 for Windows (and Office 2007 of course can also read it). Later this year MS will release Office 2008, which will the be the Mac equivalent of Office 2007.